A British man worshipped as a goddess in India says he wants to stay there after his six-month visa runs out

Rajeev Khana:

Stephen Louis Cooper has become the centre of attraction in the temple town of Becharaji in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

Devotees have been lining up to seek his blessings and some of them even take him to be the messenger of Bahuchar Mata, the goddess of Indian eunuchs, addressing him as Ma.

Mr Cooper, who says he has been diagnosed with gender identity disorder, likes to wear a sari and be addressed as a woman.

Hence his new name, Pema, meaning lotus, by which everyone now addresses him.

Only in India could a weirdo be mistaken for a supernatural being.