Date:11/03/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/11/stories/2007031120380500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Backing a cause to the hilt

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: On reverse gear, they were all, deliberately marching backwards to put their collective stamp on a message: Don't turn your back on AIDS and AIDS victims. As the ever-busy M.G. Road zoomed forward driven by a thousand motorists, students of St. Joseph's Arts and Science College resolutely stomped backward in defiance to a world that cared little about AIDS.

Holding aloft placards with slogans that demanded a more compassionate world, the students walked, talked, sought donations, pleaded for attention though quite a few in the group of about 200 simply marched backwards in silence, inviting curious looks. With a banner that read "Joseph's AIDS Awareness Movement (JAAM)," the students really had a task on hand.

Beginning their journey from Trinity Circle, the Gandhi statue at the end of M.G. Road looked distant. Even Gandhi that symbol of compassion, freedom and non-violence seemed too far away. But "Back for Life," the campaign launched by students of St. Joseph's College of Arts and Science, Mount Carmel College and Jyoti Niwas College for an AIDS-free world was about to switch to a new gear.

"Do it safely," "AIDS is not an epidemic," "Fight AIDS not people with AIDS," the placard slogans were telling enough.

Onlookers on M.G. Road had read them before. But the back walkers had reiterated the truths uniquely, the novelty had caught the attention. The purpose seemed served when some casual observers walked over to the students, dropped a Rs. 10 note as donation and joined the gang, a bunch that had a forward agenda in their backward steps.