HYDERABAD: It’s that time of the year again when asthmatics from across India flock to Hyderabad to cure themselves with the ‘fish medicine’. The Bathini Goud brothers revealed at a press conference on Friday that the ‘Bathini Fish Treatment’ would be held on June 8 (Mrigasira Karti day) at the Exhibition Grounds in Nampally from 11 AM onwards.
The Bathini Goud family has been administering the unique treatment free of cost to millions of asthmatics for the last 163 years. Veeranna Goud, the great grandfather of the current patriarch of the family, Bathini Harinath Goud, was given a herbal formula for treatment of asthma by a holy man.
The secret formula, which has been handed down over the generations only to family members, has to be inserted in the mouth of a live sardine of about 2-3 inches in size. The fish is slipped into the patient’s throat who swallows it whole. The medicine has to be taken thrice for a period of 45 days after the first dose along with a strictly prescribed diet.
Bathini Harinath Goud, along with his brothers B Vishwanath Goud and B Shiv Prakash Goud were present at the media interaction. “Only 22 members of my family know how to prepare the herbal formula,” said Harinath Goud.
Likening the medicine to ‘prasadam’ he said that though the original venue was Doodhbowli in the Old City, the congested nature of the place and the thousands of people flocking there necessitated a change to Nizam college grounds and then to the Exhibition Grounds.
But due to the popularity of the Bathini Fish Treatment, imposters have been selling fish medicine claiming it to be original and also charging money for it. The Bathini brothers requested the public not to fall for such claims and said no one else was authorised to administer the fish treatment. Harinath Goud said, “We have made all arrangements in cooperation with the Fisheries Department, which will supply the fish.”
