Ulta-pulta latkana, don't try it at home

'Ulta latka kar sidha karna' - to hang someone upside down till that person gets straightened out - may sound a bit excessive as a correctional procedure for some sensitive, lib folks. But it may not be what the description may conjure up in some over-imaginative heads, especially if uttered by just an agitated gentleman channelling his inner Nehru - who, incidentally, had warned that profiteers in Independent India would be hanged (from the head, not feet) from the nearest lamppost. (They weren't.)

It is, for instance, not about the grisly torture method 'tsurushi' (literally, hanging) used in 17th-century Japan to force Christians to recant their faith where victims were hung head-down by their feet, and then lowered into a hole filled with excrement. 'Ulta latkana' may sound like what Chinese authorities have been rumoured to conduct on dissidents - hanging them from bars of a prison door, making the blood build up to the back and head, which can result in loss of consciousness, or even death. But it is not. Since we are not bats, being made to hang ulta can't be therapeutic - unless kept hanging for a brief while. Then, inversion therapy may help relieve back pain - but evidence for this is lacking. Hanging upside down for more than a few minutes can raise BP and lower heartbeat. So, don't try this at home, or in the home ministry.