This week two people from two different fields have got/getting an honorary doctorate and thereby hangs a tale.
Sania Mirza, was conferred the honorary doctorate degree, by the MGR University, Chennai.
It is well known that Universities in TN vie with each other to confer doctorate degrees to the powers that be! The latest trend is to confer doctorate degrees on film stars, sportsmen/women and many others.
The story goes that a founding VC of a private TN university stated a few years ago that his aim was to award 100 honorary doctorates, including one to himself!

"When I started to play tennis, I wanted to be a doctor. I had to choose between tennis and being a doctor and I chose tennis. Now, thanks to MGR University, both my dreams have come true," – said Sania. MGR University is known for these doctorates (they were the ones who gave doctorate to actor Vijay).
The wag asks, ‘does she not even know that a medical doctor is totally different from the honorary doctorate these universities give to celebrities?’
Sania Mirza gets a doctorate. Too Bad, Dr. Sania will still need a real doctor to cure her WTA rankings, says one of her fans.

The other Doctor this week is Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. He didn’t slog for five years or more and work his butt off to get a doctorate.
In the six months he has been in power, he has done so much for Karnataka, that his ‘contribution to public life’ had to be recognized immediately!
In fact, the chief minister has already left for the USA on Thursday to receive the honorary doctorate being conferred on him by the Saginaw Valley State University of Michigan (Saginaw, who??).
Needless to say, the move to honour Yeddyurappa, that too by a foreign university, has raised many eyebrows in political and academic circles here.
It is reported that the man responsible for this is Mahendra Kanthi, a former faculty member in the Department of Economics at Saginaw University.
Mahendra supposedly introduced Yeddyurappa and his work to the university and impressed upon the governing council to confer the doctorate on him.

Kanthi runs a residential school named after Kittur Rani Chennamma near Belgaum!

Its all mutual or rather win win!
Let’s hope our ‘eminent doctors’ are more knowledgeable than George W:
George W. Bush visits Algeria. As part of his program, he delivers a speech to the Algerian people: "You know, I regret that I have to give this speech in English. I would very much prefer to talk to you in your own language. But unfortunately, I was never good at algebra.

L.Ravichandran
ravi@chennaionline.com