No one to talk to, and all because of my mom!

diana will solve it! Write to Diana at diana@mid-day.com, or fax her on 24150009. You can also post letters to Dear Diana, Mid Day, Peninsula Centre, Dr S S Rao Road, opp Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, Parel, Mumbai 400012

Dear Diana,

Illustration/satish acharya

I'm a 17-year-old college-going boy, the only son of my parents. I'm beginning to feel really lost and upset right now. The reason I'm saying this is because all my friends are beginning to ignore me one by one and won't talk to me. In fact, the only 'conversations' I have these days are with the pigeon outside my bedroom window.

I used to have a lot of friends before and my social life was wonderful in my school days. But things started to change when my mum got involved in small disagreements with my neighbours where once she sided one party but then she sided the other ( my mum's a member of the building committee ).

Unfortunately for me, some of the members are parents of my friends. Ultimately and indirectly, this has affected me because those friends started spoiling my name by passing rumours , which are absolute nonsense , to my other friends .

I tried healing the wounds but the damage was already done. I tried to discuss this with my mum, but she didn't even bother listening and ignored me. My dad's overseas and rarely comes down; when he does, they have bitter, verbal fights. All this has really made me sick of my life. I don't want to commit suicide but I don't have anyone to turn to.

Mr Lonely

Dear Friend,

It's really surprising that your parents are as selfish as you're making them out to be despite you being their only son. That they openly fight even around you is despicable. I cannot understand why they cannot find time to understand your problems.

And besides, I feel your friends 'reacting' to your mother's actions are unwarranted, unduly influenced and heavily jaundiced. You are peing 'punished' for no fault of yours; and partly so, because of your mother's actions. I think you should turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to people like these.

Theyu00a0 don't deserve your company for the very reason that they can't appreciate who you are without it being depicted through someone else's eyes (or ears, for that matter!)

I'm still looking...

Dear Diana,

I'm 22 and don't even have a girlfriend yet. The girls I do speak to, feel I already have one. I seriously don't. What seems to be the problem with me?

Gaurav

Dear Gaurav,

Tell them that you don't have a girlfriend and see if anyone's interested without actually giving you that long stare that wonders if something is wrong with you. I think you just haven;t found someone and that's about it. Just keep looking...

Will she get AIDS because I didn't use a condom?

Dear Diana,

For the last one year, I've had sex with my girlfriend without using a condom. Now her parents are arraging her marriage to another guy. Will she or the guy be infected by HIV or AIDS?

Name withheld on request

Dear Friend,

If either she or you had multiple partners and practise unsafe sex with them as well, you are potentially putting yourselfu00a0 and her at risk as well.

Will they contract AIDS or HIV? Only if one of the three of you has been stupid/unfortunate enough to contract the virus from someone or through something.