Photo by Manas Pant/The Gazelle

From the third-grade till the seventh, I bought a Coke from a tiny shop called Winter Mart III everyday after school. The shopkeeper knew me and my addiction well, making sure that there was enough refrigerated Coke in the shop so that by the time I came by, there would be at least one half-liter bottle in the fridge for me. It cost five ruffiyah, the national currency of the Maldives.

I do not have a sweet tooth. I do not eat ice cream often and only indulge in cake or mithai every now and then. But Coke was a habit I could not escape. I tried to do so sometimes. My mother often reminded me that it was poison. She even asked me to promise God that I would quit drinking the carbonated beverage. That was a commitment I was never willing to make.

When I first landed in the Maldives, on Sept. 21, 2001, I was seven years old. I was a scrawny kid. My mother often recounts that I was a fussy eater. By the time I permanently left Malé, Maldives for Lahore, Pakistan, I was 13 years old and overweight. In fact, I was obese. I’m still not comfortable enough to describe my weight back then.

Back in Pakistan, I tried to reform my habit. I shifted to Diet Coke. Some of my cousins had escaped the clutches of Coke by shifting to the unsweetened version, and I wanted to do the same. But instead of being a path to redemption, Diet Coke only made my addiction worse. I would drink copious amounts because it was, after all, zero calories. I drank Diet Coke in liters. It was extremely unhealthy.

Then one day in Economics class, during the first year of my O Levels, I went partially blind. Words started disappearing. My peripheral vision stayed intact, but bright spots blocked everything I looked at. Economics looked like "e ono   s," inelastic demand became "i   as  c  e  n." I was scared. Some of my classmates were amused while others were concerned, as was my teacher. I decided to go home.

My vision cleared up in about 45 minutes. But then I was hit by the most painful headache I had ever experienced. I had to vomit. My mother was shocked. So was I. I decided that it was the Diet Coke that had caused my headaches, and once I stopped drinking it, the headaches disappeared. It took me a while, and I had to learn my lesson through a series of even more painful headaches, but eventually, I quit drinking Diet Coke. I still get similar headaches once in a while, but they are not as frequent or painful as they used to be.

I shifted back to regular Coke, as I was unable to drink Diet Coke anymore. During one of the many bouts of guilt, brought upon by my weight, I decided to exercise as hard as I could and drink Diet Coke again. The results were predictable. I had a headache that lasted 24 hours, and affected me for at least a week.

There is a happy ending, if you can call it that. This past summer, my mother offered me Coke during iftar. I said, no, I don’t feel like it. And since then, I have stopped drinking Coke every single day. I can go weeks now without drinking Coke and have no burning desire to drink it all the time like I used to. I do not have a riveting reason for why I quit. I do not think it had to do with my issues with weight. I think I just got sick of it.

That was also the summer I decided to join a gym. I ran intensely and it was fun. There was no Diet Coke or regular Coke to hold me back. I ate like I used to, but my exercise was intense. Plus, I didn’t have to burn the ridiculous amount of calories that I consumed through Coke.

We often do not treat addictions towards soft drinks or junk food seriously. It took partial blindness for me to realize the intensity of my addiction. Just like cigarettes or alcohol, soft drinks can be extremely destructive. Gladly, I can enjoy a Coke once in a while, without feeling the perpetual urge to consume as much as I can.