Clean your pipe

I was on my way to work this morning when I noticed something amusing. There was this person who hurriedly got into the train at a station and sat on the opposite seat. Hardly a few seconds passed by when he took out a leather pouch and placed it on his lap. It looked something like these trendy pouches that school kids have, to store their pencils, pens, etc. However, this pouch had a different purpose. I tried to imagine as to what could be inside it. "Anyway, I will get to know once he opens it", I thought to myself.

He finally unzipped the pouch and opened it like a clam opening its shells. And what lay inside? His 'Tobacco pipe' along with all accessories. The pipe was actually in two pieces, one end which held the tobacco, like a pot and the other was the tube which attached to this pot like an extension. The first thing that he did was to clean the whole pipe. I saw him take a straw made of cloth. I guess there must have been some metal wire within coz it was so firm. Then he drew this straw through the pipe and started brushing it from within. Within a very short period, I saw that the cloth was covered with a mixture of dark-brown unburnt tobacco dust and black soot. He cleaned it so thoroughly that I guess the inside must have become shiny. He did the same for the extension which held the tobacco.

After all the cleaning was over he opened a small compartment inside his pouch which contained the bits of tobacco. He took small pinches of it and started filling his pipe with it. Unfortunately, I couldn't witness the whole event coz my station had arrived.

This was the first time that I ever witnessed someone handling a tobacco pipe (I've only seen people smoking it before). As I was on my way to the office, I thought to myself, "If just a single use of the pipe made the inside so dirty, I shudder to think how the inside of his lungs would be?" I guess he probably would require an acid wash to clear the stuff out. Anyway, it was an interesting event that I saw this morning. And by the way, I don't smoke, and I don't intend to in the future. The world is already getting all choked up and I don't want to be another contributor towards it!