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Saturday, March 15, 2014

Unequal Celebrity Power! Moving Mandya to Singapore.....


Its always a fact that celebrities, especially those from filmdom and cricket, get their share of disproportionate attention all the time. And this is not from their fans that I am talking about, but this is from government agencies that bend backwards to accommodate, many a times what are undue expectations. Remember the tax waiver for Sachin Tendulkar's Ferrari for which he did not even pay for, and easy paroles for Sanjay Dutt to name a few in recent times.
One such event that is currently in the news involves actor turned politician Ambarish in Bangalore. The man with a massive fan following was admitted to the hospital in Bangalore in a critical condition. Many days of treatment showed only marginal improvement. With fan and family anxiety running high over his deteriorating health condition, the government of Karnataka took a decision to shift him to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore for further treatment and better facilities. He is now recuperating and recovering well and we are happy and glad that he is. 
On the other hand, there are celebrities of a different kind. Social activists who do a whale of good to society without expecting any kind of public attention. These people are driven purely by passion and act with a mission of larger good to society. More importantly, such individuals spend their own resources and go about their benevolent activity without any financial gains or incentives. One such person is Salumarada Thimakka, an environmentalist from Karnataka known for planting  and tending to 285 banyan trees on a highway near Bangalore. Contributions such as her's has an extremely high inspiration value and her contribution, given her financial background of coming from a daily wage labourers' family, can put any one of us to shame. But Thimakka is also ill now and was seeking government support for her medical expenses. Given this situation, the best the government could do was admit her in Victoria Hospital. With the sad state of affairs that our government hospitals are in right now, you can imagine the quality of care that she is a recipient of for her illness. 
Between Ambarish and Thimakka, I am not going to squabble on whose contribution is higher or more prominent and impactful, but putting forward argument why our elected representatives and the associated bureaucrats discriminate between two notable achievers. I believe that both of them need the respect and warrant the same level of attention due to their notable contributions. It is not fair on the part of the government to blatantly discriminate based either on their political affiliations, their financial standing or their familial backgrounds. 
It saddens me that while tax payers money is being spent to treat both of them, while one relaxes in a ultra luxury suite in swanky Singapore, the other one is forced to spend one more night in vicious Victoria Hospital amidst a pathetic system put together by the very same people who are getting treated elsewhere.

I hope this public and government apathy stops and equality will prevail amongst all citizens of this country.

At an election campaign....
Politician: I am going to transform this badly maintained city into Singapore....then all of you can enjoy super dooper facilities
Suresha: Hey Ramesh, how will he do it man? is it even possible?
Ramesh: C'mon man Suresh, of course its possible and very easy dude!
Suresha: What its easy? How?
Ramesh: He will just change the name of this town from Mandya to Singapore!!!!!!!