When I was in 6th grade I knew a bit about menstruation. I got to know exactly about it when I was in 8th grade. Our 8th grade CBSE textbooks had a chapter on Adolescence. While reading that chapter little did I know that the mind set about menstruation is totally different in the society..

According to biology:

“Menstruation is a phase in the menstrual cycle in which shedding of the women’s uterus lining takes place. The uterine lining breaks down into blood substance and exits through the vagina. ”

Simple right?! Just a normal process that runs periodically in every women after hitting a certain age.

But our society isn’t really that okay and neither treats women that normally during their menses. Here are the few incidents i went through or saw :

1) In our culture, parents organise a huge function where all our relatives are called and surprisingly they all get expensive gifts for the girl who just got matured (biologically and not exactly!). But thankfully i wasn’t in my native and hence that function didn’t happen for me. I actually find it stupid. I will tell you why. Its a celebratory moment I agree, if you see it in biological terms but the point is according to our society its not supposed to be spoken out loudly or can’t be talked about in the public. So my point here is if you can be a part of such celebration then why can’t you speak openly about it in public. For God’s sake its just a process, kindly treat it like one!

2) Whenever I used to get my menses, I was asked to take bath using a separate bucket and without touching anything around me. And forget about the time. If it happens at mid night you have to take bath in that freezing cold water and then only you can go off to sleep because you can’t touch the bed otherwise! I got pissed off this myth at a very early age and stopped following it. My point here is do you take bath every time you go to pee? So similarly, this is also a normal biological thing! Why create such situations in it?

3) Till now whatever you read is gonna sound minute after reading this para. So I live in a single room and one day my drinking water got over. I went down to get water from my neighbours. She opened the door and i told her that i needed water. She went and sat on a blanket which was put on the ground. She then asked me to fill my bottle on my own as she was going through menses. And surprisingly i asked her why so? She then told me, according to their culture the girl going through menses isn’t supposed to touch anyone or anything in the house for 7 long days! She has to eat and sleep on the floor for all those days! Isnt that just totally insane? And why all this you know? Because they consider the girls to be “impure” in those days!

4) Next time when I went to get water from the same neighbour, I was going through menses. That day only Uncle was at home. As soon as he opened the door he asked me to fill it myself as he was getting ready to go out somewhere. After saying so, quickly he asked me if i was going through menses and i told him yes I am. He asked me to wait outside and keep my bottles down so that he could take it without touching me. He filled the water and gave it. And while giving it he said that he is scared of God and hence don’t wanna do anything that is punishable. From that he meant that touching a women going through menses is a punishable act for God! Oh Lord! Please someone make them understand that god only has created a women like that to make babies!

5) So basically my drinking water supplier doesn’t provide water on time. Hence once again i had to go to the neighbour to get water. Aunty asked me if i was having my menses and as i said yes. She then didn’t take my bottles. Rather filled water in their own bottles and gave it to me.

Hahaha she filled water in the same kinda bottles!

6) This ones the last but the most heartbreaking one. One day i was standing on my terrace and having my coffee and looking down. I saw that a girl was sitting outside her house holding a packet of sanitary pads. His younger brother, who might be around 4 years old, came and took out a pad and started playing with it. His mother came running, slapped the girl for being so irresponsible in handling a mere packet, snatched the sanitary pad from the kid, kept it back into the packet and yelled at the kid for being so naughty. Got water and a sanitiser to wash the hands of the kid. Yelled at the girl for teaching the kid wrong things. And all this coming out of a women is what is heartbreaking! If you teach that to a kid then imagine how will he turn out to be in future! Even he will consider menses and sanitary pads to be something wrong!

How few people in our society are treating menstruation is totally very wrong and so harsh on a women who is already going through cramps and other things on those particular days.

Stop treating women like aliens when they have menses. Because of the menstrual cycle babies are born as our uterus prepares itself to hold the embryo through this blood lining. Its just a biological process and not a SIN!