Rajendar Menen is a senior Mumbai-based journalist who has been writing on AIDS for many years. The street is his beat, and he has pounded it for many years, meeting people who live on the margins, empathizing with them, ferreting out their stories. He has visited brothels all over India, documenting the lives of the women who wind up in them. Karma Sutra is full of fascinating stories, stories that wrench your heart and give you goosepimples. Despite the dark lives of the subjects of the book, Menen s affection for them bathes the narrative in a warm glow. His own exploits he had to run for his life more than once give the book an additional zing.