"What's what?" She replied, doing a bad job in hiding the stuff.
The little one only knew too well that she wasn't going to get an answer. She'd tried enough times already. So she wisely put away her question.
She'd asked her mom about those strange 'whisper' commercials for girls, and had only gotten vague replies. At other times, she'd been told about how girls were different from boys, of biological processes and other things which she had found insignificant to register. But it never occurred to the little mind that these were all connected and more or less pointing to the same thing. Periods.
It was the strangest thing when she first found that red stain in he clothing. She spent a good deal of time wondering when she'd spilt red ink on her top before narrating her mysterious discovery to her mother. Then came 'the talk', and just like that, all the pieces fit in together to an "Ooh!" moment.
She enjoyed a slight sense of pride to be the only one among her friends to be 'mature', as they called it. Life went on more or less the same way. It didn't cause much of a hindrance to her usual routine. Frustrated, that she was...to have to check regularly for stains in school uniforms. But there were those girly giggles in school when they had a code language to pass on a napkin, meet up in the bathroom or check for stains. And also the 'special' meetings for girls in school, when the boys would wonder what it's all about and the girls'd make up their own tales of what fun things they did together at the meeting.
To her, periods was nothing more than a small, negligible monthly irritation. But then she came to know that everyone didn't have such a smooth story. She heard about people crying the first time, the shock of not knowing, the excruciating pain, and being subjected to restrictions that made no sense. She was nothing short of amazed to know what a big deal it was made of. It was only then that she realised that she was lucky enough to have had no problems with its monthly visit.
Periods was a natural process after all, a mere part of life. Why hadn't she questioned all the hush-hush part of it? Why were the napkins always kept hidden ? Why did men hesitate to purchase them for ladies? Why was it a taboo in the society?
Like they say... education is not a crime, but ignorance is. So here's to all those amazing ladies of age, this isn't something to be ashamed of and you know it. Yes, it's tough. Yes, it's a trouble. But not something we can't deal with. And no, it isn't a shame, it isn't a disgrace. It is simply a part of who we are.
Let's hope for more of these girls with effortless transitions into a life with period pride.
You read it right. Period pride. Trust me, it isn't a big deal unless you choose it to be. Now it's left to us to convince the world the same.
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Linking with Write Tribe and #Naari, an organisation to spread awareness on menstrual hygiene among ladies.
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