Blue bottles

I loved this story… I’m sure you all must have read it. But for those who haven’t… here goes…

I first read this story in an issue of Tinkle Digest, so long ago on a balmy summer afternoon. But it’s stayed with me. Throgh time. I don’t know what about it appeals to me. But it does.

So presenting…

The Kabulliwalah by R. Tagore

I hope you like it..

On a recent documentary on BBC, I watched this program on the pilferage of fake drugs across India and from India all over. What was utterly depressing was the fact that this was done completely unabashedly. In the open.

Even more saddening was that these drugs were for tuberculosis, AIDS and Cancer.

I’m not asking for compassion, but these are LIFE SAVING drugs. Paracetemol is being morphed into these exorbitantly priced drugs. With the Retroviral treatment running up to hundreds of dollars in treatment per annum, is this what we may be getting? A goddamn Crocin?

With the Drug companies outdoing each other in slapping Patent Laws on these drugs and basically making all these drugs more expensive for “ordinary” people to buy them, what is the use of these drugs?

What is more surprising is the Drug Companies refuse to acknowledge the existence of these counterfeit drugs in the market masquerading as their own treatment drugs. This is because if they do, they might have to pull that brand of drugs (phony and real, both) out of the markets all across the world. This would result in a loss of billions.

Have we no value for human life? People across the world are dying because of these bogus drugs. And someone up there is taking a three-hour martini-golf lunch break because of this sacrilege.

Children across the world cannot have a normal life. Families are being torn apart. People are shunned because of a stigma… all for what? So that fake drugs can make rounds?

Ministers are being bribed with Bentleys to look the other way. Compounders are the proverbial gods stirring up ineffective potions of life. What is it that political clout, black money and a complete disregard for Human Life can bring. Someone else is bleeding their life’s savings and dreams away. Doesn’t this break your heart and spirit?

Screw Rang De Basanti. It got a few hearts to flutter and made money for the producers. But there are many more real problems in this beautiful country of ours. How many of us are even aware of the crap that gets passed off as legislation in our country. With escaping prison sentences by varying the FIR by pulling in your father’s posthumous power, what am I to expect of the blessed land? But now what? What can I do?

I’m going to find out more and do my bit. After all, it took one man to change the way our country strategizes. .

I was interning. T’was fun. Writer’s block. Gotta go…