'AIDS Sutra- Untold Stories from India'

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launches India's first charity book

Kolkata, Aug 12 (UNI) Avahan, an India AIDS initiative of Bill &

Melinda Gates Foundation, today launched India's first charity

book, 'AIDS Sutra- Untold Stories from India', at the Oxford

Bookstore here.

Published by Random House, the book, a collection of 16 stories from

some of India's most well-known writers, telling the human stories

behind the epidemic, was launched in presence of author Amit

Chaudhuri, who shared his experience with readers.

" There are nearly 3 million Indians living with HIV today. If We are

going to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, we have to embrace every

one of them - regardless of social class, line of work, or

circumstance. It starts with telling their stories. That's why we are

grateful to the distinguished writers who have contributed to this

anthology " Jayanti Rajagopalan, Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation, said.

This anthology, which includes stories by Salman Rushdie, Siddhartha

Deb, Kiran Desai, Mikita Lalwani, Vikram Seth, Nalini , Shobhaa

De, Sunil Ganguly, Amit Chaudhuri, Jaspreet Singh,

ADalrymple, Faleiro, Mukul Kesavan, Aman Sethi, Siddharth

Danvant Shanghvi and Dr CS Lakshmi, shows a side to India rarely seen

before.

Author Amit Chaudhuri spoke about the doctors fighting more than just

AIDS. " None of the doctors I met that day had initially been trained

to face the disease. What they were now was shaped by it, and HIV had

first confronted each in a slighty different incarnation - a rumour,

a makeshift pedagogy; a death, " he said.

The book is priced at Rs 395.

The collection will go to support children affected by HIV/AIDS in

high prevalence cities: Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

The funding will help them go to school, and receive care and

support. The fund will be managed by Avahan.

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