"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,” began the open letter from a “tired resident doctor” in Puducherry. Aravinth Srinivas, who is a resident doctor at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry, addressed the open letter to the Tamil Nadu government and actors Vijay and Simbu after the state decided to allow all theatres in the state to run at 100% capacity.
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. But, there are many others, too, including health experts and a few celebrities, who have raised concerns and have criticised the move.
Public health expert Dr Prabhdeep Kaur, who works with the National Institute of Epidemiology under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), tweeted, “Closed spaces without social distancing are perfect settings for the explosive spread of COVID-19. Request the public to avoid such settings.”
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."
WATCH: What Health Secretary J Radhakrishan said
Actor Arvind Swami is among the few celebrities who criticised the government decision. “There are times when 50% is way better than a 100%. This is one of them,” the actor tweeted.
There are times when 50% is way better than a 100%. This is one of them.
— arvind swami (@thearvindswami) January 4, 2021
One reaction that has, however, gone viral is Aravinth Srinivas’s open letter that he posted on Facebook. Aravinth, who hails from Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, wrote that this decision is ‘a blatant barter system, trading lives for money’. Pointing out that he is tired, just like many other healthcare workers, he urged the state to not add to their burden.
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