A reality show slipped a 16-year-old teenage girl in to a tragic situation after rebuked by the judges. Trauma from public humiliation is said to have damaged her central nervous system and ended with paralysis. Shinjini Sengupta (16) a student of Class XI of a south Kolkata school has now all her dreams crushed on the bed of Bangalore inert hospital.
The girl was a participant of a reality show on a Bengali television channel. On May 19, the talented girl was allegedly rebuked by the judges. It is alleged that the judges wondered out aloud what she was doing in a dance contest, which carried prize money of rupees five lakhs. The public humiliation had a traumatic effect on the girl but she did not burst into tears. This bottled emotion took her into depression and finally left her paralyzed.
After she was admitted to a city nursing home and later to a hospital, the doctors were unable to diagnose the problem. She was then subjected to a MRI and a CT scan but the same yielded no clues.
“The doctors here have not been able to diagnose her problem. She can’t speak or express herself. An MRI and a CT scan have been done, but we still don’t know what she is suffering from,” said Sibani Sengupta, Shinjini’s mother.
Till three days ago, she was able to write down on note paper if she needed something. But now her mother told her school teachers, “Now she cannot even do that.”
Her mother told that after the failure in the reality show, she was upset and almost stopped eating. She slept for most part of the day and listened to music when awake. “Being our only child we never stopped her from doing what she wanted to do. Education was our first priority. If she could manage to learn dance without hampering her studies we were okay with it. Now, I don’t know what we will do. All parents should learn a lesson from us,” said D K Sengupta, Shinjini’s father.
Some days later, Shinjini was at Fun City shooting for a tele-serial. That was the first time her parents realized she was facing a medical problem. “She couldn’t say her dialogues. The director was a bit surprised since she hadn’t behaved like this ever before. We thought she was deliberately doing this. Then we realized that there was a problem,” Sibani said.
Now she was flown to Bangalore, on Friday evening. Psychiatrists invited to news channels said her case was extreme in nature but is definitely not rare. Doctors are now saying it is called the GB syndrome.
Shinjini is a good student with letter marks in her Madhyamik (Class X) examinations. She featured in television serials and also in a film in Bengali going to be released in August. Unable to walk and talk, she is now staring with a glazed look in her eyes.
Serious questions are arising after the incident as whether the wanton use of children and teenagers in reality shows all in the name of talent hunt for that elusive element called fame is really worth it?? What you say?
Tags: Emotion, Paralysis, Reality Show, Shinjini, Tension
