AIDSvideos.org

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The speaker

I have got a project from an American institution that makes videos to make people aware of HIV and AIDS. Their name is AIDSvideos.org. They want me to make videos for them in every possible Indian language. They have twenty seven different kinds of scripts in five different Indian languages so it seems like a long term project. They want me to do two kinds of work for them- translate their scripts in different Indian languages and then make videos of them. There are twenty-two official languages in India so if I make their whole videos then it will take at least few years to complete it.  

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Our camera setup

 I had made a Hindi video few days ago using their script for Sanjeevani Booti but it did not go well. There was a American student named Allen Roda from New York university staying at my place those days who had a very nice camera. We used his camera to make the video. Since I did not have a teleprompter and the script was so long, I got the script printed and put it at both sides of the camera so that speaker could read it. It all went well and it looked fine on the small camera screen but when I played it on my TV then I could easily see the problems. The speaker’s eyes were moving from right to left every time he would go from one page to the other one. It did not look professional so I have decided to make other one.

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Ravikant in front of camera

But still I have some problems. Lane and I looked for some software that work as a teleprompter and we found some that worked perfect with English script but the problem is that they do not work with Hindi or other languages. I don’t know how to solve this problem. But one thing is very sure that if I do not have a teleprompter then it will be very hard to make long videos. The script is eighteen minutes long and it is very hard for anyone to remember this whole script and start speaking in front of the camera.

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Allen Roda

 I was so excited for this project but the teleprompter problem has become a huge issue for the speakers. They say that they will not be able to remember the whole script. By the way I did some translation work by translating the script in Bhojpuri. It was also a hard job because Bhojpuri is spoken in lots of different districts with different accents and different words therefore I tried my best to write in a very simple Bhojpuri that could be understandable to everyone. I am sure that this will work fine but again the problem is that I have not been able to start making the videos. Hopefully Lane could find a way to fix this problem. I am also talking to people and searching online to fix this problem. I want to start this project soon. I am so excited for it.

Condom

I think condoms are one the biggest inventions of science, one of the biggest gift of science to us but still a lot of people don’t use it and the thing that made me write this post is the people who are shy buying condoms. I never understand why people are shy to buy it. They don’t want to pronounce this word, why? They go to the shops thinking that they will buy condoms but buy candies. It is kind of hard work for them to say that they want to buy condoms. 

One of my very close friends got married last year. I had gifted him a big packet of condoms. After few days of his marriage he called me and said that he wanted to meet me immediately but I was far away from home but he was keep telling me that it was some important work and he wanted to meet me. I told him to meet me after one hour and I immediately left my work and got back to him. He was still standing at the place where he had called me from and just waiting for me. 

I was thinking that something wrong happened and he wanted my help so I was a little bit tense but when I met him and asked why he wanted to meet me. He took me to a corner and said that he wanted me to buy condoms for him. I thought he was joking but no, he was serious. He was waiting for me for an hour because he did not want to buy condoms. I asked why he did not buy it by his own and he said that since all the shopkeepers in his neighborhood knew him personally he was feeling shy to ask for condoms.

I told him that all the shopkeepers knew that he was newly married and they knew that he will have sex so why to shy. But still he was not comfortable buying. I asked him where did he get the condoms from for the last few days, obviously my gift was not ever-lasting, and he said that he went to some other neighborhood to shop. I wanted him to buy condoms and I was keep telling him to go and buy but he did not want to do it. Finally I took him to a shop and told him to just stand there but the funny thing was that he ran away before I reached at the shop.

He always talks me about how to get rid of condoms. I suggest him different ideas but he doesn’t want to adopt any. I told him to rap it and put it in dust bin but he doesn’t want to do it because he thinks that his family members would come to know that he uses condoms. I tell him to throw it in the neighborhood dust bin and then he thinks that his neighbors would come to know that he uses condoms. I tell him to throw it in the commode and then again he is concerned about his family. 

I met him few days ago and asked if he has started buying condoms on his own and he said that he doesn’t buy uses condoms anymore because it was difficult for him to buy it and then get rid of it. I want him to use condoms and still think about some way to make him comfortable buying and getting rid off it. But I don’t think he would ever like to use it again or just hear me. He likes listening about it and but it is hard work for him to buy and get rid off.

The second story is also about my one other friend who runs a convenient store. I go to his shop everyday but never knew that he also sells condoms because condoms are always hided. I saw the packet few days ago and bought few pieces. I pay him monthly so he was supposed to write it down in his register but he did not because he did not want to write that I bought condoms. I really did not understand what was the problem with him.

I have talked him more than five times about it but he always tells me that he doesn’t want to write it. He is shy that his father or other family members would see that he sells condoms also. I doesn’t make any sense but it is true. Finally he counted amount for the condoms I had taken and wrote that I had bought a coconut oil. My one friend who is consumer is shy and my other friend who is seller is also shy. I don’t know how these kind of problems will be solved but it is definitely a big problem in a country like India where there are huge number of HIV patients and the number is increasing rapidly.

Weaving Machine

Weaving Machine

Benares is the biggest consumer of condoms in Uttar Pradesh but here the condoms are not used for birth control or to prevent STDs, they are used for weaving. About 6,00,000 condoms are sold in Varanasi everyday but most of them are used only for weaving. They rub the condoms on loom’s shuttle to make the weaving process faster ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3934275.stm.) I am sure condoms help weavers a lot. 

More than 90% of weavers in Benares are Muslims. If the same guys who use the condoms for weaving start using it to control birth, our India would change rapidly. The way condoms make weaving process faster, it will help us develop faster. The way condom is helping weavers, it can help the whole India but we just need to learn how to utilize it.

