Inexpensive weight-loss drugs may help adults who badly need them. But what will they do to children still growing into their bodies and habits?
There was much more ambivalence about body shape when I was growing up. The obese were named and shamed (a friend was called, quite openly, mota [fat] Bapi), but you could not be too thin either. I would get quite openly criticised for my lack of heft — kangla was the description of choice — and this came with diet suggestions. Often it was Horlicks, that curiously Indian drink made from milk solids and malted wheat. I discovered it was easiest to say yes and then not do it, since I have always had (a very non-Indian) aversion to all warm milky drinks.