Cause celebre. AIDS Sutra: Hidden Story of AIDS in India

[Guest guest]

Cause celebre

Divya Unny, Saturday, February 09, 2008 23:59 IST

A host of Indian literary stalwarts have joined forces for a book on

AIDS funded by Bill Gates' foundation

MUMBAI: After the four short films made by directors Mira Nair,

Vishal Bharadwaj, Santosh Sivan and Farhan Akhtar as part of an AIDS

awareness campaign, now it's the turn of the litterateurs to do their

bit.

A total of 13 authors have come together to weave a book containing

experiential pieces about specific AIDS affected groups in the

country. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and

supported by Random House Publishing, the book titled AIDS Sutra:

Hidden Story of AIDS in India, is touted as one of the most gripping

anthologies of the year.

Included in the list are literary hotshots Salman Rushdie, Kiran

Desai, Vikram Seth, Dalrymple with a foreword by Amartya Sen.

Says Dalrymple, who is currently in India, " My piece is about the

Devdasis in Belgaum, Karnataka, and the trying lives they lead as

soon as they reach puberty. Once they are dedicated to the Goddess as

an `offering', they have no choice but to work as prostitutes. And

due to lack of education, a lot of them end up becoming AIDS victims.

I never imagined Karnataka to be amongst the AIDS centres of India,

but a huge population of Devdasis has succumbed to the disease here.

But now, awareness is increasing. "

Similarly, every author has picked a group whose story they place in

front of the reader. While Kiran Desai travels to the coast of Andhra

where the sex workers are considered the most desirable, Sunil

Ganguly profiles the vigilantes of Sonagachi. And as Salman Rushdie

spins his around the lives of a group of trans-genders, CS Lakshmi

talks to housewives who have been afflicted with AIDS because of

their errant husbands.

Others like Faleiro and Siddharth Dhanwant Shanghvi look at the

destructive nexus between the police and sex workers and write about

the last days of a young Bombay homosexual respectfully. Lastly

Vikram Seth interestingly targets the lives of drug-users in the

north-east.

The proceeds of the book (produced in collaboration with AIDS

awareness NGO Avahan), which hits the stands in August , will be

dedicated to a fund for AIDS victims.

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