Inheritance of loss

KL Zakir’s ‘Akhri Adhyay’ is a touching take on AIDS orphans

There’s no armour against fate and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Millions of lives are being lost to what health workers term as an epidemic around the world. But it’s not the physiological but a humane aspect of AIDS that renowned Urdu writer and scholar KL Zakir has shared in his new novel, Akhri Adhyay, which will be released on World AIDS Day (December 1) at the India Habitat Centre. “This is the first novel on AIDS orphans in the sub-continent, as no one has done fictional work on this subject,” it took Zakir as long as eight years to complete Akhri Adhyay, which involved extensive research, consultations with several doctors and travelling. While the idea was in Zakir’s head and heart for a long time, a conference on AIDS orphans, Children On the Brink, held in Africa in 2002 got his plot and characters in place. “I also read many first-hand accounts of people suffering from AIDS, including a young African woman whose story was heart-rending,” recalls Zakir, who feels this is an issue that needs not only the attention of the government and health agencies, but involvement of common people who can spread awareness about AIDS and also clear many misconceptions. “I travelled to the interiors of Punjab, Africa, America to get a true picture of the suffering of people and wanted to drive home the message that unprotected sex is not the only cause of AIDS, but many innocent people lose their life because of unsafe blood transfusions. We cannot alienate victims of AIDS,” rues Zakir.

The novel, which has been published in Urdu by Penguin is set in Chandigarh, with the main characters who are friends, passing out from Panjab University and one getting into the civil services and the other working with a multi-national in Mohali. “An accident in Kanpur lands the friend of the civil servant in hospital and he has to go through a blood transfusion. The blood is AIDS infected and his wife too is infected and both know nothing about it, until after the birth of their son complications arise and their life is shattered. Both husband and wife pass away in a matter of few years and their son is left in the care of the civil servant friend,” Zakir tells the touching story. “The friend has a daughter and the boy is brought up as a son and it’s when the boy is in MA that they discover that he too is suffering from AIDS and passes away. It’s a shock that the family just can’t to come in terms with and the daughter and her friend, a Kashmiri refugee, decide to join the movement against AIDS, become volunteers and dedicate themselves to the cause,” Zakir begins the novel with the last chapter — father and daughter returning from Kashmir after immersing the ashes of the young boy and the novel continuing in flashback…