Born Positive – a tragedy

Do not be positive.

Last week in Mangalore, Prof Narendra Nayak took me to a children’s home. Prof calls them children of lesser GODs.

In his words :

“All  the kids had two things in common- one was that they were HIV positive and the other was that they had been abandoned by society.

There were a few babies found in dust bins – orphans whose parents had died, and some with one parent dead and the other not able to take care of the child. They had been all infected at birth and doomed to a short life despite the available medication. In fact there was none in the institutions above the age of 18. There are special rooms provided in the facility for taking  care of them when they have minor ailments, and also nurses to tend to them. One good thing was all of them were going to schools, and only government schools because no school can refuse admission to such a child.

.I remembered the motto of the Roman gladiators- we who are to die young salute thee! However, these young gladiators were doomed from birth thanks to their careless parents, and were being shunned by a callous society. The sadness is in knowing that all of them are doomed to die in a few years and yet they were unaware and were living happy lives like all children of their age. We were told that there has been a cut in the grants to this home run by an organisation called CARDTS. Would you like to make them happy or like to contribute something directly to them? We could co-operate with you in making their short lives a little sweeter and happier.”

It was a very moving experience and found it very difficult to control our emotions. I shook hands with all, there were 60 of them, hugged many, spoke to everyone, took care they did not see their fete in my eyes.

As flies to wanton boys, so are we to GODs. They kill us for their sport  – William Shakespeare

Those who would like to contribute to the above homes for the HIV affected children, candoso: 

For foreign exchange contributions, the same can be sent to :  CARDTS, Syndicate Bank, Ganganagar Branch, Bangalore, Account no. 04582010063434, Bank IFC code SYNB0000458

Contributions from within India can be made  to CARDTS, Syndicate Bank Banaswadi Branch,. Account no 04582010100267, Bank IFC code SYNB0000459

Those from Mangalore can directly contact the CARDTS on telephone number 9535675242. If any one wants me to do anything specific for them, like arranging a day’s food or something else, they can send the amount to  Narendra Nayak HUF account no.1169101031973 at Canara Bank, Car street branch, IFSC code CNRB 0001169. However, this should be the last resort.