Rohit is 33-years-old, and with every passing day gets closer to being a `full blown' AIDS patient. His younger brother Vineet, who is also a haemophiliac has also tested HIV positive. But their plight, Rohit admits, is better than dozens of others who are dying a silent death in their homes because no hospital is willing to admit an AIDS patient in Delhi.

Rohit says he is giving a press interview after years since he wants to expose the inadequacy of treatment facilities and the hoax being perpetrated by the NGOs. ``Crores of rupees are being spent on AIDS awareness in India but not a penny on the victims,'' he complained. ``Last week a friend with AIDS died because there was no ambulance to carry him to hospital. I have been sent back from AIIMS because the doctors sneer when they see me. They see me walking and feel I am fit. They say they have place only for the dying. ''

Last month, Rohit reveals, he too had a brush with the celebrities who had jumped on the AIDS bandwagon. Representatives of a TV company telephoned to say that the Hollywood star, Richard Gere, wanted to meet some AIDS patients and he was one of the `lucky' ones selected. Rohit told them a meeting could be fixed at the National Chest Institute, Niti Bagh, where he now went for treatment. He gave the name of his physician, Dr Rohit Sobti, who too was contacted and a meeting was arranged.

But Richard Gere came to India and went back, without contacting either of them. It was only through the newspapers they learnt how his visit had been turned into a major media event managed by celebrities like Bina Ramani, Shabana Azmi and Parmeshwar Godrej. At least in Delhi, Gere never came face to face with a single AIDS patient.

It was only after Richard Gere left India and after the fund-raising efforts of the sponsors of the visit got embroiled in controversy that Rohit Oberoi and Dr Rohit Sobti were contacted by Bina Ramani. She has now visited the National Chest Institute and has promised to help finance the setting up of Delhi's first AIDS-care department from the Rs 60 lakh collected during Gere's visit.

But Oberoi says he is apprehensive about being caught in a celebrity trap. He says Ramani had mentioned a figure of Rs 20 lakh for the new center which did sound very promising. But, in the same breath, he says he does not want to be `used' just because of his condition. ``I have been let down once. While the setting up of an exclusive AIDS wing is the need of the hour, I do not want to be disappointed again.''

Ramani, however, says such apprehensions were unfounded since she has found exactly what she was looking for in Oberoi and the National Chest Institute. ``This is the project I have been looking for years. I had been looking for the Oberoi brothers myself,'' she claims. ``I had asked NAAZ, the NGO which helped me with Gere's visit, about them and I was told they were dead. There will be no looking back now.''

She admits that there had been a falling out between herself and Anjali Gopalan who runs NAAZ, over the sharing of funds collected. ``She did not let me meet any genuine victims or AIDS-control workers. What persons with AIDS want is love and acceptance and I think I can help build such a place for them in Delhi from the corpus we have built up.''

If this happens, Dr Sobti, also an advisor to WHO, says it will be a meeting of minds. He says priority must be given to setting up of an OPD for AIDS patients like Oberoi as well as an operation theatre for minor surgeries. ``It is the ostracism and discrimination -- even in hospitals -- which we have to stop. And if anyone can help us build the first such centre in Delhi, the help is more than welcome.''