Celebs ditch bad habits to set a good example

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Actor Emraan Hashmi has bid adieu to smoking as he doesn’t want his son to grow up seeing him smoke and later pick up the habit. He even refuses to smoke onscreen unless the script demands it desperately. Earlier, he had said no to a condom advert and has made it clear that he would not do explicit lovemaking scenes in films just for the sake of it.
When people become parents, they alter their lifestyles and make adjustments in order to be their kids’ role models. We spoke to a few city parents who share with us the positive changes they brought to their lives.
Designer Puja Duggal confesses that she used to be an impatient person. She had a bad habit of telling people to hurry up and would lose her temper easily. “I saw that habit being absorbed by my elder son when he wanted everything right away and would throw tantrums. One day when I told him to be patient, he turned around and reminded me, ‘Don’t you always say the same?’ That got me thinking and taught me an important lesson that our kids are our reflections and emulate our mannerisms. Since then I am trying to be patient. It took me a while but has ultimately made me a better person,” says Duggal.
Actor and theatreperson Vidushi Mehra has stopped using swear words as kids are quick to pick up cuss words. She says, “I don’t smoke or drink. But I see that adults often have a bad habit of swearing with kids around. So that is a definite adjustment that even I sometimes have to consciously make.”
Designer Anjalee Kapoor too is very careful using foul language in front of her son Surya. “I don’t want him to follow my bad habits. Apart from that, late nights have definitely disappeared from my life. I want to invest quality time in him. Now I party only on weekends, and even then I wrap up early in the evening,” adds Anjalee.
Author Oswald Pereira had to quit smoking for his son. He says, “One day while I was watching TV with my son, there was an advertisement of a man dying of cancer due to smoking. My son, sitting next to me, started weeping, and said, ‘Dad, you will be like this man, dead soon’. That was a wake up call for me. So I quit smoking right away.”