Sample Coincidence.

Medical Representatives (M.R.s) and Doctors share a relationship that evolves over a period of time. Most times it is a professional relationship with all its protocols intact. When a M.R. visits a doctor, he does so to promote his company’s products. As a part of this process he is asked to leave behind him some samples, which are a reminder of his products. It is supposed to help the doctor remember the brand when prescribing a medicine.

A newly recruited and fresh M.R. is not expected to leave behind much, and he does not generally stand a chance in most doctors’ chambers till he has put in quite some efforts in convincing doctors over and over again of the value of his products. Thus, to perform (make the sales figures rise) he has to resort to gimmicks
in the hope that he is soon out of the woods.

One of the gimmicks these people use is to make tall claims about their products. The doctor has to be vigilant in such matters. One day, a M.R. walked into my chamber promoting his medicinal spray. He claimed that it would not stain the skin or the overlying clothes. Looking to the components that went into that spray, I had my doubts and so I asked him if I could verify his claim. His face lost some of its pink colour, but he bravely stood up to demonstrate what he had just uttered. Sure enough the spray did not leave any stain right away, but after a while there was some surface discoloration. He smiled and retracted his claim. I took that opportunity to tell him of an anecdote from Swami Vivekanand’s life.

Swami Vivekanand always exhorted that one should only believe what one has personally verified. This was in the context of the prevailing atmosphere of blind faith in religious men in his times. He himself had asked his guru Swami Ramkrishna whether he had actually seen God, and only when he was told that it was indeed so, he became Ramkrishna’s disciple. The M.R. listened to all this and quietly walked out.

That particular day of the week I have reserved a time slot for M.R.s. Immediately after the previous fellow had left, in came another one, willing to impress me, I thought, about his products. He too was a fresh from the oven type, and all I expected was some entertaining moments from his tentative first steps. However I was in for a surprise.

He settled down in a chair and confidently asked me whether I was aware of any particularly important anniversary on that day, the 27^th of February. I declined knowing anything. He took out a photograph, a three in one, of Swami Ramkrishna, Maa Shardaa, and Swami Vivekanand and placed it respectfully on my table. He told me that since it was his first visit to me, he would just leave behind this photograph that day, it being the birth anniversary of Swami Ramkrishna, according to the Vikram Samvat Calendar.  He talked about his mission in life and briefly mentioned his main products and left. I was left wondering about this exception of a M.R. and the coincidence. Not all samples come to you in the same spirit, afterall. Surely this coincidence could not be a gimmick.