Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss couldn't have given a better birthday gift to the father of the nation. On October 2, the complete ban on smoking in public places will come into effect under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 2003, putting paid to smokers' urges and ensuring that non-smokers breathe a sigh of clean air. With the Supreme Court clearing the decks for the ban, smoking will be prohibited in public places like hotels, restaurants, airports, railway stations, bars and pubs, streets and even offices. The hardest blow will be for pubs and bars, where smoking goes in tandem with drinking. But the statistics are alarming. In India, 120 million people smoke, with 3,000 dying each day from tobacco use. Passive smoking alone causes one in eight deaths and produces six times the pollution recorded on a busy highway.