Story of my First day of menstruation?
Well, at this juncture for me to speak of menopause and it’s side effects would be more interesting but nevertheless to go back a few decades would surely be like reliving those careless years.
A couple of decades ago menstruation in my society in Calcutta was a very normal and natural outcome of growing up.
In our home it was a very relaxed time of the month, I understood all of the complications when I began to menstruate and when in class among friends we exchanged notes and woes.
To recall with excitement on my first day of periods, I have to mention the kind of girl I had been as a young girl and how the story of the menstruation story by all means had to be cracked to me very early in life.
I was a very playful girl, very athletic. A tomboy if I may say so. The outdoors attracted me and anything which a girl was asked not to do compelled me to it. A sort of non conformist in attitude.
Climbing trees and over the wall, Sitting on cupboards, playing footballs, swimming in large tanks were my everyday activities.
I got my periods when I was just 8 years old! The period story as I had mentioned was told to me by my mother so that I may rectify my brash games, so that I take care of my body parts especially my private parts because that is where my blooming and grooming lies
PUBERTY..
She ? is what she now knows,
She is what inside, her world shows.
A little seed in her would be sown and every month,
it would wait, wait and wait..
it then will begin to weep and moan.
Her pains would gnaw on each and every body part.
She bleed and bleed to discard the seed,
Which she is still not permitted to meet.
Celebrating woman hood,
Transiting from girl to a big girl.
Her vagina no ready to receive and give,
The world wih new Hope.
By the age of 7, I learnt the pros and cons of my daring play and what night happen to my menstruation cycle if I do not take care.
Now these bloody stories could not go well with me because they were a restrictions to my play and the other being I had very few girls as friends with whom I could cross check and examine the stories told to me.
By early 8years my poor mother mentally prepared me for its arrival. Our days we had to use home made cloth pads which had to be hand washed, dried in a secret place to be reused.
Often I complained of pain in my joints and lower abdomen . It seems these were symptoms which gave my Ma a hint of what is comming my way.
By the closure of my 8 years one fine day I woke up with severe stomach pain and joint pains with blood stains on the bed.
My mother calmed me and once again reiterated the story of bleeding and the necessary hygiene that needs to be followed she also awakened me to the sexual routine that had undergone change due to menstruation and how from now on we need to safe guard our womanhood.
It became very easy, comfortable for me during those days. I had never had gloom days during the 5 days.
When I turned 12 and was in match with other girls about to get their chums or were getting theirs, their woeful stories would frighten me , the homes they had come from, the social taboos they were victims to made me really anxious of their mental well being.
I thank my family and the way my mother, my father and brother understood my bleeding days.
Educating a young girl into menstruation makes it easier, comfortable, secured for her transition. Love and tenderness, respecting her privacy gives her self dignity. She learns to respect her body and it’s changes.
This empathy I could repay to society when I started writing.
I had dedicated many pieces on menstruation to men taking lead to spread awareness.
In 2019, my poem ‘LOUD WHISPER WITH LARGE WINGS! ‘ was adjudged as one of the selected poems for the 100THOSANDS POETS FOR CHANGE IN THE WORLD WIDE COMPETITION, BANGALORE ZONE.
Another poem GIRLS RED CYCLE was selected to be read at a photography exhibition – VELOV 2020 in Bangalore.