celebrate life...

``Life against all odds, is life after all. It is far too precious to let go vain. Celebrate it with love and compassion.’’ Renowned theatre personality of India, Ms Tripurari Sharma is trying to convey this simple, yet not easily understood, message among the masses, through her play Shifa.

Shifa is an Urdu word, which means `healing’ – healing and comforting someone who is pain or agony, and in this case it is for all those human beings who are living with HIV.

Based on real life stories, the play sensitively handles the issue of stigma, which the HIV positive people face in the Indian society. Children are thrown out of schools, women do not get their share in property and men lose their jobs - all this just because they are detected as HIV positive. The agony of rejection makes them die hundred deaths every day, which is more painful than the real death.

Shifa’s message; an acceptance from people, a little compassion and a bit of love and care can tremendously improve the life quality of people living with HIV, besides making them feel alive and happy for the rest of the days they have in hand.

A Miranda House pass out and a product of National School of Drama (NSD), Sharma was working on stigma related to leprosy when this idea cropped up to simultaneously work on stigma relating to HIV. A humble, soft spoken and unassuming person, she was sensitive enough to feel the pulse of the issue but to enhance her understanding she did extensive research on the subject.

It involved travelling from south to north and from east to west – all across the nation and close interactions with a whole lot of HIV positive people. She put her feet in their shoes to grasp exactly what happens in their lives when they are confronted with an uncomfortable fact about their HIV status. These subjects of Shifa, became Sharma's friends and now she refers to them as strong and interesting people.

Regular interaction and interviews revealed that these people were living in virtual confinements with no friends, no love, no relations and worst of all, no hope. They were facing rejection, discrimination and constant struggle, both in their outside world and also in a world within.

``Chaaragar haar gaya ho jaise, ab to marna hi bada ho jaise; Mere maathe pe tere pyaar ka haanth, rooh per dast-e-hava ho jaise.’’ (the almighty seems to have given up, death looks like inevitable; your affectionate touch on my forehead, seems like cool air for the soul )

The above verse is from Shifa, which has been sung by a local (from Lucknow) composer Ravi Nagar in his mellifluous voice. He narrates how interesting and challenging it was to compose the music for a sensitive play like Shifa. ``To compose music for poetry is easy but to give music to thoughts and convert it into poetry was tough.’’ The end result of his efforts is beautiful as the lyrics impressively underline the state of mind of persons living with HIV, who inch closer to death every day, less because of the disease but more because their constant interface with stigma.

``Being a woman I knew what discrimination was and for an artiste stigma is not an alien word. What I understood during my interaction with HIV positive people was that slowly they internalise this stigma, which brings them into a denial mode.’’ She made minute observations for deep comprehension of what goes within the psyche of a person living with HIV.

Ms Sharma’s message to the world through her theatre is – spread love, feel compassion and extend comfort to all those who are suffering as life is too precious to be rejected at any cost even if it is the last day of the life.

The play reminded me of the famous pop singer Michael Jackson, who was a great philanthropist and humanitarian, and who in 1991, had written lyrics denoting similar feelings of compassion for the fellow human beings who are in need of it .........

``Heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me, and for entire human race; there are people dying, if you care enough for the living, make it a better place for you and for me.’’