AS a story, it captured the essence of disparity. Somewhat unconsciously, though. At least two television channels ran it in late 1997. Several newspapers and magazines had done it earlier. It was about the dangers of slimming pills and the 'weight-loss clinics' springing up across urban India. The story run on one of the channels was particularly effective. It showed the damage done to some people who had taken these 'lose-weight-without-exercise' pills. Thousands of well-off urban Indians fighting excess weight and obesity were going to such clinics, that had mushroomed in India's cities during 1991-96.