This happened last year when I was visiting my best friend’s house for her brother’s wedding. Both of us are doctors from a very reputed medical college in Pune. So was the bridegroom. My friend belongs to a quintessential typical orthodox family. But I guess that’s where your education comes into picture to change your thinking for the better. So it was the night before the wedding and we were all about to go to sleep. I went to the loo and lo and behold, there it was!

All of us have gone through this when our periods arrive a week earlier or later just like the Mumbai rains! I wasn’t expecting them at all! Now I was in a house full of old fashioned men and women with only my friend to go to. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]I almost felt guilty for chumming in their house.[/inlinetweet] When I told the lady of the house, she was quite disturbed. She gave me a hard mattress to sleep on and I was specifically asked to not touch anything. Had it not been in the night, I would have been asked to leave at that very moment. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]I wasn’t supposed to touch the water and had to stay ten feet away from the kitchen.[/inlinetweet]

My ‘inner goddess’ squirmed as I have been raised by a very modern mother who vehemently dismisses any period related taboos. I respect others’ traditions and ideas but they should at least be valid and logical. So the next morning I was asked to pack up and leave. I could go to the nearby dormitory that they had reserved for their guests. But there too, I was to wait till everyone finished getting ready and left. Only then could I have a bath.

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And let’s not forget that this is in a family with three qualified doctors. By then, the entire household knew I was chumming. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]I was given looks alternating between pity and get-out-or-you’ll-pollute-this-event glares. [/inlinetweet]I went to the said dormitory and waited. People soon got dressed and left. There were few not so decent worker-men left behind who began their routine scanning. I had had it! I refused to be subjected to anymore humiliation. I took the first local train out of there, reached home and changed into my period pajamas.

After all this, my friend actually had the audacity to ask me why I wasn’t staying back at her place after the wedding was over. I hope she gets her answer now. I am sure all of us go through such hypocrisy some time or the other. It’s about time we stood up and fought about it to show what a beautiful phenomenon periods actually are. It is a sign of womanhood, of fertility, of cathartic purity and of a new cycle beginning in the hope of forming a new life.

Disclaimer: Views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily represent that of the brand.
Image credits:- ‘Summer Wedding’ by A. Ramachandran, via www.artoframachandran.com

romavakadeAuthor:- Dr. Roma Vakade

Roma works among her patients for the better part of the day and spends rest of her time reading and writing poetry. She absolutely adores having friends and family over, and cooking up a feast for them.

Editor:- Divya Rosaline

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