Talking about periods in India has been a trivial issue since ages. It’s always considered a ‘private talk’ or ‘girls talk’ in our society. But thanks to the different campaigns and mainstream films such as PADMAN which have impacted this issue largely and is fostering change.
Let’s move to my story. I won’t say I was completetly unaware about it as I always use to hear my mother ranting about how in a few years something was going to happen to me. I wasn’t sure what exactly was it but yes the television advertisements of sanitary pads always made me wonder that ‘why do women need diapers?’ after all diapers are only meant for children who haven’t had their toilet training yet.
I still remember that day when during one my music classes in school I gathered all my guts to dive into a conversation where my friends were discussing their period dates probably. I asked one of the girls “do you know of something which happens to girls and is associated with the color red?” her eyes grew big and she immediately hushed me and said “that is period idiot, don’t talk so loudly…boys are listening”
That day I succumbed to her advise but that recurring question of why can’t we talk about periods loudly always triggered my thought. Then finally that day came, can’t figure out if it was the day of celebration or of dread. However my mom did not tell me ever to keep quiet or lower down my voice when talking about periods. I was in the washroom and as per my mother’s instructions when I saw those red stains I called for my mother loudly. She asked me to wait for two minutes. Those two minutes were indeed the eternity for me. I have a habit of overthinking and therefore in those two minutes I thought of hundreds of things that could happen to me. Whether I was to have this flow throughout my life, Whether it will cast a spot on my clothes or whether I’ll be looked down upon by friends, and then suddenly a knock was there on the door. Well, the rest I don’t think so I need to explain.
Since then a lot of horrors engulfed my heart the biggest one being a spot on my school dress. I’m always a outspoken girl so one day when me and girlfriends were talking about something related to periods, one of my friends stopped me and directed my eyes towards the boy who was sitting beside me. I said “so what? do they don’t know what is periods? Don’t they study the same chapter of reproduction they we do? what’s the issue then? That day I realized it is not so easy to make people understand that this is normal.
We have had a lot of orthodox rituals and believes regarding periods and I say proudly that I have always tried to defy them and always demanded for a logic behind every such notion.
In my initial period days I used to feel hesitant to talk to my father regarding my periods. This makes me reminisce the day when my dad asked if something was to be brought from the market and my mother shouted from the bedroom “one pack of whisper ultra.” I was stunned I really couldn’t imagine that this was so easy since then I’ve got that power to talk about periods freely.
My only message to everyone out their is ‘Talk about it because it’s not your problem, but your strength’