Holy cow or bull?

Parsis may hold consecrated bull’s urine (nirang) in high esteem but even Hindus are touting the miraculous cures of medicines derived from cow dung and cow urine.

According to a news item in The Week magazine, March 20, 2005, published from Kerala by the Malayala Manorama Group, the drugs would "cure anything from cancer to hysteria to piles. That’s if you go by the sale of cow products at the BJP (Bhara­tiya Janata Party) souvenir shop in the capital. Hot-selling items are a constipation medicine and a ‘multi-utility pill’ (that supposedly cures diabetes and ‘women’s diseases.’) That’s not all. Toothpastes, detergents, skin-whitening creams, soaps and even an ‘antiseptic aftershave’ made of either cow dung or urine or both are also flying off the shelves.”

Maybe Parsis should obtain a patent for ‘nirang’ before somebody else claims ownership and makes money from its sale as it happened with basmati rice. Though an Indian product Basmati (rice) was patented by an American firm. Perhaps the newly formed World Association of Parsee Irani Zoroastrians (WAPIZ) could take up the project.