It was past 3 in the evening. I got ready to play with my friends when I found my white skirt was blood-stained. I ran to my mum expecting I would be pampered and told nothing was wrong. I expected everyone would calm me down as I was having a panic attack.
But my mom immediately asked me to come out of the house, made me stand in a corner asked my sister to check if I was okay. That was at age 13, when I had no clue what was going on. Within hours, ours relatives visited our house and it was the most embarrassing moment of my life.
Why am I talking about this, “don’t-say-it-aloud” topic now? To anyone asking me if I am not shy of sharing these moments, I say, “NO. I am not.”
It is high time we spoke about periods and broke the taboos. Because, today, our sister Vijaya, a 14-year-old from Pudukottai, who was left alone to sleep as she was menstruating, when Cyclone Gaja was raging outside, is dead. What would she have thought while screaming for her life amidst the merciless wind blowing around her?
“Why, why and why?” is the only question that pops up again and again in my mind.
This news did not let me sleep for 2-3 days. Because, this is the extreme form of what we girls go through all our lives (at least the ones who are made to follow these taboos).
DO YOU KNOW?
From time to time, girls have gone through a lot during their menstruating days, apart from fighting the brutal pain that they go through – no bed, no bedsheet, separate plate and tumbler, no crossing males, no going anywhere near the pooja room as you are not clean… the psychological pain is immense.
WHY FIGHT SABARIMALA?
After Vijaya’s death, I saw many posts on social media sites saying, “Break the bloody taboos. This is a natural process. Do not discriminate against them.” Excuse me sir / ma’am: you are the ones who raised your voice against menstrual age women going to Sabarimala after the Supreme Court judgement.
If in Vijaya’s case menstruating is natural, why not also women of menstrual age trek to Sabarimala? Does Pudukottai differ from Sabarimala?