A no-smoking sign on a table at Flurys; (below) a smoker outside a Park Street pub. Pictures by Bishwarup Dutta

We jaywalk, we violate traffic laws, we turn pavements and walls into spittoons and urinals, but we do not puff away in public places. That’s the message rising out of the burnt-out ends of smoky days in Calcutta.

Ashtrays disappeared from bar and restaurant tables and no-smoking signs came up overnight after the nationwide ban on lighting up in public places came into effect on October 2. But what has surprised the authorities is that smokers in town are obeying the law without any kind of enforcement, yet.

Vineet Goyel, the deputy commissioner of police (headquarters), said people were voluntarily playing it by the ban book.

“We have not penalised anyone under the new law. In fact, we are yet to receive the challans for fines.”

According to psychologist Nilanjana Sanyal, greater awareness about the hazards of both active and passive smoking could be one of the reasons for voluntary compliance with the ban. “There is also an internal policing system in all of us that keeps us from breaking the law,” she said.

But some regulars at Olypub, the Park Street watering hole, said the bar looked “alien” without smoke swimming in the air. “The permanent haze is gone. Olypub looked and smelt alien when I went there with friends on one of the Puja days. We couldn’t identify with the place. We stepped out between drinks for a smoke,” said Prantik Chakraborty, who has been visiting the pub for the past 10 years.

Avinash Jain, a 23-year-old student of business management, said smoking and guzzling beer in a bar with friends was one of his favourite activities but the ban had put a stop to that.

“The Union health minister has been citing the percentage of people who die of smoking-related diseases every year to justify the ban. But more people die in road accidents. What is being done to stop that?” asked Avinash’s friend Bhagat Sharma.

When the two friends asked for an ashtray at Olypub a couple of days ago, the waiter reminded them of the ban.

At Sourav’s, also on Park Street, there are signs requesting guests not to smoke. “Our guests have been co-operating with us,” said a floor superviser of the restaurant.

The hookah, which was the USP of Camac Street pub Shisha, is now a mere showpiece. But food and beverage manager Shovan Mukherjee insisted that footfalls hadn’t dropped.

“Our customers have been very co-operative. They step outside if they want to smoke. But yes, some regular guests are leaving earlier than they used to.”

The litmus test for the ban was the Puja period, and the Calcutta smoker surprised everyone by passing it. “I couldn’t believe it when I visited Maddox Square on Sashthi. I did not see a single person smoking in the three hours that I stayed there,” said Surya Subha Bandopadhyay, a “heavy smoker”.

With Maddox Square being a favourite Puja haunt of the young and trendy, the organisers had expected little or no compliance despite putting up several no-smoking boards. “Nobody smoked inside the pandal or in the enclosure meant for our members. We received no complaints,” said Subir Mitra, the vice-president of the Maddox Square puja.

Similar boards had been put up at many other pandals. The organisers of the Sadhana Sangha puja in Bhowanipore had used beads to write “no-smoking” in Bengali.

Anyone who smokes in a public place — shopping malls, cinema halls, workplaces, restaurants, banquet halls, discotheques, canteens, coffee houses, pubs, bars, hospitals, bus stops, airport lounges and railway stations — can be fined Rs 200.

“We never expected people to willingly adhere to the law. We are happy but not complacent. There needs to be a sustained awareness drive to make the ban effective in the long run,” said Satyoban Ghosh, the nodal officer (tobacco) of the state health department.