Why I found nothing sexist about Baba Ramdev's male child medicine

First up: I cannot call myself a Baba Ramdev fan but, while I am not sold on Ayurveda, the brand of medicine he promotes, nor do I have any ideological hatred for it. In fact, I also confess that on some occasions, like when allopathy and physiotherapy failed to provide relief for a slipped discs' related chronic pain, I have turned to Ayurveda though I cannot say if finally it was the allopathy or the Ayurveda that worked.

As far as Baba Ramdev goes, I admit he has been an object of my potshots: and I do not believe they were misplaced, I would take those potshots again when it comes to his putting a ring of women supporters around himself to protect himself from Delhi Police, as he did at Ramlila Maidan. No decent leader of the baba or unbaba kind would or should do that, putting his followers, that too female, at the risk of harm to save his own babafied skin.

I have issues also with some things he has publicly said: that homosexuality can be "cured" and his tirade against Rahul Gandhi because he has "foreign" girlfriends. I'm no fan of RaGa either, but my potshots at him are aimed at things other than his alleged choice of girlfriends. The comment by Baba Ramdev was meant to be against Rahul Gandhi, but was also against foreigners. Women are women, Indian women are not "better" than any other women, it is the sort of misplaced patriotism tinged with misogyny that I regularly outrage against.

Therefore when there was news in January this year that Baba Ramdev used medicine to ensure the birth of male children, my alarm bells went off, like I'm sure did many others, not least because of his past remarks which were coloured with sexism.

The medicine Putrajeevak, it was reported by sections of media, as the name suggests, and sold at Baba Ramdev's shops, was to enable the birth of a male child. Naturally, in a country where sex ratio is dismally low and discrimination against girls from womb onwards rampant, it would be appalling if a pro-boy mindset was being endorsed by a baba who had the support of the ruling BJP government and, with his huge followers, influenced so many people.

I decided to check this out for myself. Gurgaon has two Baba Ramdev clinics/shops, and I decided to go the the one in Sector 29.

Of course if I went and asked the doctor at the shop if it was true they sold medicines to enable the birth of a boy, I may not have got an honest answer. So I pretended to be a patient and told the doctor in the basement, who I was directed to for consultation (free), that as an olderish (correct info) newly married woman (wrong info, still very much single, thank you), I was eager to conceive ASAP, and that to make things sooner the better, I wanted medicine to enable this.

The doctor nodded.

Then I added: given my age and the bleak chances of a second child, I wanted to ensure that my first and only child is a boy.

The doctor smiled at me, as if he had heard this before.

Then he gave me a short lecture on basic biology, saying the gender of the child was determined by the X and Y chromosomes, ya da ya da ya, and I felt quite embarrassed hearing all this, perhaps because I know the doctor must be thinking I was an idiot.

Cringing inside, I still waited for him to finish and told him I would nevertheless like a medicine to enable conception, never mind my "preference."

The doctor seemed mildly relieved there was no further explanations to be given (or perhaps I imagined it) and proceeded to professionally write out a prescription.

The prescription was for Putrajeevak Beej, the same medicine that was the subject of controversy. However, in the column requiring the listing of ailment, consistent with the conversation he had with me, the doctor wrote out "primary infertility." The prescription was for enabling conception and not enabling a boy child which the doctor had told me was not in the hands of his medicine.

There were some comments on websites and social media by supporters that the medicine "Putrajeevak" was only a botanical name of the plant from which it was made, and the issue died down and I forgot about it.

As Parliament again breaks out in noise over "the male child" medicine, I thought, in the interest of fairness, I should share my experiments with Baba Ramdev's "male child medicine".

I have not turned into a Ramdev fan since - though I must say I was impressed he turned down coveted awards/positions by government, not once but twice. And I still feel Saina Nehwal would be a better ambassador for Haryana, sending out a signal of women's empowerment in a state where sex ratio is dismal, than Ramdev, though I still admire his decision to adopt 500 children orphaned in the Nepal earthquake.

It is not my contention that Ramdev may not be in fact sexist, or that his medical practices are not sexist. I do not claim to be an expert of either Ayurveda or Baba Ramdev's cures. But as far as this particular medicine is concerned, and my own experience at this particular Ramdev shop, my made up "male child" preferences were not only not indulged, but I was subjected to a scientific lecture on chromosomes and how babies are made.

Whatever Ramdev's other faults or the benefits (or none) of Ayurveda medicine itself - known or unknown - in my experience, Putrajeevak Beej was not guilty of promoting gender selection.

Note: reacting to the uproar in Parliament, Patanjali Yogpeeth has given a comment that Putrajivak Beej is for "helping childless couples conceive through 'Putrajeevak' medicine" and that while the "name of the medicine in hindi is 'Putrajeevak' only, it's botanical name is 'Putranjiva roxburghii'".