Girl in hospital after TV reality show

The hospitalisation of a teenage girl, who had fallen ill after participating in a dance show on television, has sparked a fierce debate about reality shows and their impact on a young impressionable mind.

The 16-year-old Shinjini Sengupta is now at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, (NIMHANS) Bangalore, where she was shifted from a city private hospital after she seemingly lost her ability to speak or move her limbs freely.

According to family sources, she developed these symptoms once she got eliminated after dancing her way to the hearts of the three judges in two earlier rounds. The comments made by the judges, which included celebrities, were being linked as possible triggers along with rising parental aspirations, which were always pushing the single-child to become achievers in every field.

While doctors attending on her here made an early diagnosis of an infection in her nervous system, she was shifted to NIMHANS for more detailed tests . The doe-eyed high-school girl participated in two rounds of the dance show on a TV channel and started showing first signs of depression in a tele-serial where she had won an audition.