Finally I got down to reading Everybody Loves A Good Draught, P Sainath's incisive denounciation of the lack of governmental focus or initiative when it comes to the abjectly destitute of the country. A collation of reports Sainath had written mainly for The Times of India, it shines a light so relentlessly on the preternaturally poor that the reader needs to take an occasional break before she drowns. Poverty, starvation deaths, illiteracry, infant mortality, abysmal health care, the burden of debt, the lack of drinking water, nutrition, sanitation or a modicum of respect...the stories are alas, not new. The years pass but the situation remains the same, the marginalised continue to occupy just the same spot.