Baba Ramdev is the public face of the two-man team that runs a vast multi-crore yoga and ayurveda empire. The lesser known partner is Ramdev's friend from their gurukul days, Acharya Balkrishna, who rarely steps out from their base in Haridwar.
The man who now flies around in a private jet once used to ride a bicycle to his yoga camps and to sell the ayurvedic medicines Balkrishna concocted. That was in 1993. In less than two decades, Ramdev has soared to celebrity status as a television star with eccentric ideas and out-sized ambitions. His programmmes, aired on Aastha channel, are watched by lakhs of believers who eagerly await his daily dose of yoga and quirky morality.
He was not always Ramdev. The 58-year-old yoga teacher was born Ramkishan Yadav in a small Haryana town named Alipur. As a child, he suffered from paralysis. He claims it was only yoga that cured him, making him a die-hard devotee of this ancient science of breathing and exercise.
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