The rush is most visible at the main unit of Super Bazaar at Connaught Place where there was a scramble throughout Thursday at the oil and ghee counter. The fact that Vital, a soya oil brand, was the only available oil was no deterrent to the crowds.

For most buyers it was going to be their first tryst with Vital. And most of them insisted on buying whatever was there at the government-run store to play safe. Whether it was Anu Kapoor from the nearby Minto Road or Jagram, a driver the reason was the same: ``Dhara has been banned and the other brands cannot be trusted. So it is safest to buy from where the government sells''.

Says B.R. Anand who is in charge of the Super Bazaar sales counter: ``While the first ten days of a month used to record sales of oil worth Rs 50,000 daily, it has been more than Rs 1 lakh since August 27. It could have touched Rs 3 lakh too but there are no stocks to match the rush.'' The outlet received 12 cases of Postman refined oil (48 pieces of 1 litre) besides 112 (5 litre) cans and 800 (1 litre) sachets of Vital and 10 cases of Suffola on Thursday. At closing time barely 12 cans of Vital, two cases of Suffola and two cases of 1 litre sachets of Vital remained unsold.

At Kendriya Bhandar's outlet at ITO, Sundrop prevailed the scene. According to M.S. Rawat, the store-in-charge, the 25 cases that arrived on Saturday which were to last for a week were sold out by Wednesday. He received 30 fresh cases on Thursday. ``Even Suffola is selling. While we found it difficult to sell even eight packs of Suffola in a month in the past, we sold eight of them in a single day this week,'' he says.

At the Kendriya Bhandar at the UPSC, supplies of Sundrop were awaited and it was Vital which was selling most there too. Though only 5 litre cans of Vital were available, all the eight packs were sold in a single day on Thursday.

Apart from Vital and Suffola, Rath which has been banned at Super Bazaars, was also selling as a substitute for the banned mustard oil at the Kendriya Bhandars. Says Anand: ``Super Bazaar has its own laboratory and all our oils are tested. We banned Rath along with Dalda vanaspati after samples were found adulterated. If Rath is still available at Kendriya Bhandars it is because they do not have a laboratory to test their products.''

While the rush for a safe oil reveals the enormous presence of an epidemic in the Capital, many people are equally puzzled about the reality of the fear. Asks Rawat, a Kendriya Bhandar store in-charge: ``I bought 5 litre of mustard oil a fortnight before the ban. I have consumed three litre and I am still not unwell. So should I stop using the rest of it now?'' Rawat says he accepts cans of mustard oil being returned by buyers all the same. There was even a case when someone returned a one-litre sachet when only a pint of oil remained in it. ``Of course I did not give him any money in return,'' he says.

While there are people who are pausing at pickle counters in shops wondering whether it is safe to buy them anymore, there are also people who are still crowding around the bhatoora joints for lunch. Meanwhile, Jagram who is returning home with his first Vital packet from Super Bazaar, is filled with misgivings about the whole thing: ``I may force this down the throats of adults at home, but what if my children refuse to eat food cooked in this strange oil? Even for me no oil can be a substitute for mustard oil. I would rather risk an illness than eat unpalatable food!''