Menstruation is a natural process, but frankly speaking, I hate this cycle a lot. These four days are the worst part of my month. They leave me irritated with mood swings that increase day by day. However, we cannot share these miseries because a few men consider this a “problem.” Furthermore, in our society, it is believed that it is the impurity of women.
I feel happy that I do not fear discussing periods with my father. Earlier, I used to feel embarrassed to speak about my menstruation cycle with him, but this lockdown changed my outlook. I don’t have any words to express my emotions when my father brought sanitary napkins for me from the market — I still have tears in my eyes.
In middle-class families, we hardly discuss periods, especially with men. On 5th March, when I reached Patna, I could not fathom discussing the ‘taboo’ with my father. On 25th March, when the Prime Minister announced lockdown 1.0, I was perplexed for a second because I did not have any sanitary napkin left to use for my impending monthly cycle. I told my mother that my dates are here, and I don’t know what to do; all e-shopping platforms were closed.
My father and brother enquired about my cause of worry, but I felt extremely scared to utter periods in front of them. The next day, my father came to me with sanitary napkins, and I was shocked! That was the first time my father interacted with me about periods — that day, my father became my PadMan. That day, he asked me not to feel ashamed of a natural occurrence.
This incident made me wonder how many girls are able to talk about menstruation with their fathers. A survey was conducted in the UK that concluded only 29% of girls feel comfortable discussing their periods with their fathers. I could not find any data pertaining to the Indian scenario, which left me quite perplexed. If a developed country such as the UK still feels the brunt of archaic norms, how far would India stand?