"Keep condoms ready" message from Buladi in puja pandals

Kolkata, Sep 28 (UNI) Carrying her safe sex message, 'Buladi' will be appearing in puja pandals in Kolkata for the next three days.

"You may feel the urge any time. Always keep condoms handy and have healthy and safe sex," is what she will be saying.

Buladi, the rag doll mascot of the West Bengal State AIDS Control and Prevention Society (WBACPS), attired in red and blue Bengal saree and resembling a housewife has been a familiar presence in bill boards, television and FM channels for long.

When she is not cajoling amorous couples to make love only with protective devices like condoms, she is seen giving advice or answering questions related to HIV-Aids prevention.

This housewife-next-door-image would also make her presence felt aglow with lights in three dimensional mode, in at least five of the big community puja pandals known for drawing millions of people during the three-day festivities.

Standing nine-feet high, the illuminated figurines have been installed in vantage positions so that no one misses her messages on safe sex and the appeal to contact a hotline number for any advice.

"We have chosen the spots considering the size of the crowds that visit the pandals. This glittering visual image, we think, will spread the anti-AIDS message more among the people," WBACPS Deputy Director, Information and Communication, Monideepa Mukherjee said.

Depending on the feedback from the people, WBACPS would take Buladi to the districts from next puja season, she said.

Buladi, however, became the centre of a storm in the Assembly recently when cutting across party lines, legislators demanded a ban on public show of the mascot describing as "obscene and reprehensible" the manner in which she was "encouraging open sex".

But Buladi remains, sticking to the social cause she is serving, in the role of a friendly neighbourhood aunt or elder sister.

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