Today’s newspaper headlines with Gul Panag and Baba Ramdev positioned side by side have given women a new set of wings. And it’s not another Red Bull moment. This observation is not at all about feminine plight, which in itself is a good start. It’s not about enterprising ladies storming the a-few-good-men bastion of commanding military jets and space shuttles. It’s definitely not about Amelia Earhart, and I love the fact that she went and got an education at Columbia and Harvard, flew across the Atlantic and disappeared over the Pacific even before Betty Crocker could realise her cake was rising.
No, both Gul and Ramdev ran for their lives and therein hangs a tale.
Gul seems swaddled in a certain elegance, and seemed more so striding alongside Rahul Bose and finishing the Bengaluru 10 km in good time. Women running long distances have always brought out the poet in me. The strides are lyrical, the freedom soaring, the muted conversation between the rubber and the tarmac has helped men pick up the pace across decades [ask Seb Coe]. The loneliness of a long distance runner never wore a prettier face. And the fact that Gul ran this one right after running the gauntlet of grubby, Delhi-ishtyle groping a few months back is worthy of a standing ovation. Here is a brave woman who has decided to be a better person everyday – and woe betide the male hand that attempts to trip her stride. May her ilk multiply and turn the tide against the assault of vast, hair-pelted bellies and mental flab - after all there’s nothing like a good run to get the mind-body equilibrium going. The exaltation is almost yogic!
This brings me squarely to the abdomen heaving, lung pumping persona of Baba Ramdev! Ignore the controversies over the ingredients of his remedies, and let’s forgive him his motivations. Baba sets a hirsute example on the national stage. To turn yoga and breathing into a stadium sport is an achievement that eluded the grasp of 64000 rishis before him. To turn that stadium into a political platform is in itself an achievement twice over – and all this after running the gauntlet of infirmity and paralysis makes for an awe inspiring tale. Making virulent demands on executing the corrupt and burying corruption are tinged with a real sense of unreality. He’s really not for real, is he? But his leap off the platform at Ramlila Maidan into a crowd of women and his emergence in a salwar kurta ensemble supported by two women has an almost Gandhian tinge. It’s an escape thriller of gender bending proportions. And there is a philosophic lesson hidden in the formless flounce and folds of the feminine raiment – if men have to escape their bitter, caged destiny they need to get in touch with their feminine side.
So, women may run with wolves, some of them at least, but we have a lesson to take off the newspaper today – bravery, courage, transformation, hope and change may seem challenges that span generations of struggle and conflict but Gul, Maya, Sonia, Mamta underline a lesson for us. We must run with women and what’s more, if possible run like them.
No, both Gul and Ramdev ran for their lives and therein hangs a tale.
Gul seems swaddled in a certain elegance, and seemed more so striding alongside Rahul Bose and finishing the Bengaluru 10 km in good time. Women running long distances have always brought out the poet in me. The strides are lyrical, the freedom soaring, the muted conversation between the rubber and the tarmac has helped men pick up the pace across decades [ask Seb Coe]. The loneliness of a long distance runner never wore a prettier face. And the fact that Gul ran this one right after running the gauntlet of grubby, Delhi-ishtyle groping a few months back is worthy of a standing ovation. Here is a brave woman who has decided to be a better person everyday – and woe betide the male hand that attempts to trip her stride. May her ilk multiply and turn the tide against the assault of vast, hair-pelted bellies and mental flab - after all there’s nothing like a good run to get the mind-body equilibrium going. The exaltation is almost yogic!
This brings me squarely to the abdomen heaving, lung pumping persona of Baba Ramdev! Ignore the controversies over the ingredients of his remedies, and let’s forgive him his motivations. Baba sets a hirsute example on the national stage. To turn yoga and breathing into a stadium sport is an achievement that eluded the grasp of 64000 rishis before him. To turn that stadium into a political platform is in itself an achievement twice over – and all this after running the gauntlet of infirmity and paralysis makes for an awe inspiring tale. Making virulent demands on executing the corrupt and burying corruption are tinged with a real sense of unreality. He’s really not for real, is he? But his leap off the platform at Ramlila Maidan into a crowd of women and his emergence in a salwar kurta ensemble supported by two women has an almost Gandhian tinge. It’s an escape thriller of gender bending proportions. And there is a philosophic lesson hidden in the formless flounce and folds of the feminine raiment – if men have to escape their bitter, caged destiny they need to get in touch with their feminine side.
So, women may run with wolves, some of them at least, but we have a lesson to take off the newspaper today – bravery, courage, transformation, hope and change may seem challenges that span generations of struggle and conflict but Gul, Maya, Sonia, Mamta underline a lesson for us. We must run with women and what’s more, if possible run like them.
LOL... Superlike
ReplyDeleteYour parallels know no bounds ;) A bouquet for you on its way...
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