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"Let's Face the Challenge"
Sathya Saran |
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| What, I wonder, will it take us to realise that
we are sitting pretty on a keg full of gunpowder? A keg, that
is connected by a long fuse that is already ignited. A slow
burning fuse, that burns quiet and unnoticed except to the sharpest
eyes, but when it does burn, explodes with such ferocity that
all the alarms and the safety systems in the country is unable
to douse the conflagration. |
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| Of course, I am talking of HIV/AIDS. The problem that no one
can see, but which lives in our midst and grows more portentous
every day, every week and every month. A solution to the population
problem, another no discussion zone. |
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| Spiritual holier than those add that this is the coming of
Kalyug's ending, that finally man will be wiped out by the flood
of this new epidemic that kills from within, that turns the
body upon itself with an ease that anything in human history
could not muster. And even as the West watches with a mixture
of concern and detachment, the Indian populace lives in its
cocoon of ignorance, deciding with the intuition of the ostrich.
But talk to those who are working close to the problem. To doctors,
to researchers and media practitioners who have taken upon themselves
the crusade of informing and alarming their brethren about the
danger that they face in the near present from the epidemic
that is still ravaging Africa and many parts of the world. |
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| There are many stories. None of which are of hope or joy.
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| Stories that talk of the hopelessness of those dying of the
opportunistic diseases that the virus exposes the body to. Stories
of entire hospitals where death is the main player and the cast
is made up of a chorus of dying bodies and moaning souls. Stories
of children left destitute, because their parents are dead and
there is nobody to look after them |
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| Stories that will become a blazing reality as more and more
are afflicted, and more and more fall victim to the same hand
of fatality. |
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| Yet we are not a nation of fools. We have
some of the best brains. So what if many of them are earning
their laurels on foreign shores. The IT revolution and the
kind of technical expertise it has thrown up shows that when
it comes to problem solving, we can match if not surpass the
best. |
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| The thing however, is to see the problem
and to acknowledge it. And then, to want to solve it. Let's
see, who the people are who can do all this. |
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| What we need is a shock. A big one, one that will startle
the national consciousness, and break the silence that surrounds
the question of the immediate future of India in the context
of HIV/AIDS |
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| A sacrifice. A public sacrifice. By someone
who decides this is the one great act that he or she will
do for our country and countrymen. A martyr to the cause of
his people's future. |
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| In other words, it needs someone famous, or rich
and famous or better still well-loved, to play host to the virus.
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| No, not in filmy fashion by introducing it deliberately
into his or her system. And then, go public when it is clear
that the country will gasp in horror, will maybe sit in judgment,
and then finally find for itself a lesson that it will never
forget. |
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| Celebrity endorsement has never failed. Be it shampoos, cars
or cigarettes, celebrities can sell anything. They too can sell
the message that HIV/AIDS is India's biggest development challenge.
Something that can wreck a certain havoc that will not easily
be forgotten. |
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| (All the views expressed in this column are entirely that
of the author) |
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| About
the Author |
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