Till a few years ago, I was a regular consumer of Ayurvedic medicines manufactured and marketed by the empire of Baba Ramdev - Patanjali Ayurved.

Drawn to one of his shops after battling chronic lower-back pain for close to three decades, I found refuge in a communicative "vaidji" who sympathetically heard the litany of health complications.

"It will take time but theek ho jayega."

Greatly relieved, I did not let it bother me that these products were rather expensive. I reasoned that allopathic medicines and tests often cost a lot more. Hope, it is said, often denudes rationalism.