“Receding into a private existence, Murad plotted his next move. Emerging from his hiatus he announced his incipient departure from India. No one was interested in making his kind of cinema. The Indian arts scene was conventional, unadventurous, docile. Moreover, the boys in Bombay were dull as dahi, unable to make good on either a night of delicious raunch or a rogue ballad of something more permanent. New York, with its titanic, neurotic energy, with its tease of dirty, luscious salvation, was the perfect island. His bags were packed. A special visa had been approved. He was ready to pitch camp in a new land. But the few select buddies who knew of his health were afraid to let him go. Would he finally take the life extending drugs he needed in New York? Or would he continue to hang on to the mumbo-jumbo that AIDS did not really exist?”
Siddarth Dhanvant Shanghvi, from Hello, Darling, in AIDS: Untold Stories From India, 1998
This is part of a collection of featured quotes on cities. They don’t necessarily reflect our views, just topics of interest. We welcome you to add others.
Credits: Photo of Mumbai Bulletproof and AIDS support by Raveesh Vyas.
