There’s a problem with our TV dish antennae in the building. It moves from its original place on the terrace, at least once every month. My mom suspects sabotage; I think it’s just the wind. But because of this, I can’t watch TV until I make a call to the company’s call centre in Indore (We are in Mumbai).

 Either way, I haven’t had much luck with TV-watching over the last few years. Sometime back, when Mumbai switched from cable to set-top-box and made it mandatory, I took my own sweet time to switch, going without television for a year. But whenever I have had the opportunity, I have most definitely not watched the channels where Baba Ramdev’s yoga sessions or lectures or whatever they are, are aired. In fact, if I come across them while channel-surfing, my instant reaction is that of a great unbearable annoyance.

 Unfortunately, over the next few months, I will know everything there is to know about Baba Ramdev. From his birth place to his ideas about how AIDS or homosexuality could be ‘cured’ through specific yogic asanas. I don’t want to know a thing about this man, but I will discover a lot over the next few weeks as the fast gets 24/7 media coverage.

I am guilty of being a little shallow, but I am not one to go for that disheveled look. (I begged and pleaded with the editor of this site not to put his picture with this rant!)

 I can’t stand that someone who owns a Scottish Island and a business worth many, many crores will be given all that free publicity, at the expense of our time, patience and nerves!

I don’t like that he supports a certain party but pretends to be neutral. (An RTI application revealed that he donated Rs 11 lakhs ahead of the 2009 elections to the BJP.) And pretends to really care about corruption or inflation or anything that’s bringing this country down.

I do not understand who on earth from civil society allowed Ramdev to sit next to Anna Hazare during his fast, needlessly ‘saffronizing’ the whole movement. He just used all that publicity to jump-start his own campaign.

This man has made a fool out of civil society, which includes you and me by the way, not just Anna, the Bhushans and Hegde. Although, these days, it might seem like they are the only three members of it.

Over the next few weeks, I will be a rather unwitting participant in the getting-to-know-Baba media circus – that is, if our dish antennae is not moved again. 

P.S: As this post went live, news began to trickle in that Baba Ramdev’s fast had been disrupted. Supporters of Ramdev, including women and children, were blindsided in the dead of the night by the Delhi Police Force. It is being reported that many supporters have been admitted to a hospital nearby. I have fearlessly expressed my skepticism about Baba Ramdev’s intentions on a public forum, because I assume I am living in a democratic country. But tear gas and violence against peaceful protesters represent tyranny.  

Aarthi Gunnupuri was a disgruntled advertising copywriter and a glorified TV promo writer. She’s also a Mumbai-based freelancer and loves writing on culture and travel, as well as gender and development. Amongst other works, she has written a column on South Asian politics for UK-based The View magazine, and wrote a story in a series for Femina magazine, which won the UN Laadli Awards for Gender Sensitivity.
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