No Smoking

It is heartening to know that Shah Rukh Khan has made a birthday pledge to quit smoking. More positive is Union Health Minister, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss's decision to publicise this news, as a part of the anti-smoking campaign undertaken by the government. Dr. Ramadoss's earlier decision to ban smoking scenes in movies may have appeared puerile, and contradictory to the Indian citizens' fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. But it is true that traditional measures to stop people from smoking like the cliché of a statutory warning on cigarette packets and increasing tobacco prices have failed to achieve the desired results, the result being alarming rise in the number of new entrants to smoking. So, hitherto unconventional ways are to be tried for stopping people from willingly embracing death. One can only hope that Shah Rukh Khan does not turn into a Shane Warne, who it may be recalled, failed to live up to his promise of not smoking for a certain period.