AIDS Sutra

Though TEHELKA does not appear to be able to handle subscriptions (I receive between three and zero magazines per week), they do write articles about remarkable topics, such as an anthology published through an initiative of Avahan (India AIDS foundation backed by Bill and Melinda Gates). This act of graciousness is called AIDS Sutra and contains sixteen essays to do with HIV/AIDS authored by reputed Indian writers.

Sadly, the book has not received much attention so far – much less anyway than the hugely popular Condom-Ringtone sponsored – again – by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Even so, I picked it up about a month ago and did not regret it. For the most part, AIDS Sutra is a horrifying collection of facts you’ll wish to un-know. Apart from AIDS in India I learnt about a society so intrinsically layered that you cannot even reach some of the tucked-away folds, not without getting your fingers dirty with the slime of disintegration, disfigurment and disrespect.

The other day I sat in my beloved women’s compartment and read one of the stories about an Andhra village which survives – if not entirely – at least to a large part on prostitution, with women charging Rs. 50 „per shot“, sneering at those women across the river who are not descendents of a long line of esteemed devadasis, thus going by a rate of Rs. 30. I looked up from these disturbing pages and surveyed the faces of my fellow passengers. And I wondered: Which one? As I passed by another station platform with an enormous crowd I wondered: Which one?
(Once you read the essay about the largely invisible sex workers in Mumbai, you are likely to ponder the same question. How is it that such amazingly large parts of society go entirely unnoticed? If I wanted to, I could live out my entire life in India without ever paying attention.)

I remember a woman from Bangalore. She used to work Brigade Road, clad in dull Western clothes with scary make-up and a worn expression on her face. Sometimes I observed her talking to what could only have been clients. If my untrained eye could spot her, she must have been very visible to the police as well, which makes me wonder whether Bangalore Police adopts similarly punishing methods as Mumbai Police, described unwaveringly by Sonia Faleiro in what I perceived to be the most gruelling story, partly because it picked up where Maximum City (Chapter One, „Power“) let off.

At times, reading AIDS Sutra made me feel like a voyeuristic pervert snorkeling the depravity of humanity, shopping miserable lives, feeding on unimaginable suffering. But it is rewarding still. Apart from my contribution to Avahan (proceeds of the book flow back into the pool) there is a sense of social awakening. Not so much in the sense that one has been a staunch believer in the flowers and the bees, suddenly realising that even a country like India is painted with a lot more shades of muddy brown than vibrant colours forever thrown into your face. But rather because these things are never talked about. You just don’t get to know this stuff. And one ought to.
I felt that most stories (with the notable exception of Kiran Desai’s slightly condescending tone) are written with empathy. They may shock, but they always, always sensitize.

I therefore hope that many more people may read AIDS Sutra, write about it in their blogs, write newspaper articles and reviews about it. If for nothing else, at least to put government programmes into perspective, like the 2004 programme whereby 100.000 HIV-positive persons are to receive free ART-treatment (antiretroviral therapy, a three-stage cocktail of medicines capable of prolonging an infected person’s life by 15 to 20 years). Reading AIDS Sutra, I wondered where this programme works? Where it reaches? Because it as pretty plain where it does not.

So. Go read.

___________________________
Another notable organisation is InfoChange India whose quarterly publication Agenda is a collection of essays, interviews and case studies highlighting one topic per issue. Amongst these is HIV/AIDS. The entire magazine is available online (free of charge) and can also be ordered/purchased from Headquarters Delhi.
HIV/AIDS: Big Questions