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Hair and lovely
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Anoop herbal oil, which is claimed to be a cure for baldness, catapulted a city-based chemist, Gopalakrishnan Nair, to fame a decade ago. The hero of Rapunzels claims he has more wonder cures in store...
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Remember the time when `baldness' hit the headlines some 13 years ago? A chemist from the city, Gopalakrishnan Nair, claimed to have invented a remedy for the most embarrassing of all afflictions -- the bald pate.
The declaration was accompanied by the usual brouhaha -- crowds of hopefuls camping outside his home, the media intent on its piece of the cake and Nair's detractors determined to find a chink in the armour.
Today, the milling crowds have disappeared, the media is looking elsewhere and Nair's detractors (read the ayurveda establishment in the State) are racking their brains trying to come up with a formula of their own. Even baldness has been relegated to small advertisements in the newspapers. But Nair is no longer peddling Anoop hair oil, seen by many as the magic medicine that will not only arrest hair fall but also promote thick growth. Anoop is now distributed by one of India's largest companies, Godrej.
Nair stumbled upon the herbal oil during the course of some experiments as early as 1982 (that was the year he got a license from the Drugs Controller). He observed that certain combination of herbs stimulated hair growth on his forearm and near the knuckles. Word soon got out and he started handing over bottles of his oil to acquaintances and others who came to him. But the process of perfecting the formula continued and it was in March 1989 that the formal announcement was made.
But none was prepared for the deluge of events that followed. Nair became a celebrity overnight. People thronged in hundreds to Vanchiyoor, where the unobtrusive Arshik Herbal Remedies was located in one of the many bylanes. Nair figured in almost all major national, international dailies and weeklies such as The Illustrated Weekly, The Times of India, Business India, The Sunday Observer, Gulf News and Khaleej Times.
Celebrities reached his doorstep, letters poured in by the thousands, orders for the oil came from abroad and MNCs approached him with huge sums for his concoction. But the public attention had a flip side too. Nair could not step outside his home for fear of being mobbed, had to swallow the insult of being called a fake, withstand slander by the `ayurveda establishment' and face constant threats.
More than a decade later, Anoop is still going strong. The initial cost of Rs 70 for a 50 ml bottle has risen to Rs 150 today. Arshik continues to manufacture the oil, while the responsibility of marketing lies with Godrej.
The only problem Nair faces is demand being far in excess of supply. There was a time when he, with help from the family, used to do the whole thing -- right from collecting the herbs to filling the bottles.
But out of neccessity, he installed a fully automatic oil extraction unit, for Anoop uses coconut oil as its base. Changing times have brought with it increasing demand. Nair now plans to set up a much larger fully automatic unit that will take care of everything right up to bottling.
He has also set up a tissue culture centre for producing the plants required for Anoop to prevent the identification of the herbs being used in Anoop and partly due to their prohibitive prices.
But Nair has not followed Anoop's invention by any other. He claims he's been up to his eyes in the manufacture and other details of the business. "Moreover, we do not conduct experiments with a specific aim in mind. We are constantly experimenting and during their course may chance upon something.''
Asked if he was ready to handle the distribution of the product himself, he replies, "I am not a businessman, but a chemist and researcher. And that's what I like to be.''
This, notwithstanding the fact that he has twice been awarded for being one of the highest tax payers. Nair says the motivation behind Anoop has not been monetary; it's purely humanitarian -- the desire to help the needy.
On the cards are two products, and these, he says, will prove to be a real boon to mankind. One is a liquid with many uses. It's a deodorant, a soap and a mouth freshener that may even be consumed without side-effects; it is a room and cloth freshener as well. The other is an anti-dandruff cream, which Nair says, will leave the scalp free of dandruff for six to 12 months. The yet-to-be-named product, he says, is as old as the Anoop herbal oil but has become ready for commercial production only now. Both will hit the markets before the year is out, he says. He's also working on a cure for nervous diseases.
"I never promised that Anoop would work a miracle. Its performance depends on the condition of the hair follicles. Anoop cannot help someone who suffers from dandruff. My new-anti dandruff cream can do wonders for such a person.''
Happy and contented, Nair is enjoying the fruits of his hair-raising labour.
R. K. R.
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