What kind of charity ? . Review on Mumbai Marathon 2005

Standard Chartered Marathon? Mumbai on the Run! How amazed we were to run for a noble cause! In a run that not only take the entire Mumbai into its grip but also for the noble cause that this reputed institution and its organizers are promoting.

Right from the help to? Seeing is Believing? to the Tsunami Relief operations, we are all aiming charity along with more than fifty thousand mumbaikar?s, hundreds of celebrities and equal no of participants participating here . However, we felt disillusioned with the way in which this entire entry process and so called? rejection or selection? of the participants is handled.

We agree to the limitations of the organizers, police that impose a constraint on the maximum number of the participants for the event. However, somebody who is willing to run, ready to contribute Rs. 100 to charity( in case of rejection) should not even expect an acknowledgement towards the money he has paid for? We have given no intimation whether we are able to run in the marathon or not till the date.

Anxious we are, when we called the concerned helpline we are told that our applications are rejected. Irrespective of specifying the e-mail id on the form for the event, can the organizers not even send an e-mail to the entrants? Also, when the requisite number of entries were received from the entrants, why the announcements were made that the entries are still open and more and more people should contribute to this so called noble cause.

May I request any clarification on this? What is happening to the money of thousands of people who are contributing to this event? Why should one support such events, without any accountability and playing with the public emotions to a large extent