24 October 2014
BeeBee is recovering from a cold. She believes she caught it from their first driver in New Delhi. It incubated for a few days with those emerging symptoms that seem to say, yes, you are coming down with a cold. It erupted full force on the train to Amritsar, and BeeBee's first request to the new guide was to find a pharmacy.
Most pharmacies in India are small uninviting shops that you visit because you have to. This one, by generous estimation, was about 8 feet wide by 10 feet deep with dusty glass-fronted cabinets on three sides. It had a windowed door to the left, and a window in the upper half of what remained of the front wall to the right of the door. The pharmacist's desk (an ordinary shabby office desk) was perpendicular to the front wall. There was a chair behind the desk, a chair in front of the desk, and just enough free space to walk from the front to the back of the desk. At most two people could stand just inside the front door, to speak to the pharmacist. Pati and BeeBee stood there, and the guide stood in the doorway. There were, in fact, two pharmacists there (the reason for two chairs). BeeBee described her symptoms. The pharmacist in front of the desk considered each symptom, then pulled three boxes from a cabinet. He took a blister pack from each and cut three pills from each of the three blister packs. Take one of each of these once a day for three days, he said, and you will be better. Would you like to take this too - indicating another box - for cough? It's cheap - only 50 rupees. (That's less than a dollar.) Needless to say, BeeBee bought that box also. So for about 200 rupees, BeeBee will get better.
The mystery box contained a 100 ml bottle of a blue liquid called BLUKOF. It is a Schedule H drug in India, which means that it is "to be sold by retail on the prescription of a Registered Medical Practitioner only."
BeeBee certainly hopes that he is a registered medical practioner. She didn't see a prescription.
BeeBee is recovering from a cold. She believes she caught it from their first driver in New Delhi. It incubated for a few days with those emerging symptoms that seem to say, yes, you are coming down with a cold. It erupted full force on the train to Amritsar, and BeeBee's first request to the new guide was to find a pharmacy.
Most pharmacies in India are small uninviting shops that you visit because you have to. This one, by generous estimation, was about 8 feet wide by 10 feet deep with dusty glass-fronted cabinets on three sides. It had a windowed door to the left, and a window in the upper half of what remained of the front wall to the right of the door. The pharmacist's desk (an ordinary shabby office desk) was perpendicular to the front wall. There was a chair behind the desk, a chair in front of the desk, and just enough free space to walk from the front to the back of the desk. At most two people could stand just inside the front door, to speak to the pharmacist. Pati and BeeBee stood there, and the guide stood in the doorway. There were, in fact, two pharmacists there (the reason for two chairs). BeeBee described her symptoms. The pharmacist in front of the desk considered each symptom, then pulled three boxes from a cabinet. He took a blister pack from each and cut three pills from each of the three blister packs. Take one of each of these once a day for three days, he said, and you will be better. Would you like to take this too - indicating another box - for cough? It's cheap - only 50 rupees. (That's less than a dollar.) Needless to say, BeeBee bought that box also. So for about 200 rupees, BeeBee will get better.
The mystery box contained a 100 ml bottle of a blue liquid called BLUKOF. It is a Schedule H drug in India, which means that it is "to be sold by retail on the prescription of a Registered Medical Practitioner only."
BeeBee certainly hopes that he is a registered medical practioner. She didn't see a prescription.
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