Saturday night fever for a cause

THE SETTINGS could not have been any better. A captive Saturday- night discotheque crowd, a fresh jazz band, MadraZ, with three known Chennai musicians and an organisation looking to spread a message.

The HFO was the venue for this amalgamation of people, music and an issue whose importance is too well known - the message of HIV/AIDS prevention.

Chennai, the city where the HIV virus was detected more than a decade ago, has reason to worry, the organisers, Indian Network for People living with HIV/AIDS (INP+) said. And hence, amid the condom and pamphlet distribution and the exhibition of love- shaped badges lay the message of safe sex.

The red ribbon was there, symbol of the movement to stop the spread of AIDS.

INP+ is a Chennai-based NGO formed by 12 persons with HIV. It is a network of, for and by people with HIV/AIDS. It aims to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV in India and provides a sense of belonging and togetherness to people living with HIV.

``I am HIV positive. I have lived with it for 11 years,'' Ashok Pillai began his short discourse, when the MadraZ combine of Paul, `Uncle' Keith and Marteen took a break. ``When we hear HIV positive we imagine someone lying on a bed and dying. It is not so,'' he adds and goes on to a short description of the manner of contacting the infection. There is life after HIV, he reminded but there was no alternative to being careful. Thankfully, the music, which began early and attracted the Saturday-nighters, did not drift too heavily into the HIV campaign.

Around 11 p.m., the DJ from Mumbai Suketho set the pace with some hit numbers, including Santana's Maria and Desert Rose.

The special HIV/AIDS concert was earlier programmed for World AIDS Day, but had to be postponed due to renovation work at the discotheque.

The opportunity to shake a leg and understand a cause was good enough. It also gave people a peek at the new look of their hangout, well in time to spread the word for the festivities later this month and of course the `real' new millennium year bash.

At the end of the day, in the fine print was the INP+ appeal for time and money from volunteers, who could offer them at 4329580/81 or e- mail inpplus@vsnl.com.

By R. K. Radhakrishnan and T. S. Shankar

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