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Unusual asthma cure attracts big crowds here and abroad

Thousands of believers have gathered in the city to take a dose of the renowned fish medicine said to cure chronic asthma.

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HC asks organisers to call it fish “prasadam”, not a medicine

Hyderabad:Thousands of believers have gathered in the city to take a dose of the renowned fish medicine said to cure chronic asthma.

The yellow paste has secret formula that that has been passed down through the Bathini Goud family for the last 163 years ago. It is given stuffed in the mouth of a “murrel” (sardine) fish and put straight into a  patient’s throat.

The event which takes place after the sighting of the Mrigashira Karthi star, usually on June 7 or 8 has drawn seven lakh patients last year. This year, the turnout is expected to be lower following a sustained campaign by rationalists.

The AP High Court has also directed the organisers not to call the mixture a medicine and instead to name it prasadam to avoid misleading people.

The Jana vinjana vedika of the CPM had also organised dharnas and put up hoardings and banners against superstitions last year. “Our three-year campaign has yielded results,” says Vijaya Kumar.

But people are still keen to give it a try. “We are not convinced of its medicinal values but found it does help asthma patients,” says Meera Nair, 38, of Thiruvananthpuram who has come for the second time.

Among those queuing up at the Exhibition Grounds are asthma patients from Sri Lanka, Middle East, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain, US and Australia. “I am a chronic bronchitis patient. After years of treatment, I have come to try this medicine also,” says Deborah Wheeler from Sydney, a legal practitioner.

To avoid stampedes, the organisers used bar-coded tokens. The government has also arranged to supply enough sardines at reasonable prices so that visitors are not cheated.

The Bathini family makes about 500 kilos of the paste in secrecy and gives it round the clock. “The numbers who come here is evidence of its efficacy,” says Bathini Harinath Goud, the 62-year old family head. To be effective, the medicine has to be taken thrice and strict diet maintained for 45 days, he said. Earlier, the fish cure was given Goud’s ancestral house. But it was shifted in 1998 to Exhibition grounds after the communal riots drove people away.

The state government had also given the Bathiini family five acres in the old city to set up a foundation and a farm to grow the plants form which the paste is made. The popularity of the prasadam has created a market for counterfeits in places afar like  Aurangabad and Latur.

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