Skip to main content

Genuine Fake

 

It's likely you've used, or at least heard, a couple of oxymorons in your everyday life, even if you didn't realise it at the time. An oxymoron is a figure of speech containing words that seem to contradict each other. Let's see if any of these examples of oxymorons hit home for you:

Act naturally, Bittersweet, Clearly confused, Deafening silence, Only choice, Open secret, Original copy, Weirdly normal and GENUINE FAKE.

It is "GENUINE FAKE" which attracted my attention what with so many fake news, stories we come across in our daily life these days. Quite a few forwarded messages in social media turn out to be fakes. When I googled for "Genuine Fake" I was surprised to notice that there is a shop on Jalan Legian (Legian Road) in Bali, Indonesia with that name. However, when I hear this oxymoron, it brings back old memories connected with my (once) favourite drink (Coke) and my job in pharma industry.

Double Seven was an Indian soft drink brand. It was manufactured and marketed by the Indian government after Coca-Cola quit the Indian market in 1977 due to changes brought about by the Janata government policies. It was speculated in those days that due to the suddenness involved in Coca-Cola company's quitting India, that Company sold the stocks of concentrate lying with it at that moment to private bottlers before going away from India. This concentrate was used by the bottlers to make original Coke like drink in unmarked bottles (GENUINE FAKE Coke) and sold after the Original Coke became unavailable. There used to be a petty shop (బడ్డి కొట్టు) in Guntur on Brodiepet 4th main road abutting Ravi College (India's first tutorial college coaching students for medical and engineering entrance exams) building. The shopkeeper used to sell this GENUINE FAKE Coke. I was a willing buyer since Coca-Cola wasn't available then.

You are aware of my connection with Pharma industry. Many of the big MNC Pharma Companies were engaging the services of small contract manufacturing companies for making their big seller brands. It was rumoured that these contract manufacturers indulged in making extra quantities of the products than contracted. These extra quantities were put into the market bypassing taxing mechanisms through unscrupulous wholesalers in various places (outside of the official channels like Company- Distributor- Wholesalers- Retailer) These packs are thus Genuine Fakes. 

Van Heusen, Crocodile, Peter England etc printed on the t-shirts and sold on our city pavements are invariably fakes masquerading as genuine. 

My friend sent me this mythological story about the first genuine fake in the world:

Unable to bear the heat of the Sun god, his wife Sandhya Devi went to the forest to perform penance. Then her Shadow (Chaya devi) faking as Sandhya Devi, took her place and lived with Sun in the latter's absence. Even Surya Bhavan (Sun god) could not find the difference. God Shani (Saturn) was their son.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Woes of a travelling job

My job in pharmaceutical sales profession exposed me to all the woes associated with a travelling job. The problems were unique. Since I was a bachelor when I started my sales career covering a small geographic territory (Guntur town and Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh) I had to eat food in small restaurants and eating joints in various small towns which  served food totally different from the hotel in Bangalore. I used to consume generally bland and less spicy but very tasty food at  a hotel (Gayathri Boarding) for the entire duration of my college studies in Bangalore. Food in the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh is usually very spicy. It was tough adjusting to the food since no two consecutive meals were generally cooked by the same chef as the travel meant that I had to be going to different hotels.  Living out of a suit case, necessiated by the travelling sales job, restricts life in many ways. We carry limited dresses while on travel warranting usage of laundry ...
2 comments
Read more

Story of my wallet

Good Friday, Black Friday are turning out to be anathema to me... on a Good Friday in 1976 there was a theft in my house and on Black Friday the 25th November 2022,  I lost my wallet. The newspaper on Black Friday was enticing everyone with calls of Great Black Friday Offers ranging from small house hold items to big gadgets like mobile phones, refregirators, ACs etc. Wet Floor mop at home had worn out and required an urgent replacement. Late in the evening, I ventured out on my two wheeler with my wife on the pillion seat to buy a mop. Selection of the mop was in her domain - varieties of mops are available from a simple manual squeeze twist type mop stick to a Scotch-Brite Butterfly Mop with superior hands free squeezing mechanism, mops with microfibre bottom to sponge bottoms, the cost varying from just about ₹150/- to ₹1500/- The selection was, therefore, a specialist's job.   All my daily shopping is usually done in my immediate nighbourhood just around my house on a...
1 comment
Read more

Pleasures & Perils of WhatsApp group

Initiating a WhatsApp group and then adding members with a message to a contact “I’ll add you to the group” is easy. But maintaining the group and making it productive has become a challenge. I felt honored when invited by my immediate senior in school to join  a WhatsApp group of Schoolmates in March-April, 2020. The group has a senior Banker, an Aero-Scientist, a Dentist, a senior Public Sector Administrator, a distinguished Poet, 2 medical practitioners, a Chartered Accountant, a horticulture scientist apart from me, a Pharma Sales Person. Interestingly, the group was put together by the daughter of the  Senior Banker. She wanted to present her father with a facility to recall and reminisce school days with his schoolmates. I am ever grateful to her for giving me a wonderful gift of connecting with old friends after decades of leaving the school. This is the latest WhatsApp group of which I became a member. I am also a participant in 2 groups of my relatives and have scores...
1 comment
Read more