I am bleeding and nothing more, then why should I stay away from everything?!
Dhruti cried, “How can you do this to me, mom? I belong to this era, not yours! Just because you suffered, that doesn’t mean I have to suffer too!
Mom yelled back, “Do as I tell you, we go to temple, do puja at home. You can’t touch any one of us, neither are you allowed to roam here and there. Don’t enter a kitchen, you have to wash your own utensils and wash your clothes too.”
After marriage and years of staying in a joint family, with no arguments on this issue, she just followed what she was told to do, she knew, if her mom wasn’t ready for change then how would Maa-in-law adapt.
After years of living in a joint family, she started a new family – her own.
Freedom from everything. But she didn’t realise that a problem was right around the corner. Soon she got her periods, she told her Maa about cooking for her son and two grandchildren. Surprisingly, she said “This is your problem. It’s not a temporary problem, it’s a monthly issue.”
Baffled and anguished by her attitude, Dhruti got so irritated, she thought, “Forget everybody! To hell with religion and rituals. I will cook and forget the menstrual cycle.”
Throughout her life, until menopause, somewhere within her, she felt the pang of guilt for a minute. Since the beginning of her periods, she was frequently reminded of the list of “Do’s & Don’ts”, then how could she forget “Period is a grave sin”
Sin for no fault of her own. Just because God decided so? She was made to suffer.
*Kalpana’s Imagination*