I feel soft, like a pool of stagnant water, collapsed on the bed.

But call it a sign of how small the world has become, or how pervasive globalization has spread, but here in the boondocks of backwaters, diverse interests from around the world have begun to seep in.

He qualified as a doctor in 1981, just before AIDS transformed infectious diseases from a backwater eschewed by ambitious researchers into a crucial and urgent field.