Dilemmas regarding Baba Ramdev cleared

I have been wanting to write on this topic for a long time but many thoughts prevented me. I wanted to have a solid reasoning before I published my thoughts and finally I have found one.

So here is the dilemma. My mom wants me to do the yoga taught by Ramdev baba and frankly, my mom has been a direct beneficiary. But I always found the exercises too boring for my taste. Then comes Ramdev Baba with his statement that being gay is a disease which can be cured by yoga. Now this was a fact that like most of the "learned" people did not go well with me. So then I thought because I do not agree with his views, I am perfectly alright by not following his yoga techniques. But there was always this nagging thought which can infact broken down to three:

1) Ramdev baba did not invent yoga. So why stop something which is an established science just because of one person's personal views.
2) Every person has the right to have an opinion. What is wrong if Ramdev baba has one and he is voicing it.
3) What if being gay is really a disease and/or something which can be cured.

Finally I have found my answers to all these three nagging questions. Let me go bottom up.

Counterargument to point 3) Though studies prove it as well that it is not a disease, and it may very well be a habit which is cured, but who cares. According to Indian culture/ movies, we consider love as a disease (sardi, khasi na maleria hua, main gaya yaaron mujhko, love, love love loveria hua). Can love be cured? Probably yes, probably not but who cares. It has all the symptoms of a disease if taken in a different light. At young age, it may ruin your career. Loving a wrong person may ruin your finances, your trust, your very existence in this world. Being gay may have similar consequences. But as we do not mind love being a disease, this one should also not a big deal.

Counterargument to point 2) I have been reading a lot about this issue. A blog from my friend Lalit, Gay Ho, and subsequent comments on it helped me better regarding this. Finally I read an argument as a comment on this article which is as follows:

Ramdev baba has said that being gay is a disease and he has challenged Delhi high court's judgment which says that gay sex should be decriminalized. I add these two statements. What does this imply? That Baba Ramdev thinks that all diseased people should go to jail. Is it human to put say all AIDS patients, cancer patients and the numerous millions of people in the jail just because they have a disease? This is against humanity. You may find this argument ridiculous and may say that this is putting words in somebody's mouth but then a public person should think twice before what he speaks. Like in this case his own statements lead to the conclusion that he wants diseased people to be criminalized.

Counterargument to point 1) If not already, after reading this reasoning, you might think that Sandipan is losing it by putting baseless reasons but then counterargument to 1 is the one which really has motivated me the most. I will not follow Ramdev baba's yoga but Shilpa Shetty's yoga. Two main reasons for that. Firstly, biggest motivation to do yoga for me was to reduce tummy. Ramdev baba being such a proponent of yoga, still has a tinge of tummy which I see no chance of going. Shilpa on the other hand is on diametrically opposite side of the spectrum. She has got the best abs in India. I know, abs is probably the last thing that comes to somebody's mind when someone thinks of a beautiful girl, but I find Shilpa's abs to be her best asset. Second reason is that the most irritating part for me in Ramdev baba's yoga is Kapaalbhati. Apparently, you have to do minimum of 5 minutes (300 times) going up to 15 minutes. On the other hand Shilpa suggests begin with 1-5 with no more than 3x10. You should totally see Shilpa's yoga. Search these keywords "shilpa shetty yoga" on youtube and you will get many relevant results. Even the idea of breathing-in n Kerala and breathing-out in Himalayas as her videos suggest should be enough to motivate anyone.


So this is the final conclusion and end to my dilemmas. I will do yoga but not the Ramdev Baba way, but the Shilpa way.

[Picture courtesy Bollywoodnet.blogspot.com and Rediff]

Was detention of Shahrukh Khan right thing?

Ok, I am a big time Shahrukh fan. I got up at 3:30 am tonight after having a nightmare as aftereffects of the movie 'Kaminey'. I browse as usual and go through the news that Shahrukh was detained at Newark Airport. I was terribly upset and shaken. I could not sleep after that.

