It is another matter that the companies are yet to get a clean chit from the Joint Parliamentary Committee ( jpc) and the courts on the pesticide residues issue. The recent controversy over pesticide residues in soft drinks and many other public safety concerns (for instance: the key ingredient, phosphoric acid, dissolves teeth in flat two days) raised against them receive only a passing mention in the magazine that is a 52-page eulogy. The magazine painstakingly attempts to paint the advent of Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola as important inventions, as great as that of electronics or automobiles. The November 22 issue of Balarama Digest, a popular Malayalam children's weekly, has became a 'willing partner' in the cola firms' no-holds-barred campaign to ricochet into young Indian hearts. Take a dekko at this: A children's magazine from one of the most popular media stables in the country has devoted a full issue to 'educate' kids about the two soft drink giants and their history (sans their bad deeds!), much to the chagrin of mothers trying to wean their children off the 'cola habit'. If you think free publicity, like 'free lunch', is a no-no in this newly liberalised world of ours, you have got it all wrong. Balarama Digest, Book 5, Issue 2, November 22, 2003

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