'Saying I'm HIV+ is tough; saying I'm gay is tougher'

It is a Sunday morning. Outside Hyderabad, at a Rajasthani-style resort named Dhola-ri-dhani, close to 500 men have gathered. The younger among them seem to be in their 20s, the seniors in their 60s. They speak softly, but warmly to each other. Many of them know each other through previous secret meetings but if they were to meet outside, they would not acknowledge that. It would be as though they have never met before. But here they are at peace in a gathering where they can be themselves.

The technical term used to describe them is MSM: Men Who Have Sex with Men. The group gathered here has bisexuals, homosexuals, and transgendered individuals. There are cross-dressers too, conspicuous with their elaborate hair-dos and bright outfits and what appear to be deliberately feminine mannerisms.

The meeting has been organized by the Andhra Pradesh AIDS Control Society and local NGOs who want to build a greater support system for the 60,000 men in Andhra Pradesh who have sex with other men. There is a sense of urgency. HIV is shooting up in the community - from 9 to 11% in the last two years.

Vivek tested positive for HIV in 2003. His wife knows that. What he hasn't told her is that he contracted the infection when he lived in Mumbai as a young man. To supplement his income as a receptionist, he worked as a paid sex worker. Since his teens, Vivek knew that he was sexually attracted to men. But the fear of rejection by his family and society, he says, nudged him into marrying a cousin He has a 12-year-old daughter now. Vivek says it was humiliating and debilitating to tell his family that he is HIV positive; but telling them about his sexual preference is impossible.

That is the startling consensus here - that the stigma of being gay is more domineering and substantial than that of being HIV positive. And this is what worries health workers. That while society is, however gradually, being trained to overcome its prejudice against HIV and AIDS, there is no comparable progress in how it perceives or treats homosexuality. ``In India, it is still a crime," says Vivek.

More than a year ago, a landmark judgement saw the Delhi High Court decriminalizing homosexuality under Section 377. That verdict has been challenged in the Supreme Court, whose ruling is awaited. The government, however, has not appealed against the High Court's decision. Chances are, experts say, that the ruling will not be over-turned.

But the gap between legal acceptance and everyday life is expansive and isolating. Nayeem, now in his 30s, came out to his father 10 years ago. It was traumatising for both father and son. After six daughters, his father responded, he wanted his only son to be a "proper man." Nayeem has held his ground, refusing to marry. But his sexual preference remains a secret.

"With HIV status, people may taunt you a couple of times. Then they accept. But it is not like that with homosexuality. They humiliate you everywhere, call you a hijra," he says.

The six -hour-long meeting encourages men gathered here to swap stories and understand that they need to access medical extension services offered by the government and NGOs.

And, also, more importantly, help others who find it very difficult to come out and seek guidance. To learn how they can lead a life of their choice and still protect themselves from HIV. Considerable time is spent explaining the need for regular tests. The gathering is familiarised with the exclusive drop-in centre for MSMs, the only one of its kind possibly in the country. Health workers explain that they are lobbying for MSM-specific condoms, with more lubricants, to soon be made available in the market.

At 5 pm, Vivek is ready to leave. He will tell his wife that he spent the day at his office.

Now listen to kamasutra for love making

How about listening to the audio on the steps for love making and trying out the moves, quite difficult?

This age-old flaw has now been taken care of, by releasing the world's most famous sex manual in the form of audio books.

Now all you have to do is listen to the audio to get your moves right.

Beautiful Books, of London, has commissioned actor Tanya Franks to read aloud from the treatise, including its most notorious chapter, "On Sexual Union", which describes 64 different ways of making love.

The books can be downloaded for 8.99 dollars.

Kamasutra is based on ancient Hindu philosophies and was first translated into English in 1883 under the guidance of Victorian explorer Richard Burton.

"Now there's no need to feel embarrassed by reading a copy of this wonderful and important book in public - simply download it on to your mp3 player and liven up your commute to work," The Guardian quoted Simon Petherick, the managing director of Beautiful Books, as saying.

"When I was asked to read the Kama Sutra I felt nervous and excited at the thought of it," Franks said.

When we finally did it I was completely relaxed and we had a great time. The only thing missing was the cigarette afterwards," she added.

Men work equally hard at home

Think twice before complaining that your husband do not help you in daily household chores as a study has said that husbands actually contribute more than their fair share of work in the house.

According to a research by the London School of Economics (LSE), wives who moan they have to juggle a `double-shift` with duties at work and then at home have in fact got it wrong, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.

The experts, who took into account paid and unpaid work, as well as voluntary work and care, found that men make much more of a contribution than they are given credit for.

While women tend to cut down on office time or leave work after having children, many men compensate for the lost earnings by working extra hours and overtime, the study found.

Researchers said both men and women work an average of eight hours a day in paid jobs or unpaid duties.

