It’s 9.30 p m on Sunday, the usual time when the invariable cocktail of smoke and drinks run high in these bars. But now, the drinks are downed without a smoke, while few are seen struggling to get accustomed to the change.

The air inside this poorly-lit eight-table dingy bar in the heart of Panaji is smoke-free now. Prior to the ban, the air used to be full with smoke with almost every table having at least one smoker breathing out from his lungs.

“People request that I allow them to smoke at least one cigarette which they generally require with every peg of liquor.

But I don’t want to take any chance. Ban means ban,” says bar owner and retired photojournalist Prashant Elekar.

Elekar conceded that almost 90 per cent of the people, who frequent here are smokers and inevitably light a cigarette with their drink.

The change is imminent though Goa is yet to start booking people for violating the two-day-old central law which prohibits smoking at public places and excludes spots like beaches and parks from the no smoking zones.

“We have stopped people from smoking. The result is exciting. It helps me too. I myself have reduced my cigarettes from 30 to just two a day as I am on the bar counter all the day,” Elekar, in his late 40s, said.

There are some who are forced to go out for smoke standing on the road and return for another peg. “But how many times will they go out? It becomes tedious for them and hence they prefer to drink without smoking,” he explains.

The habitual drinkers and a liquor party are the major clients for these outlets, which operate from 10 a m to 2 p m and later from 7 p m to 11 p m.

“Usually I don’t smoke but like to puff a cigarette while having my drink. I used to smoke one cigarette with every peg and my drinking goes up to five pegs. Now I have to drink without cigarette as I don’t want to rush to road before every peg,” a regular customer to this liquor outlet, said.

Anti-tobacco crusaders are extremely happy with the positive change, especially at these outlets.

Be it out of compulsion but what is important that people are leaving the bad habit of smoking. There are many who would forget cigarette if they don’t get an opportunity to smoke,” Shekhar Salkar, an active member of State Government’s Tobacco Control Cell, said.

“Besides saving one’s own live they are also saving the lives of hundreds of passive smokers,” Salkar said.

Salkar, who is also a prominent force behind India’s leading anti-tobacco NGO, National Organization for Tobacco Eradication, said that the media has played a major role in Goa to sensitise people about this Act.