Now after almost 16 hours after the story, having read a few 'counter' stories, I am at peace. So here is what I would have done if I were the person in charge of taking Shahrukh Khan to the detention room. Ok let's generalize this. Because even Shahrukh says he does not feel bad because of just himself but the room full of people who were mostly from a particular community. Here we go: (My monologue, thoughts in brackets)

Hello Sir, we have to hold you off for additional checks. Please do not panic sir, we will make sure you will be able to get to your connecting flight if any. We would like you to enjoy your stay in this country and make it as comfortable as we can.

Let me be frank, yes sir, as you might be thinking right now, you are being held because of your name. As you know Sir, we are a bit panicky country (tell exact reasons why you are doing even if it shows you in a slightly weaker position. Nobody becomes small by bowing before others). We took strong actions an entire nation because they destroyed our own WTC. But there is a good side to it as well Sir, as you can see, nobody has even dared a second attack. (On the other hand, there are some countries which encounter repeated terrorism, still get used to it, have such nice culture of equality which an outsider doesn't even realize). This is because of our security system sir, I hope and I know, you will understand as you come from such an educated nation.

(Saying this, take him to a room which should put the Lake palace Udaipur's presidential suite to shame, escort him to a seat, serve him snacks and drinks). Sir, to make this check shorter, can you just name somebody whom you are coming to in US so that we can call them and confirm? Here, take this i-phone. (A person comes to any other country for 2 reasons, he knows someone and has some purpose of visit, in which case he should have a contact address, or he is a tourist, in which case one can show their whole itinerary of stay or atleast the initial hotel. If found suspicious, one can always spy him)( So, now Shahrukh/any person makes the call, connect me and that person and we do a basic check. )

Thank you sir, I really appreciate your patience personally and on the behalf of my country. I hope you enjoy your stay in this country. Also, here is a feedback form and if you have any concerns and how we can improve this process, please let us know.

(Note that this entire process should take a max of 10-15 minutes per person with a staff size big enough to handle each and every person separately so that no one has to wait more than 30 seconds. After all, this is also an opportunity for job creation.)

This day that year

Today is 11th of August 2009. I can really go back to any year, say 2005, when I first entered this country or 1975, I was not even born but mom and dad got married. But let’s just go by 10 years. I will recollect what a typical day would have been back then.


11th August 1999, I was in 12th Standard: very important year for anyone. By this time, as it was August, I assume all the tuition classes would have been over, except Chemistry which the teacher (Kakulididi) insisted that she would not rush through.

I was a fairly early riser. So I would have got up at 6 sharp. Morning 6-8 was School study time, as the other time, I would supposedly prepare for IIT entrance. Not sure now why I did that so much. I never liked cracking all those uselessly difficult problems, but still had to do it. So I found the non IIT morning time more enjoyable. I studied Physics or Chemistry for the first hour and probably Biology from 7 to 8. Next I will iron my school uniform, go for a bath and get ready for school. Then, switch on Sony TV from 8:30 to 9 and would have breakfast and watch one of those dubbed English kids serials like Different strokes or Dennis the Menace.

Though my house was hardly 50 yards away from the school, I would still reach school 5 minutes before start. As I was the captain of my house “Nirbhik”, I would have to go through the checklist for morning assembly if it’s my house on duty. Somebody is saying the pledge- check, news –check! Oops we forgot the “though for the day”. Hurriedly, we would find some nice thought in some newspaper, attribute it to either Gandhiji or Plato or Martin Luther King and give it to any random person to deliver. I liked being backstage.

Let’s skip to the classes. Period no. 2 teacher is absent, so both classes will be done by Radha madam for physics. As soon as she leaves after grueling 1 hour 10 minutes, we will swarm on tiffin boxes. First to be opened was always Anuradha’s tiffin box. She would always bring something with potato and thus getting the nickname Aaloo herself. Next would probably be mine, or Sumit’s or Aprajita’s tiffin. By the time we (here, we = 30+ people) reach 5th or 6th tiffin, Maths teacher Ajay Pandya sir will come over. It was always fun as it was a refresher to whatever we already learnt in the coaching class but Pandya sir always had something new to add to our knowledge. Like this, 2 more classes would go one after the other until it is lunch time. This was the time we did dadagiri on the entire school being the seniormost. We would roam around the entire school, listen to complaints like “Bhaiya bhaiya, they took our wickets away”, or the 1st and 2nd grade ones will say “ Bhaiya, he ate 3 pieces of apple from my tiffin box.” Soon after, we will resume classes or some lab. Labs were fun too.