"This data overturns the well-entrenched theory that women work disproportional long hours in jobs and at home in juggling family and work," Dr Catherine Hakim, a sociologist at the LSE, said.

"Feminists constantly complain that men are not doing their fair share of domestic work. The reality is that most men already do more than their fair share."

However, couples who have no children, and in which both partners have full-time jobs, are the only group for which women`s overall workload was greater than men`s, the research found.

After thrashing wife, Rahul Mahajan 'feels sorry'

The family drama that was enacted when Rahul Mahajan thrashed his wife, Dimpy Ganguly, on the early hours of Thursday, Dimpy surfaced on Friday evening and told the media, “we both regret the incident. Rahul feels sorry for his action. Now everything is settled.”

Earlier in the day, Dimpy left his husband`s Worli house after she was beaten up by her husband. According to Mumbai Mirror, Dimply vowed never to return to her husband`s home. There were bruises on her chin, both hands and her left cheek was swollen.

According to Dimpy, Rahul beat her up after waking her up to know the contents of a message that had just beeped on her phone. When Dimpy asked him to let her sleep, he lost his temper and began hitting her. She was punched, kicked and dragged her by her hair.

Rahul, son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, has been accused of domestic violence in his first marriage also. He divorced his first wife, Shweta Singh, as he used to beat her too. The couple divorced in August, 2008. It may be recalled that he was even charged with use of drugs in the past.

Happy extroverts 'more creative', says study

Outgoing people in a good mood are more creative than the introverts, says a new study.

Extrovert people in a good mood are the most creative thinkers because they have more of the `happiness chemical` dopamine, according to Lorenzo Stafford, University of Portsmouth psychologist.

However, people who keep themselves to themselves are not creative whether they are in a good or neutral mood.

Stafford said his results showed personality and mood play a significant role in creativity.

"The more outgoing a person is, the more active their dopamine system is and a positive mood increases dopamine activity even further in many parts of the brain," the Scotsman quoted him as saying.

"It is the combination of the extrovert personality-type in a positive mood which encourages more creative performance, and not positive mood alone," he added.

Take big bites and avoid weight gain

The traditional advice to properly chew food is not always best as a new study has revealed that chewing food less and taking big bites can help people avoid weight gain.

A team, led by the University of Canterbury, has found that taking bigger bites and chewing food less can make people feel full longer and thereby help regulate weight as the food gets broken down more slowly in the stomach.

This meant people can feel fuller for longer and the slow release of energy could be burned off over time, say the researchers.

"The way people chew the food depends more on the food's properties, not the individual, so you can design food which people won't chew much and (food they) will chew a lot," team leader Marco Morgenstern was quoted as saying by PTI.

In their study, the researchers found that their findings included the benefits of eating whole-oat muesli and wholegrain bread which made people feel satisfied for longer. Pasta was also found to have a slow-release energy.

Older women are more sexually activ

Earlier, people had a wrong notion that elderly women are least interested in sexual moves and they have lost the colour of romance in their life. If you think that post menopause women loses all her seduction then think again, because a new study says that middle-aged women are sexually more active and enjoy better orgasms than younger women.

So, the hubbies of middle aged women need not to worry, because your lady is as young and energetic as she used to be in her newly wedded days.

The results from the test group certainly seems to prove that women who are older have more sex, though the reason for this has yet to be conclusively proven. Women between the ages of 27 and 45 reportedly have more sex than those in the age group 18-26 and also 45 and above.

The study therefore also shows that women have a sharp decline in interest for sex after they reach menopause. According to Buss’ article, the feedback in the questionnaire used also showed that women older than 27 and younger than 45 were also more likely and open to fantasizing and being with men other than their regular partners. The results were the same for single and married women and also women who were mothers.

Sexual dysfunction has been described as low sex drive or libido, followed by difficulty with

"Self-esteem, sense of wholeness and relationships can be seriously and adversely affected, exacting a heavy emotional toll. Researchers have found significant associations between major categories of sexual dysfunction, reduced physical and emotional satisfaction and general well-being,".

Porn screened in Indonesian parliament

Hardcore porn was broadcast on the Indonesian parliament`s internal information service on Monday, shocking journalists and bureaucrats who rely on the screens for updates on political events. Hardcore images apparently taken from the Internet filled the screens used by reporters, political staffers and visitors for about 15 minutes before security guards managed to shut it off, reporters said.

It was not clear how the images appeared on the screens but House Speaker Marzuki Alie said whoever was responsible would be punished.

"Whoever hacked the screens is insolent and will be reported to the authorities," he told reporters.

The incident is sure to embarrass President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has recently backed calls for stricter controls on the Internet following a national scandal over an online celebrity sex clip.

