Till a few years ago, I was a regular consumer of Ayurvedic medicines manufactured and marketed by the empire of Baba Ramdev - Patanjali Ayurved.Drawn to one of his shops after battling chronic lower-back pain for close to three decades, I found refuge in a communicative "vaidji" who sympathetically heard the litany of health complications.
"It will take time but theek ho jayega."
Greatly relieved, I did not let it bother me that these products were rather expensive. I reasoned that allopathic medicines and tests often cost a lot more. Hope, it is said, often denudes rationalism.
I believed that a tiny packet containing brownish powder was worth its cost of several hundreds, as the man at the counter explained that the price was high because "gold was used" in manufacturing the medicine. It had to be mixed with other powders – cheaper than this – and then had to be taken in prescribed doses at designated hours.
