'People-work'

In the smoking room at the Delhi T3 this morning, I spot a man carrying a dark blue green bag, big enough to be small and comfortable. The man lit up after fiddling through the bag for all the tools needed for the vice. A laptop and other such items peeped thru in the process. I say, involuntarily, and against all better judgement, 'That is a lovely bag there!'. A confident thank you came back, and a smile as he patted the bag with obvious pride. 'Where did you get it from?' I persisted, hoping he would mention a Lajpat Nagar shop. 'Germany. Not too big, not too small, just right - has been with me for the past 5 years' I nod in hitherto unknown longing and appreciation. I did not take a photo of the bag because that would have drooled away my effort at seeming nonchalant about it all. I blame this uncharacteristic encounter on the impact that a friend's fetish for collecting bags has had on me in recent months - my delicate annoyance with it, ...

Waiting to be billed as this boy is looking for 'cabbage' on his price list after checking with me what 'bannd-gobi' is called in English. My offer to help was politely turned down. With a sheepish, almost apologetic smile, he said "Abhi naya aaya hoon. Khud karoonga toh seekh jaaunga."

The HIV response in India finds itself at a crossroad – a choice between consolidating gains and frittering them away into a resurgence of the epidemic. The struggle began when policy makers chose to ignore evidence and voices from the ground and almost announced the end of AIDS in India. Riding on the trend of fewer new HIV infections and disregarding all feedback from civil society frontline workers, the fourth phase of the government’s National AIDS Control Programme – NACP 4 – stated that the AIDS response will be integrated within the health system of India by the time the programme ends in 2017. By inference, a dedicated AIDS programme was no longer needed; and hence a fifth phase of the AIDS programme – NACP 5 – would be ruled out. Not only does NACP 4 assume and affirm that it will achieve its results, but it goes a step further to declare that the entire government health system will thereafter be in complete readiness to deliver HIV prevention and care services. Ana...

( These are some of the emails I wrote to friends who I had not spoken to after the sudden passing of my husband, Ramesh Venkataraman, in January 2009. He was 41.  I was not ready for the complex process of grieving, even though I was prepared for death and separation.)    Delhi, 04 May 2009 Dear all Its 3 months now. It is empty, and awfully quiet. People say, he is resting finally, feeling no pain, no anxiety…he is ok. I rarely feel that. I think he’s still keen on watching the films that he was planning to…Slumdog, The Reader and Milk. I think he does want another trip to his favourite kebab shop down the road. And he does want another long drive in his car which he thinks is actually a ‘tank’, the stereo playing his fav songs full volume, his fingers drumming away on the steering wheel, his head moving to beats, as he tries hard to sing along and keep to tune, specially on the higher notes. He still has much to do, much to enjoy, much to angst about, much ...

Since the early 1990's, the national AIDS response in India worked with the outlawed and almost won. Those who inhabited this response, called it the ‘HIV movement of India’, now 25 years since it began a proud and reflective group of individuals and institutions.  There is real fear that the low overall HIV prevalence rates cannot be sustained if the change makers lose steam.  That condom use cannot continue to do the trick without dignity of those most at risk is evident to those privy to the process of change so far. When the same National AIDS programme worked with pregnant women, it struggled for air. The AIDS programme’s history is as much a history of institutions as it is of individuals habiting them. It is as much a history of change as it is a history of stagnation.  It is as a much a history of new learning as it is a history of stoic denial of new thinking. While the programme achieved higher and higher condom use among hard...

Last weekend, at the SADHO Poetry film fest, I saw more than thirty poetry films from over 20 countries – all packed into two evenings smelling of the impending Delhi winter. The longest poetry film was about 20 minutes and the shortest less than one minute. Poetry films! Not sure you get that – I didn’t as well, to start with. We are used to hearing poetry in Hindi films - when a character in the story has lost or won, when there is dismay in solitude or romantic delirium, in song and in dance.

"Love," said Phaedrus, "is the oldest of Gods, and one of the most powerful. Give me an Army made up of lovers and I can conquer the world." The  Phaedrus  ( / ˈ f iː d r ə s / ;  Greek :  Φαῖδρος ), written by  Plato , is a dialogue between Plato's main  protagonist ,  Socrates , and  Phaedrus , an interlocutor in  several dialogues . The  Phaedrus  was presumably composed around 370 BC, around the same time as Plato's Republic  and  Symposium .   Although ostensibly about the topic of  love , the discussion in the dialogue revolves around the art of  rhetoric  and how it should be practiced, and dwells on subjects as diverse as  metempsychosis  (the Greek tradition of  reincarnation ) and  erotic love .