Playing Ping-pong With My Periods!
I come from an upper middle class family. Being born and brought up in Mumbai ensured that our lifestyle was very metro-city like, yet firmly rooted when it came to following a certain standard of living. My parents encouraged me to pursue hobbies and not restrict myself to academics. As I grew up, I found myself enrolled in music lessons and there was no looking back! It grew out of being a mere hobby, to me giving a serious thought of taking it up as a career option. Besides music, another activity I diligently pursued was ‘Table-tennis’. As a child, I was always inclined towards sports. Be it skating, swimming, my mother did a lot of trial and error before narrowing down to table tennis.
As I continued playing table tennis throughout primary school, I grew as a player. I participated in numerous tournaments through the club and gained experience. My efforts paid off when I qualified as a member in my school’s under-15 team. Wearing the coveted school jersey with my name printed on it, made my dream come true. I visualized what it must be like to come back to school, having won a tournament, with the principal announcing your name for the entire school to hear and cheer!! Being a new member, I was kept as a substitute and was asked to keenly observe and note how my experienced seniors played.
Being a spectator, gave me brilliant exposure and I started understanding the nuances of the game. I played for a few inter-school tournaments through that year – winning some, losing some. That academic year just flew by. Soon, we found ourselves being in the top spot and directly being promoted to play at the District Level. By then, strenuous training including long practice hours took up my entire time. My life changed between 6h and 7th grade, never to become the same again. At the very beginning of the summer vacations, I got my first period.
Though soon, I found myself defying this monthly occurrence as routine and continuing with my life. How much ever difficult and nearly impossible it was, to ignore the cramps and body pain, I still went to school, travel in a rickshaw, go for sports and of course, continue with table-tennis practice. The season of tournaments soon sprung up. We had a very crucial match coming up the following week and we were at it! Practicing before and after school hours, doing circuit training and what not! By the time the match came up, we all were confident to take on the opposite team.
I was all charged up, being the first match of the season. My team mate had her match lined up first and she was a strong player and as expected, she emerged as the winner! Next in line was my match and my opponent wasn’t a strong contender, but her skills could certainly not be underestimated. Back then, the matches used to be of 21 points (presently it is 11) and the winner would emerge after a best of 5 performance (now, it is best of 3). I knew taking an early lead would put me in a better position to win. I did just that and won the first set comfortably. Halfway through the second set, I realized something was not right. The match was still under way. It took me a moment to understand what was happening, and then it dawned upon me; On one hand, I was in middle of a crucial match and on the other, I my period. I had no option but to continue playing consistently. But, honestly I was completely distracted. Sport requires quick movements and reflexes! Little leg movement during the match and I would feel a tickle of blood oozing out. I felt a very bad stain was on its way and would result in me backing out midway. Luckily, I was wearing dark blue shorts and the stain wasn’t apparent. I continued to fight as the match was crucial. I was highly distracted and had to play rather cautiously.
I wouldn’t dare look at my coach, fearing his tough looks for my unsteady game. I couldn’t share what had happened with anyone back then as it felt so awkward and no one spoke about periods so freely. My performance was affected! I lost the next set. Yet, I pushed myself to continue playing and took 2 straight sets to win the match (though it turned out to be a nail-biting cut to cut game). Post my match, I made my friend ring my mom from a telephone booth asking her to come to the venue with an extra set of clothes and a pad!
Even when it came to talking amongst girls, there was always a code language used to refer to periods or pads. There was a do or die moment in the match where on one side I could lose and run away from the situation by taking the easy way out and the other was to tell myself that periods will come every month, last for 4-5 days and finally cease. You will not always get a chance to sideline your work and do as you please. Challenges will come across, always be prepared! One important lesson I learnt that day was to carry an extra pad in my bag always and keep a track of dates. These are the biggest takeaways for any woman. Then on, I never let periods come on the way of my goals. So, to sum it up, all’s well that ends well!
Author: Parthivi P. Joshi
Parthivi is pursuing her post-graduation in Strategic Design Management from NID-Gandhinagar, she is a design graduate with a jolly good personality and someone who gels easily with everybody around! An avid reader, a table tennis player who also enjoys a game or two of scrabble over the weekends and an ardent traveler! Pretty much sums up Parthivi!
Editor: Anam Mitra
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