By default, one of the classes would be off that day. This time was spent in variety of activities. Either go out and play, or play indoor round robin table tennis with a normal ball on teacher’s table or sometimes, just play Antakshari (Again 30 people divided into groups of 15). Finally classes will get over at 3:30, but it would be another 15-30 minutes to reach home as we would chat all the time.

Eat food at home, do the tuition and school homework till 5. Oh yes, MTV will start from 4 with some show with VJ Nikhil Chinappa. Strange, Nikhil still is the VJ for MTV, and we thought MTV was always youth. At 5, I would just close all the books to watch “MTV most wanted” by VJ Shehnaz. This was my favorite time of the day. It will be the same usual songs –“My heart will go on”, “Am a Barbie girl” or “Show me the meaning of being lonely” or sometimes a bit different “Animal Song”. Anyway, 45 minutes to the show, I would leave for Chemistry Tuition. The class was long, 1 hr 45 minutes with a 10 minute break. But no doubt it was fun. Again, another half an hour gone after the tuition in chatting.

Come back at around 8:15, only to study for another continuous 2 hours. Dinner was usually served at 10:15. This time was reserved for the “IIT Exam” studies, hence most grueling and least attractive. At 10:15 sharp, me, mom and dad will have dinner together and it was always so nice. Little did I know then that in a year’s time I would stop eating mom cooked food? It was only in May 09 that she came here and I could again eat what she cooked.


Ok back to Dinner table of 99. Would finish the food in 10 minutes to go and start the TV again. This time, the Bengali channel DD7. It was movie time. Ideally I am supposed to resume my studies but then the movie would be one of the Bengali classics which mom and dad would not want me to miss and I would leave menial studies for better knowledge of my cultural roots.


Things have changed now. Probably for better. Wish I continue to blog even in 2019. And I will write about this day. A day spent in work, high school musical 1, iss jungle se mujhe bachao and writing a blog.

Deepika Padukone’s accent

I saw Love Aajkal yesterday. It is a good one time watch. But the thing I got hooked to is Deepika’s accent. It’s not rare for me to get hooked to some weird characteristics of leading ladies though. I like Bipasha’s slight squint, Rani’s husky voice, Katrina’s faulty hindi, Shilpa Shetty’s abs.

But Deepika’s accent is very mysterious. I still don’t understand which part is it from? My initial hunch and Nikhil confirms that it is the Hindi spoken in Marathi cities, but not Nagpur Pune or Mumbai. But then she was brought up in Bangalore and her origins are from Mangalore. She doesn’t have the typical south Indian accent also. The other strange thing is, it is such a slight accent as it cannot be categorized, it cannot be corrected or somebody can point out the mistakes. It is very subtle. I googled it and thought that it will lead me to something, but I found no such article. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. One cannot even copy and make fun of the accent. I wish I could.

Whatever is the case, Deepika is surely the kind who is horse of long race “lambi race ka ghoda”. She is here to stay and not vanish like the zillions of newcomers. Whenever I think of her, a funny incident comes to my mind:

Me, and my 19 year old cousin, 14 year old and 7 year old nephews were playing 20 questions or what is also known as Tom Dick and Harry where you have to identify the name of a person asking only 20 yes no questions. We all knew about the limited knowledge of the 7 year old. After all, you really do not expect much from him. So his turn was after me and hence he used to think in the same lines as I do. My first character was J.K Rowling. My little friends made to it after almost 25-30 questions but that is fine. Next, is this nephew’s turn. Now we all know he knows only 1 litterateur. So the first question we ask him is “Rabindranath Tagore”? And he says yes . Next I choose a bit less complicated and I choose Madhuri Dixit. So when it’s his turn, we directly tell him, “ Is it Deepika Padukone?” He just knows only one actress :D

Another proof is my friend’s quote: All kingfisher air hostesses are like Deepika Padukone. It’s like she has become the epitome of beauty. These just prove Deepika’s growing fan following. A sex symbol can never be the most popular actor; they do not become popular amongst kids. True popularity comes if someone is acceptable to all generations. So, Deepika! way to go.