It was an ordinary palpable day like any other and the weather being very hot I had few sweat drops on my forehead as I made my way towards the medical shop in the nearby vicinity. And then suddenly, my feeling was stuck in my gut as all the eyes of two men and an older women standing at the store were fixed on me. The way they looked at me made me feel like I was Mukesh (the Delhi gang rape accused) left out at the mercy of people. Now you must be wondering what my crime was.

Well I had asked the shopkeeper for a packet of SANITARY NAPKIN. Yes, lame isn’t it? Very lame and at such time I feel like shouting on the top of my voice “SHUT UP INDIA”.

Oh well, the story doesn’t end there. The shopkeeper also looked quiet offended as if I had asked for Marijuana to get my head right.

He took out a big piece of newspaper out of his drawer and started wrapping the packet in it, later to be placed in a pitch black polythene bag, a kind that has no see through. The older women literally shifted on sides so that her hands won’t touch the packet as I took it. This really depressed me. We are living in 21st century (at least that is what we say to the world) and we can’t even buy a sanitary napkin at peace.

In fact, there is a part of this country where buying a sanitary napkin is crime. Trust me, the women are so shy that they can’t step out while in periods and end up using folded clothes to absorb the blood flow. Furthermore these pieces of clothes are washed and re-used, how messy! However as the world evolved and technology improved, as is often the case with a lot Indian traditions, their actions did not change and got twisted into something pretty terrible with no one understanding why it was done in the first place.

Aaaggggrrhh! Back to the story I started, I told the man not to wrap and give it to me just like that because I was not buying some sort of drugs that I need to hide it. According to me menstruation is beautiful. It is a gift of god that gives every women a power to give birth to a life. She becomes a creator herself.

Most of Indians are double standards, yes I call them that coz’ they really are at least in this case. They crave for a child, they call children a form of God and then the mother who could bear a child because she menstruates is impure. How pathetic is that!

Periods are those delightful days women experience as blessings from God. Girls in India, when they menstruate, are asked to stay away from god and temple. They are considered unholy, their touch is impure and to me this is an A-one class of utter bullshit.

If a women cannot bear a child, she is cursed and if she menstruates she is impure.

We often shy away from talking on topics like this but I won’t. A face palm for the shopkeeper and all those eyes rolling on me trying to find guild inside me for asking something like a sanitary napkin openly like this. Well, I don’t mind, whether it’s a sanitary napkin or a condom. It’s better than those corrupted officers asking for bribe. Ask for it with pride.

Young girls aren’t informed well and when they grow up they tend to hold several misconceptions which are being passed to the coming generations too. In some cultures, if a girl is practicing an art form, she is not supposed to use her instruments during her menstruation period because “SHE WOULD BE ROBBED OF HER TALENT”. And to our utter dismal, I have to say that things are even worse in tribal areas where girls are put to live in Cowsheds without even proper hygiene. (Doesn’t this actually make them ‘impure‘?). Girls are actually made to drop out of the school once they start menstruating, JESUS CHRIST!!!! Someone slap me hard and bring me back to reality!!!

Now these are some things that women aren’t supposed to do during their menstruation. She should not cut her nails, she should not comb her hair, she should not bath, she should not pray, she should not go to temples, she should not speak any loud words (Wow! How many ‘should not’s!) and she should (Ah finally one should without a not!) practice.

Well, I am so done talking about all this as the more I write about all this sick practices the more sick I get and I just have one word for every girl that change your attitude girls and be bold when you step out and slowly the world will change for you.

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