In the process, you will also learn of how easily those powers can play with the futures of those who deserve a better deal.

These students graduated in March with Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicine and Science degrees from the V H Dave Homoeopathic Medical College and Anand Homoeopathic Medical College and Research Institute, affiliated to the Sardar Patel University.

This was the first batch of degree-course passouts from V H Dave; it had earlier conducted a diploma course. For the institute, however, it was the third batch of passouts.

According to the rules, the Council of Homeopathic System of Medicine, Gujarat and the Central Council of Homoeopathy, New Delhi, should have given them permission to practice at the time they passed out, but are yet to do so.

There doesn't seem to be a clear reason why those licences have not yet been issued; the only inference this reporter could draw was a lack of interest all around. College principals Dr V V Dave and Dinesh Agrawal say they ``regret the delay''; they claim to have sent the requisite proposals and were awaiting replies from the State and Central bodies.

The buck-passing continues down the line; Gujarat Council registrar N K Upadhyay says he has received and forwarded the proposal to the Central Council. At the council, where the line ends, assistant secretary H D Rikhadi says the matter is still under consideration. ``Such cases take time,'' he says, while promising to expedite the case.

Sardar Patel University Vice-Chancellor Dr V S Patel and Director, State Ayurveda and Homoeopathic Systems of Medicines Department Anis Mankad regret the bureaucratic lethargy in following up their case with Delhi.

Those are all the assurances the students will get; for the rest, they have to sift through the various rumours flying around and find their grains of truth.

One such rumour is that the colleges had been penalised because they were understaffed and using less space for their Out-Patients' Department than recommended by the Council. The college authorities, though, claim to have addressed these issues immediately and continuously upgraded the facilities.

This sounds a good enough reason until you realise that both colleges have been existing for the last 20 years and one of them already has two batches of practising doctors!

Some sources attribute the delay to a funny reason: Elections to the Central Council. Held every five years, the election to this prestigious lobby, due at the end of the month, is of vital importance to the homoeopathic fraternity. ``Since all the colleges, State and the Central councils members were presumably busy with the politics and election-related activities, they simply glossed over the interests of students'', one of them said.

The worst affected, as always, are the students. ``We joined this institute because of the catchy advertisements. And look where we stand today: on the road, after more than five years of rigorous study and more than Rs 10,000 being spent'', says a bitter Ritesh Malik, who came all the way from Sonepat in Haryana to study in Anand.

Few students wanted to talk, fearing victimisation. Velisha Patel of Ankudia village in Vadodara district and Sameer Memon of Godhra also say they have been cheated and their future hopes shattered. ``Whom can we turn to,'' others ask. ``It is a shock to us as well'', says a senior teacher of the Anand institute. ``The previous two batches did not face any such problem''.