Ending a three-year hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions, Hyderabad’s Bathini Goud family resumed its popular annual fish ‘prasadam’ distribution programme for people with asthma and respiratory illnesses, here on Friday.
Dating its legacy of the ‘fish medicine’ distribution to the 1840s, when the Bathini’s patriarch was told the secret herbal recipe by a sage, the family this year estimates participation of five lakh takers.
Minister for Animal Husbandry Talasani Srinivas Yadav, on behalf of the State government, along with the Bathini brothers and families was present at the Exhibition Society grounds during the inauguration of the event.
Timed with the onset of Southwest monsoon or Mrigasira Karthi on June 8 (Thursday), the free distribution programme was open for all from Friday 8 a.m. and will continue till Saturday 8 a.m. While vegetarians are given a herbal concoction mixed with jaggery, for others, a live fishling stuffed with the secret yellow formula is pushed down the throat and the jaws locked. The family claims that the procedure must be followed four times or four years along with three herbal tablets to be taken orally every fortnight.
According to the State Department of Fisheries, which is sourcing the live Murrel fishlings and volunteering its sale at a token price at the venue, the pre-COVID numbers were around 1.20 lakh fishlings. This year it estimates the sales to jump by about 30%.
Thousands of the takers who arrived at the venue by Thursday camped under the tents, halls and sheds organised at the place. Several voluntary organisations put up their banners and canopies for distribution of free food and water. On Friday, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the HMWS&SB, the Electricity Department, the police, the traffic officials made all arrangements to ensure the programme went on smoothly.
People from across age groups, faiths and regions continued to throng the venue and wait in queues for the brief procedure.
According to A. Padma, a banker from Nellore, a first-timer here, she learnt about the ‘fish medicine’ via YouTube. She, after having tried various cures, believes the fish would help her situation.
For Sony from Sholapur, Maharashtra, it was her second time. She claimed she was experiencing ‘a little relief’ and that’s why she came back. There were takers from Ahmedabad, Delhi, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, among others.
