Too short, or too heavy?

I am too short. I had always known this. In school my class-mates soon out-grew me. My clothes lasted longer than my friends and it took me sometime to reconcile myself with my short-height.

However, reconcile I did. And have been at peace with myself for quite sometime. Yet over the past few years it has come back to haunt me.

There is this chart that gives you body-mass-index (BMI). And for the past few years when ever I have looked at it, it shouted back at me “You are too bloody short”.

I looked at it again on Friday last and I realised that I have become shorter still. Now how did that happen? Earlier I was short by a few inches, but now I am short by almost a foot. The chart declares that for a man my weight I should be some 6ft+ tall. Till a couple of years back it told me that I should be 5’10’’ and now it has raised the bar.

I am 5ft 6 inches and have been so for sometime, then how did I become shorter? And then it dawned on me, I do not have a height problem, I have a weight problem.

Its pretty weird when you think about it. I have always been skinny. In school and in college I have spent many a happy moment shouting back fatso to those who would call me shorty (and even to those who would not). So fat was never in my radar, and suddenly I now realise, with 86 kgs stuffed within 5ft 6inches, I have a weight problem and not a height one.

Well, you know how it is, big discoveries take time. Just think how long stupid man-kind sorry, person-kind took to discover gravity, Earth’s rotation or sliced bread… (oh the last was an invention really, not a discovery). So, I rationalised, this late realisation isn't all bad.

Having arrived at the startling conclusion of being overweight I did what any man worth his salt and pepper would do. I took a big bag of chips and sat down to chalk out a plan, a plan to solve my problem.

I shall join a gym. Well that was easy, that did not take long. So yesterday afternoon was my first day at a gym. I have made a start.

Needless to say my first day in the gym was eventful.

As it inevitably happens in such cases, when I walked into the gym, there were a couple of Salman Khans, and a Hrithik sweating it away. If only there was another mishapen seasoned tuber like me!....none. Most depressing, I felt as a plain idly would feel next to a to a caviar, totally out of its league.

Trying to find something that will not make me look like a complete fool (high-hopes) I sought out the treadmill.

Sure enough I had my Mr Bean moment. You know, the treadmill is really a very unkind gadget for beginners. It either moves too slowly (so my steps would actually take me walk into the handle bar) or too fast (so I am holding on to the handle-bar even as I see my legs get dragged by the conveyor belt).

Salman and Hrithik, I could feel their stares bruning into my back and their silent squeals of laughter were deafening.

Well, I must push off now, gym time - my 3rd day, more coming.

Women Presidents - Now running and coming shortly.

The week before last was eventful. Now that the dust has settled let’s step back and examine exactly what went on. Well, three women Presidents of India made the news.

Ok, so I made it up, but I am not that off really. I am thinking ahead. Only one of the women became the President of India, but the other two, mark my words, are solid President material and will be in the chair in a few years.

Pratibha Patil:
A great choice for a President. A Congress loyalist, enough skeletons in the cup-board (well not so much in the cup-board anymore) to keep her from doing anything rash like dismissing a Congress run State Govt and a veritable no-body. She is corrupt, unimpressive and obedient. I really cannot think of a better choice for President of India (if I put myself in Sonia Gandhi’s shoes).

What was really heart-warming was to see how it was tom-tommed as a watershed event in empowerment of women in this country. The significance is not lost when you consider the giant strides we have already made in this journey by having had a woman Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi), a woman puppet master or is it mistress (Sonia) and of course so many women minsters (Sheila D, Sushma S, Rabri D, Renuka C etc). And that way in women’s right Pakistan also ranks high as it had Benazir. The most progressive by the same yardstick o fcourse is Bangladesh who have had 2 women PMs and they also incidentally lead the two main opposition parties today. How very unfair it is that the US, which in its indepent history of 200+ years have never had a woman President is so far ahead in Women rights compared to all the countries named so far.At times the hypocrisy is really deafening.

Let me spell it out, a woman President means nothing in the journey towards woman empowerment.

Kiran Bedi:
Well, she could not be more different from Pratibha P. Independent, brilliant

track record, a much admired and in some cases feared personality. Listening to her is a pleasure. She is of course presently going through a rough time (see link), but then she has seen worse. I am sure with the example of ex-President Kalam who for the first time in recent memory (approx last 20years) seemed a lot more than merely a rubber stamp, it is not so much a question of whether Kiran B wil be India’s president, rather when.

Monica Bedi:
Hey don’t snigger I am serious here. Just look at her… she is beautiful, is a failed Bollywood actress, has seen the highs and lows of life and is after-all just another girl who tried to make it big. I think it takes tremendous courage to still have a go at Bollywood after all she has done and has seen been done to her.

Think about it, small town girl, tries to make it big in bad Bollywood, gets some underworld support, is swept off her feet by a Don, as a true Bhartiya Naari helps her husband (or partner) in his enterprise and even goes to jail for that in a foreign country. However, she then regrets, returns to home country, does some more prison term and then when set free, clearly states her goal of taking another shot at Bollywood. And I really appreciate her guts and singleness of purpose, no tongue in cheek. Somehow we are too eager to find faults in the Rakhi Sawants, M Sherawat and Monica Bedi’s of the world. But think about it, in her short life, Monica has seen a lot more and shown more mettle than Pratibha Patil will show in her term as President of India.

I’ll be glad if I am proved wrong.