Since it's menstrual health awareness weekend, I thought of sharing this anecdote from 17 years ago. That's me on the second day of my period on a raft built by my teammates during an outdoor exercise organized by the Times of India's HR department at Neral near Mumbai. A random group of TOI employees from different cities were assembled to make a raft from bamboo sticks, coir ropes and tyres. We built a rickety two-seater. The men in my team did the brute job, I was the incidental captain (apparently they wanted a girl and the two other women denied the role). I was shy and didn't want to mention the word period to my male colleagues as an excuse to not get on the raft to balance the load with the other guy, Raghu. After huffing and puffing with the oar, my period cramps took over and I could barely whisper to Raghu that I couldn't do more. We had to go across the lake and back and he muscled through making us win. When one of the guys asked me if I wanted to kayak, my cramps were so bad that I almost said no. But then Raghu jumped in to take over the oars and asked me to sit holding the oar still while he manouvred. It's a trip that has given me two friends for life, Hrh Waleed and Priya R. Menon , and I cherish them and the memories I made there. Raghu never kept in touch. He left TOI Bangalore some time after this. But every time I look at this pic, I wish I hadn't been embarassed to admit that I was bleeding and couldn't do this strenuous task and pass it on to someone else. Such was the conditioning then, that you had to bear the pain and continue smiling, as women always do. Now we know better.
#menstrualhealth #menstrualhealthawareness
