Positively full of beans

It is easy to miss Cafe Positive, tucked : away in a corner of the warren of . shops at Jodhpur Park bazaar in Kol-kata. But the discreet venue, the re-furbished garage of a four-story residen-tial building, has seen a steady stream of celebrity visitors in the past few Weeks. Since its opening last month, film stars, activists and journalists have been drop-ping by to pledge support. ‘ In a first of its kind in India, Café Pos-itive is run by a crew of HIV positive men and women. Kallol Ghosh, the founder-director of Organisation For Friends Energies and Resources (Offer), a non-profit outfit from where the café’s team has been recruited, says the ‘positive’ in the café’s name is not just the defining characteristic of the people running it, but also the hope that our misconcep-tions about HIV+ will change over a liber-ating cup of coffee.