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My 5 1/2 year old daughter entered kindergarten a few days back. The most exciting part of the experience so far for her has been riding the school bus.
That reminded me of how the HIV+ orphans at Bangalore’s Freedom Foundation get to and from school.
After this video, you may want to revisit a previous one about the kids at play.
Narasimha, a 30-year-old rickshaw driver in Hyderabad, found out he was HIV+ five years ago when he contracted TB.
He admits that he visited commercial sex workers a number of times. His wife, who he says he did not infect, left him shortly after finding out what exactly he had contracted.
After starting anti-retroviral treatment two years ago, he has slowly regained his strength and is back at work.
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In a haunting twist, his male passengers often ask to be driven to prostitutes around Hyderabad’s parks and main train stations.
I asked him if he warns them about the possible consequences. He shook his head, explaining that upon returning to work after his recovery from TB, one of his first passengers asked to be taken to a commercial sex worker.
When Narasimha tried to warn the passenger of the risks he was taking, the man yelled at him: “What do you know? You have it?”
Alarmed by the prospect of his HIV+ status being exposed, and his livelihood threatened, Narasimha backed off. Since that experience, he quietly fulfills his passengers’ requests.
In this video clip, Narasimha explains how he copes, knowing his body will build up resistance to the ARV treatment and that the next level of treatment will remain out of his grasp.
The illusion that the Indian middle class is largely untouched by the AIDS epidemic is beginning to crack as people from this socio-economic group find friends and relatives close to them suddenly struck down by disease.
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The common perception is that commercial sex workers, truck drivers, and “other uneducated people” are the ones who invite the illness by their wanton carelessness.
But doctors who cater to middle and upper class Indians increasingly have their hands full.
Dr. Uttara Murthy, a Bangalore-based psychiatrist, counsels private patients who have found out they are HIV+ and are struggling with that fact.
Dr. Murthy counseled her first middle class HIV+ patient eight years ago. Her practice keeps her busy.
Sorry for not having any updates for a few weeks. I have been stumped by some techical difficulties.
At this moment, I am in the workspace of 4 pioneering videobloggers who have kindly helped me solve the technical issues that have riddled the videoblogging portion of the project.
So thanks to the following people for getting the project back on track: Jay Dedman, Ryanne Hodson, Michael Verdi and Josh Kinberg.
And if you want to get into videoblogging and want to avoid the problems I had, check out their online videoblogging tutorial at Freevlog.
Look for a new video per day!