A kiss could be really dangerous sometimes

Richard kissing Shilpa

Richard Gere kissed Shilpa Shetty in public and had to go to court. It happened during an AIDS awareness program where Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood actress, was the hostess. Richard Gere has been working with lots of NGOs in India that educates people about AIDS. He came on the stage and started kissing Shilpa on her cheeks. At first everybody started screaming, clapping because they enjoyed for sure seeing a Bollywood actress get kissed. Since kissing is a very private activity, and is always hidden, it was a fun time for people.

But later some some Hindu organization sued Richard for doing sexual activity in public, and he had to go to the court several times. I am not sure what happened to this case, but one thing is for sure that neither Richard nor Shilpa would like going to court several times. The same kind of thing happened with� Rakhi Sawant (a Bollywood actress) and Mika (a singer). It was Mika’s birthday party and Rakhi was also there. First of all Rakhi kissed Mika on his cheeks, and then Mika kissed Rakhi’s lips.

Mika kissing Rakhi

After this kiss, Rakhi went to the police and lodged a case against Mika for kissing her forcibly. Mika said that she started first so he also kissed her. She kissed Mika on his cheeks and Mika kissed on her lips, that’s all. But Rakhi did not agree to hear anything. She was crying in front of media people, and was saying that Mika forcebly kissed her. She said that she was an Indian girl. She can get kissed on cheeks but not on the lips. It was one of the funniest things I had ever heard.� All this drama was just to get publicity. Later they compromised and case was taken back by Rakhi.

I met my friend Sharad yesterday who works at DHL, New Delhi. He books the parcels. He said that few days ago a foreign couple came and booked a 1.5 kilo parcel. As they entered in the office, they started kissing each other. Then they went to my friend and gave him the parcel. After giving the parcel, they were kissing until the booking process was done. Later they got a call from another office saying that they had found a packet of heroin booked by a foreign couple.

This call was to alert all other offices to not accept any package from such a couple. It made my friend remember about the couple who had booked a package. They checked the packet and found that it was also a heroin packet. This couple had booked the same kind of packet at two different offices. They did the same thing at all the offices- gave the packet and started kissing. Other offices had also accepted the parcel, but it was caught during the screening process.

I am sure foreigners know that we don’t kiss in public, but this couple was still doing it just because they knew that Indians would not be able to concentrate if someone was kissing in front of them. There are lots of stories in our religious books when demons sent girls to disturb saints and stop them from meditating. In some cases girls were able to do what they wanted to. Now it seems like we have to learn how to fight against this new Western weapon.

Tawayaf culture in Varanasi

An anthropology student from University of Pittsburgh, USA wrote me. My friend Adam Sergent, a anthropology student from University of Chicago had given my contact to Megan. Adam stayed at my guest house 1 month ago while he was learning Hindi in Benares.

Megan was interested in Tawayaf culture, prostitutes and HIV. Adam had told her about my NGO so she was looking to hear my experience working for it. It was Megan’s 4th year of research and she was looking to have as many contacts as she can for the next and last year of her research. I was surprised to listen her talking about Tawayafs. It really made curious about Tawayaf culture. I already knew a little bit about them but never thought that I must know more about them. Now I will research about it.

She said that she was already working with a NGO in Benares that works with prostitutes in Benares but she wanted to contact NGOs in other cities also. I knew few NGOs in Azamgarh and Mau and I gave their contacts to Megan. She wanted me to give her a written document saying that Megan is working with prostitutes, Tawayafs and HIV in Benares because it would help her getting grant from Univeristy. I will contact my leagl advisor first and if possible I would help Megan. We discussed a lot about our experiences and have decided that we would work together in future.

AIDS survey in Mehdiganj, Varanasi

Lok Samiti had organized a group wedding of 30 couples in Mehdiganj where more than ten thousand people were supposed to come. I was also invited there, so I thought that it would be a good start for Sanjeevni Booti’s work. I discussed about it with Lane and we decided that we would take survey of villagers about awareness of HIV and distribute pamphlets about basic knowledge of AIDS. Lane wrote matter for pamphlet and created questions for survey.

I got two thousand pamphlets and 200 survey sheet printed. I needed few other people to help me taking the survey so I asked my friend Raju, Sonu and Bablu, who are member also of Sanjeevni Booti, to come help me. Sonu got agreed at once but Raju and Bablu were busy with their work. But I needed few people to help me so I offered them their one day’s salary and Raju got agreed with this offer but Bablu still didn’t get agree. Lane paid for everything- pamphlets, survey sheet, traveling expenses etc…

I needed few girls also to take survey of other girls but I could not find one. I asked Nandlal if some of Lok Samiti’s female members could take survey of other females for Sanjeevni Booti, and Nandlal said that he will send two females with me. I reached at the wedding place but unfortunately Lok Samiti females were busy organizing wedding, so we could not take survey of any females. We did survey with over 80 people, and distributed one thousand pamphlets.

I was shocked to hear the answers of the villagers about AIDS. It seemed like they didn’t know anything. Few people told us that AIDS could spread through air, few said that if people make relations more than 5 times a day then they are more likely to get AIDS, few said that AIDS could be easily treated by medicines etc… Nobody knew that AIDS could spread by sharing shaving razor or needles. We asked them if any other NGO had ever met them to talk about AIDS and none of them said yes, it means that they had not talked about AIDS with anyone who can tell them reality.

We have huge number of AIDS cases in India and it is increasing rapidly because sex practices change as people start becoming rich, and our economy is booming rapidly. So I think number STDs would also increase rapidly in near future. I think government should do something otherwise we will have the most cases very soon, because we have huge number of people living in India. I think Indians are very open to new ideas, and use of condoms was never ever a issue for us, so I think we can control this disease easily. We just need to educate people.

Lane wrote the survey report and published it on Sanjeevni Booti’s webiste.