Fat Folly

The death of unusually overweight 'wonder baby', Lokman Hakim in Kolkata comes as a shock. More than a case for empathy and care, his was a case of over-enthusiastic publicity, and that too, for carrying an uncommon ailment. He was somehow being kept reduced to a showpiece. Really he would have been far better off had his treatment started much earlier. Now, of course, it is much easier said than done, considering the low standard of living of Lokman's family. One can only hope that people learn soon from this tragedy the lesson of not over-indulging in amusements surrounding peculiar diseases. From hindsight, such over-publicity appears to be inhuman.