SUNAAD RAGHURAM returns from the longest holiday ever granted to a “working journalist” and writes: Over a long Mysorean lunch comprising kosambri, hurlikayi palya, majjige huli, uddina vade, tili saaru and holige—washed down with almond suffused payasa—the best you could have this side of the Vindhyas, my age old mate Sampath regaled me with an anecdote from the days when he was a medical representative for Khandelwal Laboratories in the 1980’s.

Sampath had a colleague, a certain Vinod Rao, who had a peculiarity, all his own.

In one of the presentations he gave to a doctor about Batrofase, a newly introduced drug in the Mysore market, Rao committed a monumental hilarity, much to the amusement of Sampath.

The doctor, as it often happens, was not in the best of moods to listen to a detailed description of the new drug, presumably because there was a long line of patients outside his door.

But the two medical representatives had a job to do.

Sampath prodded Rao hinting that he should begin and close the presentation in a jiffy.

Rao, who took the cue, began in breathless fashion, a la Shankar Mahadevan!

‘Doctor,’ he began. ‘This is a new drug, Batrofase. It is available in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Holland and City Drug House, Mysore!’

Now what was that?

A little like comedian Mel Brooks in the funny movie, History of the World, saying, “Meet my friend. He’s a painter… world famous in Poland!”