Periods or Shame?

I don't know whether to call it a unfortunate day or what, as one fine morning my well involved childhood play was distracted by the shooting stomach pain. With that confused baby thoughts I rushed towards the home and found my inners are dipped in red.

Oh!! It was scary to the core!!! I couldn’t stop my tears. I looked at mom with all expected support and she started treating me contagious instead.

It was really shocking and before I could realize anything, I was sent to the sunder room and locked.... All Alone!!! The world went upside down for me.

Separated was the word for me!! I was feeling horrible. I wanted a touch of comfort but I was forced to wear old cloths, my bed was kept in the corner. The food was not served in my plate which I fight daily to eat in, I was holding few different vessels kept above. I wanted to be pampered and no one was even ready to touch or even to pass by. I could hear my friends calling me to play and was said “She is unwell” I didn't know what kind of unwellness of this? Why my pain is not reducing? Few ladies few aunties just peeped in, smiled at each other, murmured the words and glanced at me the way which I felt guiltier but what was my mistake? I was not told!!! Looking at my awkward puzzled face my Bhabhi just leaned at me and uttered, "You are grown up now" and I remembered my father said yesterday "You are just a kid" I wondered how did I grow up in a day?? And was I lock for growing up? Did that turned me in to a different man eater species to harm others?

None of the male gender was allowed to see me, I thought I am my daddy's princess. Yes I was till yesterday. And today!! How could he sleep without meeting his princess while he didn’t do so since my birth??.... My brother! My little baby brother was crying to come to me He wasn't used to eat without me but he was forcefully stopped

My pain was reducing but not the blood.. it was red everywhere I don't know how deep the wound was. I was weak, I was tired but I wasn't medically treated, I wasn't taken to the doctor. Blood was just flowing!! Nonstop flowing but no one cared.. No one bothered my tears, my weeping. All I was given were few pieces of cloths to soak and wipe the red.... flooding blood...

I was left alone and imprisoned in my own home. I realized that this is something most awkward moment and I should feel ashamed about it and I was feeling it actually but the only question was "WHY"!! which remained unanswered and there wasn’t anyone to explain my unlimited WHYs and Whats .

And on seventh day I was amused with one more so called ritual performed to me. I was awaken by my family early morning at 4. I was to take bath and dress up like a doll. All the relatives and neighbors were visiting our place and meeting me like a rare piece of museum, they asked me how do I feel with that weird teasing smile which they didn’t even bother to ask in these 7 days .. all were looking like mirrors, same to same

Ahh how I feel horrible but I was supposed to give plastic smile and say I AM FINE, though i was not and I was still blank

Down the line this started happening every month..  Being left alone , isolated, without a human interaction.. Even I was not supposed to communicate with my God! I was not supposed to perform  Pooja. Me , my cloths , my vessels were UNTOUCHABLE.

And slowly I got molded to these behaviors. This is the path which every girl has to walk, now my questions were covered as I realized that this is nothing but THE SUBJECT OF SHAME and no one has answer to it. and these were my answers that I could satisfy myself.

Ah! This is not just a story but this is a naked truth of many houses of many villages and towns. This inhuman behavior is performed according to the customs decided by each traditions and surprisingly it is mainly performed by the ladies who have suffered through the same. They never bothered or tried question the one which is wrong. No one broke the hesitation to ask if the periods are impure then the fetus which is coming because of and out of the same placenta is pure or impure?

Kamakhya Goddess is still worshiped in her menstrual days and the blood coming from her vagina during her menstrual cycle is soaked in the towel which is kept in the drawer to get more prosperity and the same time The Lady “A Symbol of Goddess " is treated worse than the hell. The Goddess idol in periods is considered to be a crown and lady is considered to be UNTOUCHABLE which is also called as SUA LOGA in same city same place.

And this is when I say, it is better to educate a vegetable than to talk to the Literate Fool.

Taking the example of the country like India, Many places are still considered to be a hell for a Woman where they are imprisoned in the room , isolated , not allowed to bath to get those ugly looks  and none of the male would get attracted.

The place where Kamakhya Goddess is placed, The girl is examined on her first period Biologically or astrologically by the priest.. What a pathetic way!!! He decides upon the so called Janma Kundali made by the time of period and depending on that the rituals are made.  A small, tender aged girl has to keep fast which can go from 5 days till 90 days and cruelty is all other family memebers can eat the food but the poor soul has to keep the fast. This ritual is Called Tuloni Biya - Which is to get a girl out of all bad curses.. After all this cruel drama, she gets certified to be “ELIGIBLE FOR THE MOTHERHOOD”!!!!! And if any of the lady is going through the menstrual cycle during the festival when Godess Kamakhya is undergoing her chumps, the girl also has to undergo all the rituals which she already bared during her first period.. I go speechless

I ever think that what to call her where the festival is getting celebrated by such imposter people with pathetic mentality? Almighty power or Victim of Exploitation??

Now at one point If I swallow these irrational deeds by thinking that these are the rituals performed by our family ancestors that we have to celebrate and worship the days when goddess menstruate, Yes! I agree but still I am not convinced about the Mother , The sister , The wife to whom you treat as untouchable and make their periods a subject of shame!!  Where you keep the blood on the forehead as a pride which is oozing out of Goddess's vagina and worship her, and on the other side won't bother about the hygiene of the girls and feel ashamed to talk about it.

All the genders are coming by the same womb and not you or me but the eternal power has decided the physic of every being but it is we who did not allow to grow the ability of one. And the contemptible part is , cigarette can be sold openly when it is surely injurious to health but sanitary pad is given in non-transparent black plastic or covered by paper, Alcohol can be consumed openly without thinking the consequences on young generations, but Sanitary pad kept on the table openly can be a subject of deplorability.

यत्र नारायस्तु पूज्यन्ते, रमन्ते तत्र देवता | यत्रेतास्तु न पूज्यन्ते सर्वास्तत्राफला: क्रियाः ||

The home where the woman the respected will be always blessed by the almighty. If not, it is always a failure.

If we keep such sacraments, then from where this pollution diluted in the air? Who did it is the main question? Are all well versed people earlier considered to be men? Were there no intelligent women? If not, then yes I got my answer. Men could clearly see what the power a woman can perform! They could feel it! And just to hold it back, and not losing the privileges, the birth of so called rituals has taken place where everything went possible in the name of almighty command.

How I wish the woman could get the reality in early days, the world today wouldn't have suffered with irrational ruthless traditions

We whole heartedly thank Mr. Akshay Kumar and his wife Twinkle Khanna who helped to eliminate lot of misconceptions related to menstrual cycle and filled the new light and life upon its hygiene. We still need to speed up as in most of the rural region. Girls are still ashamed to go to the school, many ladies are suffering through white/yellow discharge, Leucorrhea,  Anemia and many more life threatening issues like Cancer.

Conservative thoughts, uneducated mind, and wrong rituals are no more important for us to talk. We just have to concentrate on during the period why girl is still not allowed to be easy with the family? Why is she not served with proper food together? Why is she kept away from her basic rights? Why she feels awkward to ask the pads in the store and why still the pads are given covered in paper? I know my questions might be felt as useless but if we think about it and work on these questions, the huge, united and the strongest living being sitting behind every door can be a reason of the most positive and progressive revolution of the country.

In my next chapter I shall be thinking one step ahead to stop this seriously contagious and parasite thinking under every roof When I mean every roof, it is not only about the lower middle class, It includes all the living being under the same sky.