Subhash K Jha
When Dino arrived in Mumbai from Surinam, little did he know what lay in store for him.
"I was asked to produce a certificate showing I was innoculated against yellow fever. I was completely befuddled. No one had asked me to produce such a certificate before, nor was I aware of such a disease. Anyway ignorance caused me the pain that I had to go through for the next four days," he says speaking from Fiji where he rushed for a show after his quarantine period.
Dino had to be quarantined for the four days.
"It was a small dingy hospital near the Mumbai airport. I don't want to say anything beyond the fact that I was in danger acquiring every colour of fever from yellow to purple in that place. I was told that's where I everyone from celebrities to commoners were quarantined. But I wonder if celebrities have to pay a special price for who they are. Fortunately I was allowed to get my own ghar ka khana and I was allowed visitors. I spent the four days in quaratine listening to scripts and cataching up with friends."
Dino then immediately rushed to Fiji for a concert with Priyanka Chopra and Abhijeet Sawant.
"Fortunately the two shows out here have brought the house down. And I'm feeling somewhat better. But it will take me a long time to get over what I've gone through. The strangest thing was the authorities from Surinam sent a clearance letter saying there was no reported case of yellow fever in the country for a large number of years."
Considering the acute mental torture that Dino has gone through his close friends have advised him to sue the authorities.
"Sue WHO?" Dino puns wickedly drawing attention to the World Health Organization. "Yes I've been told to take legal action. But at the end of the day I feel they were doing their job."
Wednesday, September 20, 2006 14:43 IST