Napkin
NAPKIN
This story is about a young girl named Piku who lived in a small village. In her childhood, she enjoyed a lot playing with her friends, singing, dancing , laughing.In her childhood days, she did not understand the complexities of an adult life.She would notice that her mother daily worshipped God and entered Thakur ghar(where idols of God and Goddesses are kept and worshipped) except some particular days of month.She also noticed that Tina, her aunt's daughter who was elder than Piku was not going to school or entering the Thakur ghar for some particular days of the month.
Piku was so young to understand it. She would always asked her mother, "ma, why is not didi (Tina) going to school and you are not worshipping idols of gods?"She got no answer. One day, she saw that her elder sister Tina was crying while returning from school. For several days from then on Tina did not go to school and became ill. Tina was having ache in her lower abdomen. Piku did not understand anything.Now Piku was also growing up and when she was in standard viii, her menstruation cycle started. Now, she came to know that why her elder sister was crying and why her mother did not enter the 'thakur ghar' for a few days.She heard that one day her elder sister, Tina was teased by some boys when blood stain in her school gown was seen .Piku was modern and broad minded.She could not abide by such rules like not to enter 'puja ghar,' not to go out from the house for a few days, not to tell about the cycle to father, brother or other male members of the family.There was another problem for Piku-to use old and tattered pieces of clothes instead of napkin. She was well aware of the fact that serious diseases may appear by the use of pieces of cloths. Piku got anxious. Piku made up her mind that she would bring a consciousnes among people regarding the matter. once she asked,"why we can not put the habit of using napkin giving up all our superstitions? why can we not come out of our shyness and understand that it is not the matter of shame but a natural thing?"Another reason of not using the napkin was its high cost.The women also said that they hesitate to ask the male shopkeeper about the napkin. Piku could not tolerate this orthodox behaviour and also started to illustrate the harmful effects of using cloth pieces in those days to her family.She also started a campaign in her school. She with her teachers and friends started to request and make the boys understand that menstruation cycle is quite natural. They should not tease girls but help them. At the starting most of the people got angry on Piku and even had stopped talking with her. But one day suddenly the scenario had changed. Piku's friend Sunita was crying bitterly in pain in the classroom. The boys in the class room could understand that her menstrual cycle had started. She was the sister of that boy who teased Tina.Sunita's class mate Deepak went to that boy and told it. That boy named Rohit went to the teachers and informed about his sister.He brought the napkin from his school's first aid kit and gave it to his sister.From that day he realised his mistake and said sorry to Tina for his previous deed.Other boys came to realise that they should be sympathetic and broad minded. They should also help the girls and should not tease them.If the women can become free and the male members of the family can also become frank and conscious about the matter they can spread awareness in the society and our society can overcome the obstacles of shyness, superstitions and women can get rid of serious deseases. In this respect the movie' Padman' is very appealing. It teaches the women to overcome hesitation and contact doctors and reject all the superstitions and old meaningless conceptions.
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