Be Period Positive!

They ended their speech with this line: Be period positive. They spoke about an initiative that is not talked about easily because it’s a taboo. You are not supposed to discuss the subject in the open. Especially in the presence of men, be it anybody—father, brother or any other person.

Aditi Gupta and Tuhin Paul were introduced by the Emcee in the second session of #TedxBangalore on August 3, 2014 as the couple who is working as a team on a delicate subject. It’s about that difficult time of the month that a girl cannot explain easily to anyone and her mother is known to tell her, every girl has to go through this phase. You are not alone in this case!

Maybe we girls are not alone. Maybe the girl sitting next to you is going through the same problem, but why is it so difficult to discuss it in the open? Everyone knows about it. It is not that secretive a matter like an invention of a rocket. Aditi, in her speech, spoke about the problems that she had to go through in her early days of menstruation wherein she was not allowed to talk about it with her father and brother, not speak with the relatives or worship Gods and follow many such instructions. Almost all of us are asked to follow the same rules, except in a few cases where the men in the family are supportive enough to understand your problem. I never had a problem talking about this with my Dad because he was simply my father who needed to hear out his daughter. My Mom never told me don’t let people know about it but yes, it is a subject that you should not discuss too often. It’s something that happens to girls and boys know about it too. They don’t come and tell you if something related to their health happens. You definitely have a lot many interesting things to talk about other than this. Oh yes, we do!

However, the idea generates a sense of embarrassment when you even step out to buy the packet in the presence of men in a pharmacy shop, but not that much when you pick it up from the local supermarket. Men generally do not linger around that area, so it’s easier to pick it up from there. But in the pharmacy shop, it's not that easy. Initially, when I had started shopping for myself, asking for the packet used to be difficult. I was shy because the pharmacists were men and the people around were too. But, when the realisation dawned upon me that it’s a necessity and there is absolutely nothing to be shy about, walking up to the pharmacy and asking for my preferred choice of sanitary napkins was much easier.

It is nothing new or innovative that is happening with us girls, but it is exclusive to us. Making it sound like a dirty thing doesn’t really help because it is an integral part of being a woman. I would personally like to applaud the idea and efforts of Menstrupedia couple for bringing it in the public in such a creative manner and I hope, their efforts help in transforming the shyness into a positive confidence in the young girls and feel good about themselves.

Learn more about the concept here.

Can I take a few balloons after the party gets over?

Isn’t that what you would expect a child coming to a party to tell you if you are hosting it? The colourful balloons are what attract the children so much and they wait for the party to get over so that they can pick and choose the balloons according to their choice. But is this the same scenario when it comes to the monthly birthday celebrations in office? Well, for one, there are no children but what happens when you hear your colleague asking for balloons so that she can take them home to the HR?

At my workplace, as a HR policy, on the fourth Friday of every month, a monthly birthday celebration is organised where the employees who were born in that particular month celebrate their birthday together with all the others in the cafeteria by cutting a huge cake and eating some munchies. This month, a colleague of mine was celebrating her birthday and we all gathered in the cafeteria. It was decorated with balloons and festoons and the cake, the patties and the coke were waiting for us. All of us had only one thing in mind. A big piece of cake after the customary piece has been eaten. But this one colleague had something else in her mind. She wanted to take the balloons and was only waiting for the party to get over. Not showing much interested in the cake or in meeting everyone else in between work, she was looking for a chance to go and talk to the birthday organisers to help her the balloons.

After about 20 mins when people started moving out and getting back to work, she walked up to the HR team, asked for the balloons and came back to us all giggling with two bunches of balloons. Apparently, the HR team was also amused and they happily gave her the balloons to take home. She clicked photos with the balloons, posed along with others and finally got back to her seat.

The next thing that struck all of us was how was she planning to take these balloons home? Travelling back home in a bus was out of question but wouldn't the balloons burst while going in an auto as well. She was left with no other option but taking an auto back home. I accompanied her till the bus stop. Certain funny things happened on the way that made the whole incident more interesting. First, the neighbouring auto had women in it who kept touching the balloons while we were stuck in the traffic and it had pissed my colleague off quite badly. This was followed by the inquisitive auto-wallah (not blaming him though), as to why is she carrying so many balloons home? And whenever, a balloon or two would burst, he would turn and say, Kya Madam? The ultimate end to her dream of going back home with balloons ended with the street children catching her and running after her to give away the balloons to them. The kind hearted young lady she is, she gave them and returned home finally with only five out of, may be, 12 of them. 

We all knew that she has a fascination for balloons when she said, “We can put up balloons on her birthday and celebrate!” or “Oh wow! That team is celebrating his birthday and they have so many balloons on his desk. I will go and ask for some.” These only gave us the idea that on her birthday, we should gift her a packet of balloons if not anything else. That packet, I heard, is one of her most prized possessions and may be kept for her children to be inherited.

We feel amused to see her excitement when it comes to balloons and all she tells us, the balloons brings out the kid in her. It is always fascinating to have something of this sort in your life that never fails to bring a smile on your face, irrespective of how old you are and what profession you are in. A food for thought here? So, what’s that one thing that makes me a kid and bring a smile on my face? What about you?