‘She’ In Her Dignified ‘Red’

‘She’ In Her Dignified ‘Red’

She looks perfect in ‘Red’. She looks gorgeous even with ‘Red’ stains. ‘Red’ : Her Dignity

Breaking the Silence: Menstruation, Myths, and the Dignity of ‘Red’ in Modern India

From Innocence to Isolation: A Young Girl’s First Encounter with Menstrual Stigma

Ismirity Rana

She wasn’t even born, when she was in her mother’s baby bump it all started there. She cried for the very first moment leaving a blissful smile to every heart. She cried and it went to a pause the very fine moment. She was welcomed with full enthusiasm and indifference in a world full of indefinable terms and conditions. She was so simple and adorable, but was unknowingly preparing herself for an unsung taboo of this contemporary world.

No one ever knew the pain and about the shame she felt for a natural phenomena that is considered an embracing taboo even the day today in various remote as well as cities of my country. Talking about which is like revealing your secrets everywhere and sharing your pain for an empty bowl of nothing. She was an assemble of innocence having no idea what she will have to go through once she gets out of so called childhood.

She was like a piece of blank paper which can’t be filled itself, which can’t erase the stain itself until and unless one of us lends her a helping hand. She was like an empty pot which can’t be filled until and unless anyone of us pours water on it and make it simply half fill or simply let the water overflow. An angel, who is being trained secretly to be a fighter, to be an independent soul, to be the key of all the locks, to be a mother and to be the strength of this tilted world.

Likewise with passing hours, passing days, passing years , she turned eleven and there she asked her first question to her mother, “Maa, what is this?” Being uneasy her mother grabbed her hands and asked her not to touch her stuff without her permission. So smartly she managed to let the question vanish from her mind and all it went off.

Finally the auspicious day came. She was in her class, when she for the very first time felt the unknown uneasy pain in her abdomen, but she managed to let it go and stayed focused with her lesson. Soon the bell rang, she stood up from her bench when she felt wetness in her skirt, she thought of going to the bathroom and check what it was. She was about to leave her desk when the group of boys at the corner started laughing and making her fun for no reason just for the sake of their entertainment.

No one knew what she was going through neither even she herself. She ran towards the washroom as fast as she could and found herself bleeding from her cervix. She was scared and went blanked out about what to do , she came out of the washroom, struggling to hide her stain and was struggling to walk with her ache.

As soon as a teacher saw her in a state of dizziness she went to her and asked what was the matter. She with a little hesitation hiding her fear and feeling shy told nothing and just smiled. Soon the teacher’s eye caught her red stain , with her sweet tone she consoled her and uttered her not to worry as this was nothing to feel shy for. She informed her parents and for the first time she got her answer of the question she asked her mother that fine day as she was gifted with a pack of six pads for the period she was going through.

She in a dilemma went home with her mother where she was introduced to so called new rituals. Was locked in a room of four walls with closed window, closed door , wasn’t allowed to loiter around, wasn’t allowed to see any man nor her father neither her brother, wasn’t allowed to feel the rays of the sun, wasn’t allowed to talk, and a lot more logical or illogical rituals behind.

Well, the period of seven days where a girl’s body undergo several physical, emotional and behavioural changes. The period when a girl needs more mental support, more friendly beings, needs more fresh air , needs a bit more care, needs a bit knowledge about what actually it was, why it was and how it was.

At such a period she was left alone locked in a room of four walls with more restrictions, no conversations, no mental support , nothing but just her own dilemma accompanying her the period of auspicious seven days during her first menarche.

Days passed, months passed, time was going towards a year following all those strict norms, facing veiled pain every month, bearing the treatment like an impure teenage. Every month passed with a fear of those scary seven days. As soon as the unwanted day merge closer as soon as the symptoms start showing their wild face with severe headache or severe back pain , with severe cramps or severe nausea , with severe dizziness or severe tiredness accompanying with mild or severe mood swings (depends upon your diet, your physical and mental health) sounds weird right !

But that’s what every girl goes through between that certain period which actually feels too uncertain. She was too going through the same. No knowing’s about what it was in actual, just following those strict norms so called logical norms in sake of not being punished by the ‘Thee’.

“What is that red colour in your skirt, didi”? asked her brother one unfortunate day. Being embarrassed she ran to her room, felt frustrated and went to the bathroom to clean her body from the Shakti of so-called ghost called ‘ Periods ’.

Years passed and she was promoted to ninth standard and within a couple of months she came out through her darkness of her dilemma of that ghost called ‘Periods’. Obvious answer, she learned that the another name of this ghost is ‘Menstruation’ or ‘Menstrual Cycle’. She used to come every month and take the control of a female’s body in order not to make her impure but to let futile stuff flow off from her body. Too much of contrast right !! The so called ghost wasn’t actually a ghost but an angel who comes every month to make her every daughter pure and stronger than she was a month before.

