Padma shri- Civilian Award

Padma Shri award stands 4th in the hierarchy of civilian awards after the Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan. It is awarded by the Indian government every year in recognition of a person's distinguished service to the nation in their respective field. This year's list of awardees took me by surprise (and probably made me hopeful that even I could win it one day ?).Well just kidding....

One of the awardees of 2004 is Shahrukh Khan, a Hindi movie actor. Distinguished service in his field - cinema? I still cannot digest the fact that Shahrukh has been conferred with Padma Shri..sounds more like you and I can get nominated. Is success of commercial cinema been confused with distinguished service to the nation? Atleast his earlier movies more spontaneous than the current stereotype ones. Well, it is a disgrace to all the revered people who have been honored with this award in the earlier years :(