A small story about the sisha

After more than two years in Egypt, I have learned to appreciate the sisha. Even since I stopped smoking cigarettes - now more than a year ago - I still do smoke a couple of sishas a week. Now, at the THCE THCE outlet just down stairs where I live, is a great place to do so. It also comes along with the lovely evenings here in Dubai, though its slowly getting too hot to sit outside...

To give you an of idea what I am talking about, a very brief history lesson:

In India in the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar (1542 - 1605 CE) Following the European introduction of tobacco to India, Hakim Abul Fateh Gilani a descendant of Abdul Qadir Al-Gilani came from Baghdad to India who was later a physician in the court of Mughal raised concerns after smoking tobacco became popular among Indian noblemen, and subsequently envisaged a system which allowed smoke to be passed through water. in order to be 'purified'. Gilani introduced the Hookah after Asad Beg, then ambassador of Bijapur, encouraged Akbar to take up smoking. Following popularity among noblemen, this new device from Arabia for smoking soon became a status symbol for the Indian aristocracy and gentry. The Indian Hookah was designed differently from the Arabian Hookah or Shisha which was invented during the Abbasid Empire in Baghdad. They were different in shape and design.

I realize that smoking a sisha is not a very healthy activity, and though I stopped smoking, it seems that a couple of sisha is equal to 200 hundred cigarettes!

"The World Health Organisation has quashed the sisha myth, suggesting that smoking a sisha is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes. It also said that more research is needed into the link between the use of the waterpipe and several fatal illnesses.
An advisory note from the WHO says that smoking a sisha may expose the smoker to more smoke over a longer period of time than occurs when smoking cigarettes.Because smoking a hookah may take up to 80 minutes, the report suggests that the smoker is subjecting himself to as much smoke as somebody dragging on 100 cigarettes."

So what can I say about it? Basically everything is dangerous if you check your hobby+health in google. In fact life itself is dangerous, because from living, ultimately, you die. And so I really don't mind that much about all those researchers and scientists who make a living from telling us what to do and what not to do. How would the world look like if we all would follow their advises. I still like my sisha and so be it!