A Play on AIDS by Rajesh Talwar

High Fidelity Transmission - A term used in Sexually Transmitted Diseases, where usually one person from couple get disease from other due to high faith in other person. Rajesh Talwar has given a suitable title for a play addressing common issues around AIDS.

Blurb of the play -

Raju, a young college student visits Delhi’s red light area with a friend to celebrate his examination results. Soon after his visit he gets involved in a relationship with Ulfat who teaches at his college. Ulfat is trapped in a bad marriage with Hoover, a lawyer who has recently joined hands with his doctor friend Falooda to set up an NGO that will work on AIDS related issues.

Unknown to Raju, he has contracted AIDS and he passes it on to Ulfat. When Hoover learns of his wife’s infidelity he throws her out of the house. She moves into Raju's small studio flat. They seek advice from Elisabeth, a nun who distributes condoms in the red light area. As a result of her help they go to visit Dr Falooda’s clinic to try to obtain anti-retroviral drugs free of cost. Meanwhile, Hoover and Falooda are in search of patients on whom to test a so-called AIDS vaccine as the behest of an American doctor, Dr Carlos, who promises them introductions to funding agencies.

A work of imagination, the play nevertheless reflects realities of the AIDS situation in a country that today has the highest number of HIV positive persons

I think blurb has rightly collected story line. So I am not focusing on that. Author has given good shape to characters, and narrated each scene really well. Things that pointed out by author

• How faith on partner or luck can change your life? - Raju tried his luck at red light area while Ulfat had faith on Raju's innocence.
• How AIDS related donations are manipulated? - Hoover and Dr Falooda were just an example.
• How people are exploiting HIV/AIDS patience on name on anti-retroviral drugs?
• What ground work is actually happening in field of AIDS?

Things that can improve

• As usual author lack in naming appropriately characters in story
• Some time line were vague. (Sync between two plots timeline were mismatch, not as important though)

Overall I would say a good read. Talking about ratings:

1. Cover - 3 / 5
2. Language - 4 / 5 
3. Story Line - 3 / 5 (I found some mismatch in timeline)
4. Characters - 3 / 5 (Names of the characters could have been better)
5. Overall - 3.5 / 5

Book can be found at - Amazon

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads

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