A girl got down from her school bus and entered her residency. The boys sitting inside the bus were perplexed and quiet. She witnessed the pitiful eyes of people on the road over her.
“Mom, am I not looking good today?”, she asked in a concerned tone as she reached home.
As she turned her back towards Mom to see her face in the mirror, Mom patted her from behind, “Oh dear, what have you done?”
“What have I done Mom?”
Her skirt was stained with blood all over.
Mom took her to washroom and picked up the last pad available in the house and asked her to follow her advice, whichever she gave to her.
“Is anything wrong with me Mom?”, those questioning eyes of her made her Mom dumbfounded.
“No, dear. Finish your lunch, you got to go to a medical store to get some sanitary napkins.”
Pondering over what was heard, she gulped down the lunch without a word and washed her hands.
“Whisper extra large orange colour packet”, she asked on the medical counter, recalling her mother’s words.
The medical guy wrapped the pads in a newspaper, stapled it and gave to the girl. She left hurriedly.
What are we teaching girls? Are we teaching them acceptance or making them guilty of being a woman?
An open letter to the real stained minds of the society:
“Stains of blood on her clothing isn’t a blot on her dignity but a stigma on your minds. She isn’t supposed to be clean to keep tidiness in your vicinity.
A temple wouldn’t be a sacred place without Lordess Durga’s deity kept in it.
It’s a high time to stop the percolation of menstruation related stigma in our society. A bleeding woman isn’t impure but a sign of divinity, the reason why someone gets to see this world. We need to make our boys understand and respect and protect her more on her ‘those’ days instead of creating an awkward state for her.
Stop defaming n shaming her during her menstrual cycles, understand the pain she goes through instead of aggravating it.
Shaming the woman on her chums? Shame on u first!”