AIDS Sutra: Untold stories from India (book launch)
Karishma Pais
16 of India's
best known writers go on the road to uncover the country's AIDS epidemic
The stories are extraordinary: Kiran Desai went to coastal Andhra to a village of hereditary sex workers, Rushdie spent a day with Bombay's hijras....Its the first time so many writers of such stature have come together for a social cause in India.
"There are nearly 3 million Indians living with HIV today. If we're going to stop AIDS, we have to embrace every one of them – regardless of social class, line of work, or circumstance…It starts with telling their stories"
- Bill and Melinda Gates
"This is a huge achievement" – Amartya Sen
The writers are: Salman Rushdie, Shobhaa De, Will Dalrymple, Vikram Seth, Kiran Desai, Amit Chaudhuri, Sunil Ganguly, Mukul Kesavan, Nikita Lalwani, Nalini Jones, Sonia Faleiro, Siddharth Dhanwant Sanghvi, Aman Sethi, CS Lakshmi, Jaspreet Singh and Siddharth Deb.
For each book purchased, Rs. 80 (equivalent to US $2) will go to support children affected by HIV/AIDS. The fund will be managed by Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Published by Random House India, August 2008 (Hardback, 352 pages, Rs. 395)
To buy online: http://www.randomhouse.co.in/
AIDS Sutra releases this week following on from the Mexico World AIDS Conference.
The book will be launched:
In Bangalore, at Brio Café on August 13 at 5:30PM.
In Chennai, at Oxford bookstore on August 13 at 5:30PM.
In Delhi, at the Oxford bookstore on August 13 at 4PM.
In Hyderabad, at the Crossword bookstore on August 13 at 6:30PM.
In Kolkata, at the Oxford bookstore on August 13 at 4PM.
In Mumbai, at the Oxford bookstore on August 12 at 3PM.