Proceeds from Lives Reset

The royalty from the sales of this anthology will go to Sevai Karangal, an NGO based out of Tamil Nadu.

Specifically, the proceeds will be used to support the educational and other basic needs of 150 children who are HIV-positive in Thiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu. These children are without parents and live with a relative. This work is currently one of the focus areas of Sevai Karangal and is being facilitated in association with Thiruvallur-based Positive Welfare Association.

A question could arise that why the proceeds are going to HIV-positive kids in these pandemic-stricken times. Wouldn’t it be natural to contribute to the COVID-19 relief efforts in any district of India?

Yes, absolutely. After all, this book was conceived and written during Pandemic Times.

However, this pandemic has helped us understand the meaning and import of social distancing. We have gained first-hand experience of a lockdown. We now know how it feels to live with uncertainty day in, day out in a world where uncertainty became a gradual norm.

However, we can hope that this crisis will end one day. And we will reconnect socially, have coffee at coffee joints, and travel to new cities.

But for many kids who are born HIV-positive, their first experience of life is social distancing. They are born into stigma. They are born into loss—of their parents, of love, of certainty. More often than not, they are born into a form of lockdown.

We will hopefully transition out of this pandemic phase. These innocent souls, however, might remain in that shadow space forever, forgotten by most of us.

This book intends to keep their spirit in forefront, hold space for them, and hope.

If you would like to donate to this project directly, please e-mail Sevai Karangal: [email protected]

To buy the book, please visit our Amazon page here.