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The king's speech
While most of the celebrities, blessed with a large band of fans, forget that they have some responsibilities towards society too, it is heartening to find Shahrukh Khan guiding his followers (TSI, Sep 5-11). Usually, when renowned personalities are invited to book-release functions, it becomes evident that they have not turned even a few pages of the book in question. Contrary to this, when Shahrukh Khan released the book, “Thorns to competition” authored by Arindam and Rajita Chaudhuri, he discussed the merits of the book with simple explanations. He also recapitulated the salient points of the book to the audience by identifying with the struggles, agony and ecstasies talked about in the narrative. With his confident declaration,"I'm the best", Shahrukh Khan proved that he is optimism personified. It will indeed be a great step if other popular actors follow the example set by King Khan and motivate their followers to achieve success in all their endeavours.
Tharcius S Fernando
Chennai

Too adamant
The editorial "Deconstructing the DNA of the Indian protester" (TSI, Aug 29-Sep 4) by Arindam Chaudhuri was awesome. I fully share the tone and tenor of Arindam's timely and thought-provoking editorial and also whole-heartedly endorse the argument that it contained. Even if Team Anna's intentions are noble, they are being intransigent by pressing on only Jan Lokpal bill and not willing to accept anything less. Team Anna's ultimatum to the government: "Adopt the Jan Lokpal bill or go" sounds preposterous. However, the redeeming feature of Anna's agitation is that no government can now afford to ignore corruption the way they had done earlier. All parties who have been at the Centre since 1968 are equally responsible for not implementing an effective Lokpal Bill. This left Anna with no other option but take to the streets.
Sanjeev Sirohi
Meerut

Select wisely
This refers to "Docs, please pull up socks" by Prasoon S Majumdar (TSI, Sep 5-11) made for an interesting read. Although people still believe doctors are gods, there is only a small number of doctors who treat their patients compassionately. While on the one hand we have doctors like Binayak Sen who sacrifice their self-interest for the welfare of the tribals, most doctors take their profession only as a money-making activity. They do not have service-to-people mentality and they prefer to only make money. Also, the government should organise workshops and seminars in association with world-class doctors, teachers and researchers so that doctors can learn about new inventions. At the same time, there should be screening before admission and only those students should be selected for medical colleges who have genuine interest in the profession.
Uttam Kumar Bhowmik
Dhalhara, Tamluk