Vignettes
Putting men in back seat

IRAN'S first female bus driver has taken to the road in a small victory for gender equality that has already forced men to take a back seat. Seating on Iranian buses has been segregated since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with women forced to sit at the back so that they do not distract the normally male driver. But on Masoumeh Soltan-Bolaghi’s bus, the seating order will be reversed for the same reason. Official news agency IRNA said university graduate Bolaghi had taken to the wheel in the city of Karaj, about 40 miles west of Tehran. IRNA quoted Bolaghi as saying she hoped her example would have "a positive effect on women’s morale’’. Iran started its first women taxi driver service earlier this year in the holy city of Qom. But the women drivers are only allowed to pick up female passengers.

Women with steady partners may still be tempted to sleep around—but mainly on certain days of the month, say researchers. A BBC documentary explains how human sexual instincts are so strong that some women's preferences may alter significantly while they are ovulating.

While her partner might be a better bet to bring up children and support her, another man might carry genes which mean healthier, stronger children.

Morgan Wise, a train driver from Big Spring in Texas, found this out when his youngest son was found to have cystic fibrosis, a devastating lung disorder caused by a single faulty gene. Morgan Wise found he had fathered none of his sons

Both mother and father must carry the gene to produce a cystic fibrosis child, and Morgan duly went for a gene test to confirm he was a carrier. The test proved negative - effectively proving that he was not the child's father.

He told the BBC: "The doctor said: 'You are not a carrier of cystic fibrosis." I couldn't believe it."

There was worse to come. Subsequent DNA tests revealed that not one of Morgan's three sons was fathered by him.

However, researchers suggest that this is by no means an isolated event. One study suggested that one in 10 children are being raised by men who are unaware that they are not the father. A more "masculine" face was found to be better during fertile period. A study at the University of Stirling seems to pinpoint the instinct which might tempt some women to stray around the time of the month they are fertile. Two groups of female volunteers were picked.

One was tested during their ovulation, the other at another point in her cycle.

Each was shown a computer image of a male face which they could adjust electronically to make appear more or less masculine, using features such as the thickness of the neck and the squareness of the jaw.

While the group not ovulating tended to prefer their men with slightly more feminine feature, at the point of ovulating the women strongly preferred their men masculine.

This, say scientists, is down to instinct - while more feminine features might signify a man with less testosterone who is more likely to prove a steady partner, the stronger features they preferred at ovulation might indicate a better set of genes, thus producing a stronger or healthier child.

In the digital age, a diamond is not a girl's best friend. A high-definition television set is.

After interviewing 1,000 men and women, the Consumer Electronics Association found that 58 per cent of women would prefer to own a HDTV set than a 1-carat diamond ring. CEA's study, which was released some time back, said that 64 per cent of women would rather have a digital camera than a pair of half-carat diamond stud earrings. The study confirmed that women like digital toys just as much as men, who are generally believed to be the main purchasers of electronic gear in the home, said a CEA spokesman.

"Female consumers spend approximately $55 billion each year on consumer technology products," said Sean Wargo, director of industry analysis for CEA. "That's nearly half of the total consumer electronics market. And with these survey results showing a significant portion of women saying they are now more confident in purchasing electronics, we can only expect their collective buying power to increase as well."

In fact, women expressed a high level of interest in certain items that are traditionally popular with men, like colour TVs (63 per cent) and digital cameras (43 per cent), CEA's study stated.

Women also own more consumer electronic goods than ever before: Twenty per cent of women own a lap-top computer, whereas only 12 per cent did in 2000. Nearly two-thirds of women own a cell phone, while 49 per cent did two years ago, said CEA.

Women initiate almost half—49 percent—of all electronics purchases, the study concluded.

Painful spouse!

Scientists have proved what many have long suspected—the very presence of your spouse can be a pain. By eavesdropping on electrical activity in the brain, researchers investigating the effects the effects of chronic pain found that a husband or wife can make a pain three times as worse by just being in the room. All they had to do to make their spouses feel better, the neural probes revealed, was leave. And it was the most solicitous husbands and wives - those who clucked most lovingly over their spouses discomfort - who triggered the pain.

The new research, reported at a meeting of 24,000 neuroscientists in Orlando, Florida, offers the first clear neural evidence that social experiences can directly alter the way in which the brain responds to chronic pain.

"For the first time, we have discovered that a social variable, namely the presence of a spouse, can influence the brain’s response to pain," said Herta Flor, a neuropsychologist at Germany’s University of Heidelberg, who led the study team.

