Despite setbacks, Bikhshapati is full of life

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When I first asked Bikhshapati his age, he didn’t understand my question. I asked again, “Are you five? Six?”

He answered in English but seeing the confusion on my face, he reached down and scrawled the number “12” in the sand.

I was shocked. For a moment I suspected he wrote the wrong number.

His doctor told me later that Bikhshapati looks half his age because of the ravages of HIV. Although he is on anti-retro viral drugs, his body constantly struggles against the virus. On many occasions over the past few years, he has fallen deathly ill. He has missed school so often that he is now years behind those his own age.

Bikhshapati’s hardships have not dimmed his enthusiasm for life, however. For those of you struggling emotionally with being HIV positive, this young Karate fighter’s bright disposition might provide some inspiration.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 4:35 pm. It is filed under Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

One Response to “Despite setbacks, Bikhshapati is full of life”

  1. jorge goncalves says:
    October 4, 2006 at 7:18 am

    Sorry. I just saw today your message. i really appreciate the attention. it would be great. really soon we are going to really cd’s to our schools and we are really interested in this. both this document with the slide show and the Prevention versus Treatment would be nice. where I could download it? do you think it is possible to mail me or is too big. I have also a gmail account but I think that my normal account can take it. therefore it is better if you send me a mail to my account: [email protected]
    thanks
    jorge