Last week I had gone to watch PadMan. I am very particular about spending three hours specially when I have many things to juggle. So I had decided to give Padmavat a skip for Pad Man. I am so glad that I went for it.
I admire Twinkle Khanna for both her beauty and brains. I appreciate her initiative of making a movie out of the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham. I hope we keep on making such movies which enlightens our minds and brightens our society. But is this movie really for us. We ( I mean the ladies) all use pad I suppose and our husbands picks our pad when required and we don’t even get it wrapped in two three layer of papers and a black polythene. We all have it in our purses and periods is not a taboo for us.
I would have found this movie to be a classic of 1950s like ‘Achoot Kanya‘ ,completely irrelevant for us , if I had not happened to give a short visit to a place which gave me the real picture of our society.
I had been on a short stay at a place when my periods started , and right from that moment I was outcast! I was not allowed to enter kitchen and was not allowed to touch even the Almirah and someone had to bring my clothes for me. I was totally freaked out as never in my life I had imagined this in today’s India. On top of that the most hilarious part was that it was left upto my husband if he would allow me to sleep in the bedroom. I had almost laughed as I knew it was a matter of few days for me before I was out of this ( no not my periods, but that place). I didn’t even feel pity for the other women because I saw they enjoyed these rituals . They took it as a challenge and the rules were increased to increase the challenge level I think. Or whatever it was !
I had tried to derive some logic out of this act , I concluded that not allowing one to enter the kitchen meant that that woman has to just relax the whole day. But soon I realized that no , the first day of the periods were reserved for washing clothes of the family. Infact they used to dump clothes in their so called laundry bags so that once in a month the woman can spend almost 4 hours washing bedsheet, bed covers, clothes etc of the entire family. The remaining hours the woman is supposed to chop vegetables ( outside the kitchen) and grind chutney.
Now after this , Pad man was a must watch for me and I understood each and every part of it.
However after watching the movie I regret to have not taken my Kam Wali’s family along. Oh believe me it would have been so much satisfying then. But immediately after the movie I made up my mind of having a word with my Kaam Wali and My cook. Next day spoke to my cook and I was happy to find that she already uses a pad. Next I spoke to my Kaam wali who said she was thinking that atleast she can buy for her daughter. Now I shall buy her a packet so that she can get the feel of it and then I will have to assure that she and her daughter will use it instead of cloth.
Infact Twinkle Khanna should have encouraged the world to make their kaamwalis take this challenge and come out and face the society and hold a pad in their hand.
After this movie I challenge you to speak to your kaam wali/ any helper and get her to start using pads. I would have taken a photo of my kaamwali with a pad and posted it on social media but then its ok , we can do this silently also. If a man like Arunachalam can wear a pad, we atleast can help him spread the awareness.
Do leave your valuable comments/experiences/anecdotes if you have any regarding this so called taboo.
Mallomalli 