Malaria is epidemic, insist BMC's corporators

Malaria was the hot topic in the BMC’s general body meeting on Thursday, with all corporators demanding that the disease be declared an epidemic.

The corporators said that at a time more people are getting affected by the disease, private hospitals in the city are overcharging patients. This is also because the BMC’s hospitals have not been up to the task.

When opposition leader Rajhans Singh raised the issue at the meeting, all corporators, across party lines, supported him.

“Incidences of malaria are rising among all sections of society. The BMC alone cannot treat patients. All civic hospitals are overflowing,” said Rajhans.

BJP corporator Yogesh Sagar said: “The city is becoming the capital of malaria. Forty per cent of patients (of all ailments) are of malaria, out of which 57% are from Mumbai.”

The call to declare malaria an epidemic was given by BJP group leader Ashish Shelar and Congress corporator Vinod Shekhar.
In reply, the BMC administration replied that the civic body is quite capable of tackling the menace. “We are doing very well,” said Ashish Kumar Singh, additional municipal commissioner.

“BMC teams have inspected 1,885 construction sites and screened 1,34,712 workers. We found 15,539 suffering from fever and 649 to be malarial. BMC teams have also visited slums, and found 1,766 malarial people.

“In the city and suburbs, there are 504 construction sites, and 264 builders are doing pest control on their own. At other sites, the BMC is administering larva treatment to stop mosquito breeding.”

Sharing eye-drops is a big NO

Do not share eye drops as it can also transmit eye infection from one person to another.

Eye care for computer users

If are into a job that requires working on computers for long hours, do take off your eyes from computer at regular intervals and have an anti-glare screen set on your computer.

While working for long hours, look at distant objects either in your office or outside. Looking at a distant object and then returning to your task helps your eyes focus better. Try taking such visual breaks for about five to 10 minutes every hour.

How to prevent eye infection?

An eye infection is usually caused by bacteria or a virus. Eye infections include styes, conjunctivitis, trachoma etc. and can occur in any age group.

Contraceptive pills not effective on fat ladies

Hormonal contraceptives seem to be less effective in preventing pregnancy among obese or overweight women, a study says.

Four of seven studies examined in a review comprising 39,531 women suggest that the heaviest women have the highest risk of pregnancy while using the contraceptives.

"Obese or overweight women should also consider potential health risks from hormonal contraceptives," said Amitasrigowri Murthy, who directs the reproductive choice programme at Bellevue Hospital Centre in New York, reports The Cochrane Library.

"Some studies show that estrogen-based contraceptives can increase the risk of heart attack, blood clots, high blood pressure and gallbladder disease in obese women, who are already at increased risk for these conditions," Murthy said.

In a study of oral contraceptive pills, women with a body mass index (BMI) - height to weight ratio - in the overweight range had a higher risk of pregnancy that those in the normal weight range, says a release of Family Health International (FHI) - a global health and development organisation.

"Other contraceptives such as injectable or implantable hormones might be unaffected by body mass," said study lead author Laureen Lopez of Family Health International.

Many researchers think that metabolic changes associated with obesity - in particular, the amount of body fat - could make hormonal birth control less effective.

"However, we know little about how overweight women metabolise hormonal contraceptives since many studies exclude overweight women," Lopez added.

Swine flu adds to gastro agony

LUDHIANA: With the first case of swine flu being reported from Jalandhar, it seems that the health department is not concerned much as the isolation ward meant for swine flu patients is being used for gastro patients.

It seems that the monsoon is already keeping the health department on toes as the gastroenteritis cases are pouring in along with the new scare of the H1N1.

After Lovepreet Singh from Jalandhar tested positive for H1N1 from Regional Testing Lab Department of Virology, his became first case in Punjab this year.

While giving information, one of the officials of the health department said that already the guidelines had been sent to all the districts to get prepared for any kind of emergency. He added that for this all the hospitals had been told to maintain isolation rooms, along with the ventilators.

On the condition of anonymity, one of the medical officer at Civil Hospital said that there was a permanent isolation room but due to high number of gastro cases, it was being used for them.

According to the information last year during the swine flu outbreak in the state, a total of 1,041 beds in the isolation wards were there. Of these, 437 were with civil hospitals while 604 were with the private hospitals. As far as ventilators were concerned, a total of 160 were available and out of this 86 were in the government and 74 in private hospitals.

Dr Deepak Bhatia, state nodal officer, National Integrated Surveillance Department, said that already all the districts had been issued the directions to get ready and make all the necessary arrangements. He added that last week all the districts had been issued the directions to make necessary arrangements.

In Bihar, women give 'birth' to 5 kids in 2 months

A woman, as everyone knows, usually gives birth to a baby after nine months of pregnancy, but in Bihar 298 women claim to have delivered two to five children in a span of 60 days – at least that`s what records of incentives amount given to new mothers under a government scheme show.

