Switch to taking a puff of health

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">as india begins cracking down on smokers in public places, an entrepreneur in the western city of ahemedabad is offering puffers a chance to turn their vice into a "healthy" habit. natu bhavsar, a bussinessman in gujarat’s principal city, manufactures cigarettes sans tobacco. his cigarette is, instead, filled with tulsi (basil), honey and turmeric.as the unique cigarette is sold under the brand name <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">nirdosh</span>, a hindi word meaning "without fault". bhavsar, 65, has a modest annual turnover of rs. 4.4 million though he exports his product to the us, germany, italy, sri lanka and some other countries, besides selling it in the domestic market. starting out as a cigarette vendor in a roadside kiosk, bhavsar expanded his business to sell paan, a betel leaf-wrapped digestive. "i was a chain smoker of beedi (leaf-rolled cigarettes). such was the addiction that i could not leave it even during serious illness. my wife used to nag me to kick the habit but i was helpless," bhavsar said. "since i was myself addicted to smoking, i did not realise i was selling poison to the people. i gradually developed symptoms of tobacco-related diseases. one of my friends, rasik parikh, an ayurveda (nature-based indian medicine) teacher who later became vice-chancellor of the gujarat ayurveda university, advised me, ‘if you have to smoke at all, why not roll up an ayurvedic cigarette?’ "this intrigued me," bhavsar said. "i started wondering if a smoker could switch over from a tobacco cigarette to a harmless one." bhavsar spent a couple of years studying ayurveda. he travelled across india, talking to ayurveda teachers. eventually he developed the cigarette and experimented it on himself. on his initial experiences, bhavsar said, "my cigarette tasted better than the normal tobacco cigarette. after a few days i realised it had cleared my body of the cough and rejuvenated my nervous system." it was in 72 that bhavsar began manufacturing <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">nirdoshm</span> in ahmedabad. it has since been slowly gaining popularity and has even caught the fancy of india’s tinsel town." indian movie star govinda, who was once badly addicted to smoking, was so excited by the concept of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">nirdosh</span> that he met me and asked for a regular supply. later he also got an actress to rid her of the habit," bhavsar claims. </div> </div>