(Image source from: For Indians)

The ALS Ice Bucket challenge is right now the hottest thing in the social media. With celebs, sportsmen, politicians, techies, corporates and layman dumping buckets of ice cold water on their heads to get their two minutes of fame on YouTube or Vimeo, we wonder hoe much awareness has this charity dare managed to create about the neuro degenerative disease?

The Ice Bucket challenge that requires the dared person to dump a bucket of ice cold water on the head or donate $100 to the ALS foundation has gone viral on the web ever since it's inception.

And while the videos have garnered millions of hits, the big question is has it managed to create enough buzz about ALS disease as intended? From what appears now, the craze for videos seems to have entirely eclipsed the disease and the cause of raising funds.

As the videos are flooding the timelines and tweet feeds across social media, celebrities from India too have got into the act. That once again brings us to the big question: How many of them have seen the ALS ice bucket challenge or even know about the disease. Not too many, we fear, from all the general timeline chatter.

ALS or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that mainly impairs brain nerve cells and the spinal cord, leading to paralysis and death.

In the US, however, the campaign seems to be having a real impact, at least in terms of dollars.

The organization’s national office has received $8.5 million for Lou Gehrig’s disease research since July 29, compared to $32,000 in the same period last year. That is because most challengers have not only emptied buckets of water on their head, but also donated generously for the cause.

"These donations have come from existing donors and 637,527 new donors to The Association", says a statement on the ALS association website.

That brings us to the next question: If ice bucket challenge is originally intended for the United States, hen why Bollywood stars like Abhishek Bachchan and Bipasha Basu are dumping buckets of cold water on their heads? Are they genuinely concerned or just trying to cash in on the latest viral trend.

The challenge was apparently kicked off in India by tennis player Rohan Bopanna who nominated actor Rahul Bose. Post that, it spread across the celebrity athlete/actor network like wildfire.

That is why we now have Daler Mehdi emptying three buckets of ice wateron himself while humming bole tara-ra. Sadly, the ALS challenge in India is the new Harlem Shake, it's all about fun, less about a cause.

ALS is rare in the United States, and ever rarer in India, so much that we don't even have an estimate of the number of cases.

As one person pointed out on Facebook, "Maybe in India we should be dumping buckets of ice water on our heads for TB". The added upside: We'll all know exactly why we're doing it.

AW: Suchorita Choudhury