And I Learnt today that............

In the 15th century, there was a theory in western Europe that witches - often childless women themselves- secretly performed "knot tying" ceremonies at wedding - tying a magical leather cord that would make the newly wedded infertile (similar to what hijras claim to be able to do even now in India).

AND

In the 17th century, it was believed that sterility happens from the "women's disgust or her dullness" while having sex. If she doesn't orgasm, she aint having no babies (this medievel concept would be quite revolutionary for Indian males!)

AND

An innovative Scotsman, James Graham charged 500 guineas a night (about $37,500) for electrotherapy cure for infertility. In his "Temple of Health", men listened to lectures on potency as they sat on chairs that emitted mild electrical shocks. Women, in another room, heard lectures sitting in electric baths or magnetic thrones (just imagine the scene...).

AND

The real understanding of the biology of reproduction came in the early 20th century with greater understandings of, guess what..... gonorrhea. Wives of gonorrhea-infected men were unable to conceive. Infertility, doctors suddenly realized, was biological, could be due to a disease and could be the man's problem.

AND

There is a sperm bank in the US called the Repository for Germinal Choice that prides itself on the "quality" of sperms in offers : only Nobel Prize winners and Olympic Athletes.

AND

In a famous case a couple of years ago, a millionaire couple conceived embryos at an Australian clinic and were then killed in a plane crash before the embryos were implanted. Several women have applied to carry the emryos, hoping that they would become eligible to inherit the fortune the couple left behind!

That's enough fertility news for today.

Oh ya, I also learnt that it is FAAAAAAAAAAAAAR more difficult to make home-made yogurt in this country than back home. Unless you really want to hold a thermometer to the milk before you add the culture , be ready to move the unset yogurt from the radiator to the oven to the fridge all day. And it will probably still end up looking like a yellow-white curdled jelly.