Radha was taking off the red ribbon from her saree when
she looked into the mirror to travel back in time…. Sitting on the
damp bed struggling to carefully remove the ribbon from her saree Radha was
riveted by the shadow of a photo of her husband kept on the bedstand. One look
at his cheerful innocent face weakened her heart and filled her eyes with
tears.
Her flail fingers ran through the pages of her marriage
album. Tantalized by the togetherness and harmony portrayed in the picture.
Within seconds her mind was in clusters- piles of abstract memories
disjointed the neurotransmitters and suppressed numbness all over again.
Passage of a few weeks and then, it is was his 3rd death
anniversary and ironically their 8th anniversary of marital
bliss.
Amit and Radha had been together since childhood and life
was smooth sailing for both of them. Never had they ever expected that
something as tiny as a needle would tear apart their lives rendering them
unrepairable forever. Running into the 2nd year of their
marriage Amit met a near to death accident while back from work. Two months to
recovery and joy had once again bounced back into their lives. They were
expecting their 1st child but soon their happiness was
curtailed with the discovery that both of them were HIV positive and the unborn
child too bore the chances positively.
The couple almost 5 months into the family way was
heartbroken to hear the news and asked their parents and extended family for
taking the responsibility of the unborn child after their demise. But to their
dismay, nobody accepted their plea .Burdened with grief, after living a life of
isolation and disgrace for 2 years Amit resorted to committing suicide by
jumping from their 7th floor apartment along with their 5 month
old son.
Brought up in a society where families teach their children
virtues of unconditional love, Radha always considered living in isolation and
killing oneself as a cowardly phenomenon. But living with this disease made her
realize that surprisingly and strangely in such cases, the cowardice was not on
part of the victims but on the part of their families and society they lived
in. The victims of this virus once were brave, but like the virus even
their own family sucks out all the traces of bravery in them.
The only cure to this social evil is to try and direct
ourselves and those around us to fight against this disease and not against the
victims of it and work towards giving them a more meaningful, purpose filled
and respect filled life.
Like a child who was almost suffocated to death by his mom’s umbilical cord still grows up loving his mother, in the same way a virus in the blood stream of our loved one cannot overpower the relationship we share with them .We just need to see the whole issue in a positive light rather than falling in vicious pool of rumors the disease is surrounded with.
This work of mine has been published in THE
GAYLAXY MAGAZINE ' an online
magazine ...to view the story , click here :) :) http://www.gaylaxymag.com/blog/index.php/2011/12/a-positive-effect-3/