Trips to India can be life-changing, but you probably would not expect a visit to India's Silicon Valley to yield much in the way of enlightenment. Spare parts for a knackered old computer, yes, but a cure for a hard core Western-style addiction to tobacco? Surely not. Anyway, is it really possible to dedicate yourself to quiet contemplation when your room is a few telegraph poles away from the call-centre capital of the world?
Yet indeed my life has changed. Exactly how it happened I still don't know. I do know that in the space of just five days, without the aid of patches, gum, DVDs, hypnotherapy or acupuncture - or indeed the intention to do so - I have kicked the habit, for good.
The place of my redemption, an upmarket ashram-style retreat called Shreyas, is in the state of Karnataka, smack in the middle of India's triangular southern tip, probably the most painless entry point to the subcontinent.
Silk and sandalwood made Karnataka rich, but today the 6.5 million people of its capital are reaping the rewards of new technology. Bangalore, roughly translated as 'city of beans', should be renamed city of chips - as in 'micro', rather than 'supersize'.
Read more and find out how Debbie Lawson quit smoking after a holiday in Bangalore.
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