I have got my periods in 7th standard and it was a not so good experience, or I should say weird. Having an elder sister, I have had some idea that there is something which Mom and she is not talking very openly in front of my father and brother. Even back in school I remember occasionally all the girls above 6th standard would be taken for some session and we have been told to not share it with the boys of the class. Even on a girl asking to teacher what we should say if our friends asking where we went, for that the teacher replied to just say there was some special Arts class for the girls.
All these things developed a very bad feeling inside me that something wrong will happen to a girl body at the age of 13-14 years which is not supposed to be disclosed to others. For me it happened at the age of 12 and I was so embarrassed about it that I could not share it with anyone not even to my Mom and sister. And for 2 months I tried to manage it on my own with 1%of knowledge.
My Mom being very observant, it was very difficult for me to hide it from her and I used to wait for her to sleep to find some spare cloth and to hide the used one. I have had this feeling that she will scold me that it has happened to me at an early age whereas to my sister it happened in 8th standard. I have used paper and even went to school without using anything so that she should not get to know. And whole day sat in a discomfort position to even hide it from my friends, consciously checking on my skirt if there is any mark or if there’s any blood drop on the floor.
All these happened because in school, children easily make fun of things and I remember in my class there were these 2 girls who used to talk on period related things a lot and make fun of it. They used to observe girls on their behavior and then categorize who has got periods and who has not. We will not be called for PT periods and for ‘Kanjak’ which was celebrated during Navratri.
I used to be very disturbed and feel discomfort as i was unable to pretend and hide it all the time for 5 days that I am not going through anything.
Back then it was like that because our parents were not that cool at least my parents were not, and we were not comfortable talking about it to them and we were not given proper awareness on periods at home that what it is and how to manage it.
I was always into this feeling that it is something wrong and whole of the school days I have struggled to hide it from people whenever I used to get periods as it was such a big ‘TABOO’ during those days. It was only after college I started feeling little comfortable talking on it with friends.
Of course, now things are very different and better with the efforts of so many individuals, startups, social media campaign to break the TABOO and talk openly on PERIODS and menstruation hygiene.
It is a normal biological process which every woman goes through and THERE IS NOTHING WRONG IN HAVING PERIODS.
This World Menstruation Hygiene Day let’s talk periods. #HAPPYBLEEDING
Pallavi Priya