Doctorate or Duh'torate

I have been a little busy the last few days (the beginning of a new week usually does that) but even i could not help but share this weird bit of 'news' all of you.

Leeds University (UK) it seems is in a big hurry to dish out doctorates. Just 2 months back they had conferred honorary degrees to 3 bollywood personalities. The 'quantity' of simultaneous doctorates then were barely balanced by the 'quality' of the recipients:

Amitabh Bachchan, Shabana Azmi & Yash Chopra.

All 3 of them not only richly deserve the degrees but are at the pinnacle of their individual professions.

Then Leeds University decided to go one better.

They decided to dish out another degree and a Doctorate no less.

As their press statement said, "On the occasion of India celebrating 60 years of its independence, Leeds wishes to commemorate India’s struggle for freedom by honouring prominent Indian personalities who have contributed to the emergence of India as a fast developing nation"

And who was this person who has contributed to India's development??

Why Shilpa Shetty ofcourse.

In her acceptance speech, the newly minted Dr. Shetty said; "I am sincerely grateful and humbled by the honour that such a prolific academic institution has so kind heartedly presented to me and I'm proud to join the Leeds alumni as a honourary graduate from this university and that too as a doctor. No filmmaker has been so bold as to give me the role of a doctor in any of my films but you managed to do what even the magic of cinema hasn't!”

Indeed! Even foolhardy directors have never cast Shilpa as a doctor in their films for fear of ridicule but Leeds Univ has done it.

Wow. The mind boggles at the sheer stupidity of it.

P.S. Wonder how important Dr.'s Bachchan, Azmi & Chopra are feeling now?