Thursday, December 01, 2005

Way Forward: Rediff tests "Positive"

We all . . . okay, most of us . . . at least, some of us . . . alright, I accuse the media of focussing on the negative most of the time. Money-minded, business in every breath, scant sense of social responsibility in any of its reporting aspects – and they do deserve a significant part of the blame, don’t they?

But Rediff has set out to redefine “Positive. It was an impressive take on the life of a woman who decided to remove the initials and live the Positive! Almost Everything about the article is positive: its focus, the way Kousalya is projected, Kousalya’s fight against the grave injustice meted out to her, her perceptions of the society she finds herself in and its attitude towards affected people like her, the influence of Ashok Pillai on her, her outlook and strategy towards life, her love for children and the joy that she extracts out of simple moments like riding a two-wheeler – it’s been a confluence of everything positive! The way she recounts the “advantages” of being HIV positive is amazing! If at all there is anything negative in the whole article, it’s Kousalya’s view of men - "Because I have not seen any man who is different. I find them still the same” is what she has got to say. And what else could one expect from someone who drowned to the depths before surfacing after all the strife in life!

Rediff and Shobha Warrier have done a great job in telling the world what being positive is all about in Rediff Specials on World AIDS Day!