To B

``B died a month ago,'' he said, shattering the stillness of the smoky haze of the lit cigarettes and the Bollywood track wafting in between. We were on the terrace of Bollywood Mischief - a breather before we returned to the sauna-like conditions on the two-level dance floors below.
``How?.. I had bumped into him just recently,'' I asked.
``It was AIDS... he was one of RW kinds!''
The last time I met B was outside the lift lobby - me walking in and he heading home. ``He had looked healthy,'' I said, unable to think of anything else to say.
The details followed - a bout of pneumonia, which turned fatal because of a weakened immune syetem brought on by a refusal to go on the cocktail.
RW was the first time I heard about the AIDS-deniers - a scattered and unconnected group of individuals who believe that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. They refuse medication that could probably give them a new lease of life - both substantial and productive, in the belief that the whole HIV theory was one designed to benefit Western capitalists and pharma interest groups.
India too has its followers, the most prominent being the one calling itself the Joint Action Council Kannur (JACK), which is opposing the decriminalisation of homosexuality before the Delhi High Court. They say they don't have anything against homosexuals, but ``oppose legalising homosexuality on medical grounds- that there has never been any link established between homosexuality and AIDS''
``JACK claims that the CIA report had chosen countries like Nigeria, India, Ethiopia, Russia, China and India which were strategically important for US interests, with a view to exploit market and human resources of these ''HIV afflicted'' developing nations in a coldblooded manner for its own benefit.'' (from a news report).
All I could feel was a mix of sadness and anger. B and I were never buddies of the backslapping kind. A friend had introduced us when he joined the organisation. Our meetings were always brief and in the lobby where he would be catching up on nicotine. We would exchange some gossip, bitch a little, before saying we would meet up at the party or film festival.
It must have been B's choice, but could not forgive him for the path he had chosen.