In Quest of 'Microgat'

Recently someone in the family had an eye infection and the doctor wrote out a prescription that included an ointment called ‘Microgat’. I thought I’d be able to find it at the neighborhood medical store when I set out but little did I know it would take me on a long quest over half the city. I asked at almost every medical store in Hyderabad and made some surprising discoveries. There are more medical stores in Hyderabad than there are hotels, small and big. Gone are the traditional medical shops where the shopkeeper would tell his assistant in an instant where the medicine you asked for was found, including which rack and how many were left, without moving from the counter.

But now there are the modern medical stores where the attendants wear colorful aprons and check for your medicines on a computer and can tell if it is available or not without moving an inch from the counter. I discovered there were several such stores by Apollo, Hetero, Mediplus and so on where the computers told them ‘Microgat’ was unavailable in the store.

I also learnt what some medical stores do when they don’t stock a particular medicine. Some of them write the name of the medicine in a notebook and some send out their assistants to other stores in the vicinity to get them. But even after looking in more than two dozen medical stores in the city I was unable to find ‘Microgat’. One person at one of the stores even told me he believed the company did not manufacture any ointment with that name. I was disappointed, but like a true Hyderabadi, I did not give up.

It was when I was near Himayatnagar that I remembered there was only one place where I could find it. ‘Mor Medical Store’ at Liberty came to mind and I set out immediately since it was nearly two hours since I was on the roads. Needlessly to say, my quest ended on a happy note and I got the ointment I was looking for. I returned home triumphantly like I had brought back treasure.