Noted author Aroon Kumar said," this is absolutely shocking that people are misusing the programmes of government to earn money. This is eye -opener for the Bihar government.It must take action against all those who are responsible for looting the money."

A woman gets around Rs1,000 when she gives birth under the government`s Janani Suraksha Yojana but a total of Rs6.6 lakh was paid as incentive to 298 women who claimed to have delivered two to five children within 60 days under the scheme, says a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that exposes corruption in the state.

"The concerned officials paid incentives under the Janani Suraksha Yojana to these women two to five times in 60 days," the report says.

Unfortunately, thousands of genuine lactating mothers were denied the incentive due to them. The CAG report says that of 470,307new mothers, 97,146 were not provided cash incentives under the Janani Suraksha Yojana for want of funds.

Opposition leaders criticised the state government for the corruption in the implementation of the Janani Suraksha Yojana in the state.

"All this is happening in Bihar when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is claiming good governance. This is just a trailer of the unbelievable corruption in implementation of welfare schemes," Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) state president Abdul Bari Siddiqui said.

Brain scans to tell the choice of career

Researchers say that a person’s brain scanning can suggest the type of career he is interested in. Especially, the type of vocational training the person needs can easily be detected through this process.

General aptitude tests and specific mental ability tests are important tools for vocational guidance. And if performance on such tests is based on differences in brain structure, maybe brain scans can reveal to a person his choice of work.

Researcher Richard Haier, from the University of California, USA, and his team compared brain networks identified using scores on board cognitive ability tests to those identified by using specific cognitive tests to determine whether these relatively broad and narrow approaches yield similar results.

"A person’s pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses is related to their brain structure, so there is a possibility that brain scans could provide unique information that would be helpful for vocational choice. Our current results form a basis to investigate this further," said Haeir.

What is your doctor saying about you?

We’ve all seen our doctors scribbling in our charts after the exam. Now new research is exploring whether it’s a good idea to let a patient read the doctor’s notes, reports the Informed Patient column in Wall Street Journal.

A study currently under way, called the OpenNotes project, is looking at what happens when doctors’ notes become available for a patient to read, usually on electronic medical records. In a report on the early stages of the study, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers say that inviting patients to review the records can improve patient understanding of their health and get them to stick to their treatment regimens more closely.

But researchers also point to possible downsides: Patients may panic if their doctor speculates in writing about cancer or heart disease, leading to a flood of follow-up calls and e-mails. And doctors say they worry that some medical terms can be taken the wrong way by patients. For instance, the phrase “the patient appears SOB” refers to shortness of breath, not a derogatory designation. And OD is short for oculus dexter, or right eye, not for overdose.

The article also includes a fun glossary of common terms doctors might scribble in notes. Among others, there’s “NERD” for “no evidence of recurrent disease,” and “Shotty,” which is shorthand for “mildly enlarged lymph nodes.”

One in five girls 'pregnant by the age of 18'

One in five sexually-active teenage girls in Britain has been pregnant by the age of 18 , shocking figures have revealed.The first survey of its kind found that 83 per cent of girls have lost their virginity by this age and 18 per cent of these youngsters have been pregnant at least once.About half chose to keep their babies and more than a third had an abortion, according to the Government survey.

According to report published in Daily Mail,previous research has shown that girls feel they are under increasing pressure to have sex before they are ready, partly because of sexy images projected in marketing and teen magazines.

The statistics from this latest study show more than a quarter of girls said they had not waited until the age of consent and twenty-sevenper cent of 4,298 girls questioned for the study had lost their virginity by the time they turned 16.The data once again reignites the controversy over Britain`s teenage pregnancy rate, which is the highest in Western Europe, and Labour`s decade of failure to tackle the problem.

Figures released earlier this year revealed there were more pregnancies among girls under 18 in England in 2008 that there were in 2001.Family values campaigners have long warned easy access to contraception and an emphasis on poor quality sex education which fails to encourage teenagers to say `no` is fuelling the problem.

The survey shows how education plays an important role for youngsters as they are significantly less likely to have been pregnant by 18 if they did well at school and their parents have degrees.

White baby born to black parents (not albino)

Katrina Kaif roped in a sex scandal

Katrina Kaif is furious with her alleged sex scandal. She is very upset about her name getting involved in it. She says it is ridiculous to call the lady her look-a-like because the women is totally different from her.

Says the actress, "The video is disgusting and the girl clearly doesn`t even look like me. There`s no room for any speculation whatsoever. How can you even call her my lookalike? The girl`s face is completely different! I think it`s ridiculous to even talk about it."

The sex video is doing all around the net. The clipping shows Katrina Kaif look-alike having sex with multiple men.

The sex controversy has once roped Katrina’s sister Isabel.