I was sitting on the prayer mat and tears trickled down my cheeks as I prayed for the wellbeing of my brother. He had been addicted to smoking for a very long time because of being forced by his friends and was now lying on the hospital bed. At that moment, I had decided that I would never listen to even my closest friends if what they said affected and harmed me or anybody else around me. If I had not seen my brother suffering because of being forced into smoking by his friends, I would not have realised that it was essential for me to take a step against peer pressure and bullying.

It was only after my brother’s deteriorating health that I realised the adversities peer pressure could result in. My brother was only 13 years old when one of his friends asked him to try a cigarette. He had rejected it several times, but was forced and emotionally blackmailed that if he did not smoke, he would no longer be part of the “friends circle”.

Being a young boy, he was intimidated and agreed to try it once, but this one-time trial caused smoking to gradually become an integral part of my brother’s routine. He was now 23 years old and because of the habit that was forcefully instilled in him years ago in such a tender age, his lungs had collapsed and he had to be admitted in the hospital because of damage to his respiratory system.

Like any family, I and my family were very concerned for his health, and it were only then that I realised the long-term negative effects peer pressure can have. People often view friendships to be innocuous; however, little do they realise the repercussions of negative peer pressure. Peer pressure does not only affect the people under its influence, but also those who are a part of their life.

My brother’s tragic experience taught me that one should always stand up against negative peer pressure and bullying. It became the principle of my life that if I ever encountered a similar situation, I would not hesitate to raise my voice against it.

I could see myself and my friend being placed in the same position as that of my brother when once, my group forced one of my friends to make a little girl cry as a dare. Although he was not comfortable with performing the deed and rejected it several times, after a lot of persuasion by others and pressure as part of the game, he eventually agreed doing to it. My friend sluggishly walked towards the girl with the intention of swinging her bag in the air to scare and make her cry. At first, I was apprehensive about vocalising my disagreement regarding the dare, but as soon as I saw naiveté in the little girl’s eyes and the mischievous smiles on my friends’ faces, I got up to stop him.

My brother’s condition flashed across my mind within a second and I realised that just as my brother was forced into smoking, my friend was also being forced into becoming a bully. I stopped the game immediately and tried to make all my friends realise the trauma the little girl would have to go through if she is bullied and that it was completely wrong to force my friend into doing this.

If I would not have stopped my friends, the little girl would have been really disturbed by the incident and my friends would not have realised the problems associated with negative peer pressure.

To many, this may not seem to be something big, but I believe that every little action towards change, counts. If today, my friends were okay with bullying a little girl, tomorrow it may cascade into something more hazardous. I had witnessed the hard time my brother and my family had to go through, and I could not allow any such thing to happen again to anyone, at least that which comes into my knowledge.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 10th, 2023