Once upon a time, I use to admire this man. This man, Baba Ramdev. No no! Not because he wears the saffron dhoti. Or single handedly popularized Pantanjali’s yoga shaastra. Although I do give credit where it’s due – Baba Ramdev revived yoga (from its dormant form), commercialized it and turned it into ‘the-in-thing’. Screw Bollywood celebrities, this man is all international. Something even the likes of Aishwarya Rai took years and neednotmention loads of plastic to achieve. But this isn’t what caught my attention. Nor was I impressed by his claims of curing the curses of modern lifestyle; cancer, diabetes, AIDS and the likes.
I had a different reason.
You see, to me the man is the epitome of boldness. Courageous, to say the least. What? I hear you ask why?
Well, only a man of steel can be …so…so …carefree when it comes to display of body hair. Funny? But, no laughing matter this.
Be it the face, the chest, the neck, the bony torso, tooth pick hands & legs and let’s not forget the greasy armpits *shudders all over*; where ever you look, there you shall find – da synchronized breathing yogi hair.
And ,clearly our man is proud of this ghar ka kheeti. Then again, why shouldn’t he be? He has over 85 million eyeballs fixed intently on him. A stunt even our khatron ka khiladi aka Akki Kumar couldn’t pull off before deciding to go down the razor alley.
But as they say – all good things must come to an end.
Babaji ruthlessly tore my sentiments to shreds when he termed Homosexuality as a disease, when clinically, his statement holds no ground. So, in other words, he tagged me as being ‘infected’ – his loyal fan – me – someone who admired his hirsuteness. Every strand of it, on this human excuse for a rubber band.
Why can’t some people just let it be? Ah…fragile is the human heart.
Thankfully though, balance still exists. If we have the likes of the self proclaimed moral gurus, we also have the likes of Manavendra Singh Gohil, the morally spirited.
My faith in humanity lives on. Just not in hair. And their babas.