She was clarified, though her dilemma wasn’t agreeing to leave her. Why does the society address a girl to be impure for the period of those magical seven days?? Why such strict norms?? Why should we hide from others?? Too much of dilemma once again.

She got all her answers. Beside that, the uncertain stuff used to disturb her mind thinking why they aren’t taught about all these during their menarche. Why people just teach them the norms that they have to follow this and that and not the reasons behind?? They don’t say not to go to any temple as it will cause harm to her health but beside that the only term they use is ‘impure’.

Why??

Girl’s nowadays stand against such discrimination, they keep themselves in trend by uploading related reels, videos, posts and so on, why don’t they try to understand why such norms, is there something logical, without knowing without asking themselves the question.Obviously, there are logical reasons behind. There’s no fault of any of the girl, they are discriminating against certain norms, because they aren’t taught about it, it has become a taboo in our discriminating society.

Who are responsible?? Does anyone know??

They are the people like us, they are the people like you, they are the people like me. Why a taboo?? It’s just our red blood, why so?? Why it’s an embarrassing stuff?? Well, no one knows the answer to this question, because one can read and understand the logical facts , but one can never understand the illogical mind-set of a human. She understood it well that it wasn’t ever a taboo but was made kind oftaboo by people having same body structure, same organs but with much lower mind-set.

Soon the world started unfolding for her. Merging from one direction to the other, turning the pages of books, scrolling the related content, at last she understood it was never a taboo , to an utmost , but the one who made it a taboo are the women themselves, the one who made it impure are the women themselves. As we all know everything has a hidden science behind, same goes for it too.

Our ancestors knew it well, she after going through the history and vedic science revealed herself that everything had a reason and that all the rituals were logical, but the one who made it illogical are the modern cultures actually not modern but western and Indian women pretending themselves to be western. They were locked in a room not because they were impure but because during this auspicious period of seven days the girl used to go through a lot more changes in her body so for the period of seven days they were asked to give rest to their body so that the changes undergo smoothly without any pain or dizziness.

So in order to make it sacred and to give her body rest they were asked to separate themselves for this period of auspicious seven days so that they won’t get any such orders regarding any household chores or any such stuffs which makes them restless. They were asked not to sit in chairs or benches or sofas or any other furniture, because with no option left they would lie on the ground or take their seat on the lap of the mother earth by which through the heat or the cold from the floor would regulate their body temperature which goes high at the initial day of its starting and also maintains the circulatory system.

They weren’t left alone, girls during this auspicious period did meditations, read books which maintained their calmness and relaxed their pain.

During early days, there were no pads no cotton cloth still most of them did not face such deadly disease like fungal infection, uterus cancer and so on which women of our modern era are going through. There’s a rate of 75% of Indian women having bad hygiene out of which periods is the main cause. Earlier during historic period, women used to prepare their own pads with the hot ashes of fire from her kitchen . Yeah , am not faking, that’s true.

They used to wrap the hot ashes in a piece of cloth and used it as blood soaking garment and pain relieving hot water bag. Sounds interesting right, far better than those mere whisper choice, stayfree or so on.

They were not allowed to go to temples not because they were impure but because during this period entering the surrounding of temple can cause serious ailment to a woman’s health.

Many of my friends may not know the fact behind constructing temples towards the direction of magnetic field which creates a sensation of positive energy throughout our body when we enter the surrounding of any temple. But such magnetic fields are harmful for a woman during this auspicious period because a woman’s body undergoes physical changes and removes the impure blood in the form of bleeding from her vagina. During this period the rate of flow of blood throughout her body is high, so coming in contact with high magnetic field can cause serious ailments and that’s the reason behind such norms.

Talking about why not to discuss with anyone, what’s the need to discuss?? Is there anything to discuss about a natural process?? Do we discuss why do sun rises from east or why do sun sets in the west?? No, right. That’s the reason behind every logical norms.

We are in such an era where more than logical facts people are influenced by some sort of social media stuff and so on. Teenage girls nowadays can’t bear their periods pain, they need pain killer, some sort of dark chocolates to console themselves and so on.

Have you ever seen your mother crying with pain or trying some sort of home remedies to cure her pain?? What has caused this sudden change?? What is the reason behind increasing rate of uterus cancer, fungal infections, ovary tumour etc.etc.??

You can check the increasing rate of such dreadful diseases anywhere but why not the preventive measures. It’s all you and your approach to deal with anything. It’s you, your body, and those red stains are not to feel shame of, but to embrace your changes and to respect your capabilities.

Take care of yourself my girls. You are the pillar , you are the future mother, you are a strong fighter. Be smart, be brave and be proud of yourself. TAKE CARE MY GIRLS!!

The writer is an FYIMP undergraduate student studying in Gauhati University major in Communication and Journalism.

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