The work is part of a cascade of provocative insights into how experience can alter the structure and responses of the brain.

It shows that neurons and neural circuits are constantly remodeling themselves to accommodate experiences - whether the stimulation of computer games, too much stress, or the actions of an overly sympathetic helpmate.

Dr Flor and her colleagues studied 20couples in which one partner suffered from severe chronic back pain. They monitored the patient’s brain activity with electrodes and then gave painful electric shocks to their aching backs and studied the responses. The more the husbands or wives dwelt on their partners’ pain, the worse it felt, the neural monitors showed. Spouses who responded to pain complaints by changing the subject, by suggesting helpful but distracting activity, or by not dwelling too long on the pain, did not have this effect.

"When people pay too much attention to another’s pain, it tends to reinforce that pain," Dr Flor said. "We forget to reinforce those things that are not pain-related, like when a person smiles." She suggested that the treatment of chronic pain should involve husband and wife together, so they can focus on things that counteract the discomfort.

— www.weridnews.com and Los Angeles Times

‘Don’t push any situation to point of no return’

Kartar Kaur: Reliving a bygone era.

SHE binds two centuries together, and holds four generations in continuity like a thread between a distant past and today. Beeji Kartar Kaur was born in 1911, to Punjab’s eminent lawyer, politician Sardar Bahadur Buta Singh, who represented the Sikhs twice at the round table conference and had the privilege of ‘trouncing’ Churchill in a dialogue, according to the British Press. But for her two sons (one a retired Air Marshal and the other a retired Lieutenant-General) a vivacious 71-year-old daughter and the numerous grandchildren and great-grand children, who belie her age, she would well pass off as 20 younger than her age. Talking to her was like reliving an era goneby. She is a treasure-trove of information on Punjab—be it people, places or history. From experiencing the sight of the first electric lamp, to riding the first car in Shekupura, Kartar Kaur has traversed the 20th Century to the 21st era of computers, racing cars and degenerate human values. She talks of her life to Teena Singh.

I have kept up my interest in life. From reading to cards to moires, to conversation. Even when I am alone, I play scrabble.

I remember being severely reprimanded for objecting to my mother talking to a weaver’s wife in the neighbourhood because I found her ugly and poor. Neighbours were family. No one was divided by race, looks or financial status. One’s own culture showed in accepting all — irrespective of their religion. The other sharp memory is how my father was sitting in a lungi and slippers after washing his hair and how suddenly the police walked in to arrest him in 1919. Patriotism was a common factor that bound all homes.

We were married for 57 years and we both trusted and respected each other. He did not curtail my exposure to life, I respected his wisdom. We were one voice in all aspects of life.

I was four months short of 16 years when I married a man who was 23 years my senior. Until then, I had embroidered four phulkaris, helped my mother bring up seven siblings. All us sisters helped in the household. We were taught to respect and obey our parents and elders without exception. We were mature, without being promiscuous.

Everyone wished to show wisdom and intelligence through restraint, respect and adaptability. What the husband said was a rule, the wife’s wish was a command, the father was obeyed and the mother was wise.

While my mother followed all traditions and customs and was extremely hospitable, my grandma would sit on a raised platform everyday with wheat and flour for the Muslim and Hindu fakirs, sadhus and beggars. Even begging had rules. All came before 12 in the afternoon.

Cloth fans used to be pulled by servants. One big room was the lamp room. One man was in-charge of cleaning, oiling and lighting lamps every evening in the house. The first light put in the town was accompanied by a big party and celebration, we too put a light in our house later. My father owned the first car in town and it came all the way from Delhi with a driver. The car agents used to supply the drivers too. My father was a leading criminal lawyer but those days cases were fought on facts, without harassment or bias. Anyone coming to Shekhupura stayed and ate in our house — irrespective of law cases, relationships etc. In fact, in one instance, my father was fighting a case and the woman who was the opponent came and stayed in our house.

There were a few exceptions, but most of us felt proud of our Indian ways. It is funny how, we were more Indian under the British compared to a very westernised society in free India today.

I lead my life according to my faith and belief and leave my children, grand children, great-grand children to their devices and convictions.

The mool mantra for peaceful co-existence is be and let be. Always forgive and forget. Don’t push any situation to a point of no return. Ego, pride, feelings, all must be used or curtailed to save relationships and situations. The changing face of politics and decline of honesty, integrity fills me up with disgust.