'I'm tired': Doctor's hard-hitting letter to TN govt, actor Vijay goes viral

Chennai, Jan 06: An open letter to the Tamil Nadu govt and actors Vijay, Simbu from a resident doctor at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry saying "I'm tired" after the state govt gave a go-ahead for movie theatres to run with 100 per cent capacity in the state has gone viral.

With some high profile releases just around the corner for the Pongal festival, the Tamil Nadu government had taken the decision.

The state government's decision came a day after actors Vijay and Simbu - who have big releases, Master and Eeswaran respectively, lined up for January - met Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, along with theatre owners. Many in the Tamil film industry have welcomed the decision.

Vijay's movie "Master" is set for release during Pongal.

The government had said that the decision was taken as the number of Covid-19 infections was coming down in the state.

There are many others including health experts and a few celebrities, who have raised concerns and have criticised the move.

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, too, expressed concern and said, "I saw the order issued by the Revenue Department and we will take up the matter with them. We will look into the Indian government guidelines, standard operating procedure (SOPs) and challenges and bring it to their notice."

Here is the full version of the letter"

Dear Actor Vijay sir, Silambarasan sir and the respected government of TamilNadu,

I am tired. We are all tired. Thousands of doctors like me are tired. Health care workers are tired. Police officials are tired. Sanitary workers are tired.

We have worked so hard at the ground level to make sure the damage done is kept to as low as possible amidst an unprecedented pandemic. I am not glorifying our work for I know there is nothing so great about it to the onlooker's eyes. We don't have cameras in front of us. We don't do stunt sequences. We aren't heroes. But we deserve some time to breath. We don't want to fall prey to someone's selfishness and greed.

The pandemic isn't over and we have people dying till today to the disease. A hundred percent theatre occupancy is a suicide attempt. Rather than homicide, for none of the policy makers or the so called heroes are going to put themselves under the pump, to watch the movie amidst the crowd. This is a blatant barter system, trading lives for money.

Can we please slowly try and concentrate on our lives and make sure we tide through this pandemic peacefully and not reignite the slowly burning out flame, that is still not completely put out?

I wanted to make this post scientific and explain why we are still in danger. But that's when I asked myself, "what's the point?"

Yours tiredly
A poor, tired resident doctor