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She was sure she was dying of cancer the first time her periods came. Why did her mother not explain anything? Why did no one say anything?
Sneha still remembers the time when she had her first period.
She was returning home from school in a cycle-rickshaw in which four girls used to commute to school. When she found something sticky on the place where she was sitting, she wanted to hide it, but she would be the first girl to get down and others were bound to notice it. She was a nervous wreck.
As expected, everyone had a hearty laugh seeing her condition. She wondered what the rickshaw-wallah thought of her. Running towards her home, she told her mother about it. And then, she saw. There was blood all over. Was she suffering from some sickness? Cancer? Her maternal uncle had died of blood cancer!
Her mother just gave her some pieces of clothes to be stitched on her underwear whenever she felt like that. Was that all that she had to do? Was her mother not able to understand her condition? She had cancer!
She lived in a small house and everyone would wonder if she cried. No, she had no chance of shedding tears. Her heart was breaking. As a last resort, she wrote an imaginary letter to some unknown Doctor explaining her condition which she imagined was cancer and put it in a place where her mother would see it. And lo! Her mother did!
Watching her mother read it, Sneha felt hopeful. Now her mother would understand, and help her about the cancer. Talk about it. Explain to her what was happening. Some solution would surely come now that her mom read what she was going through?
However, nothing happened. Her mother did not say anything about it. She was becoming a nervous-wreck now. For an entire year, Sneha was sure that she was dying. Nothing interested her.
One day, while she was going through the magazines which her mother read, she noticed an article about it. Then, another! Then, the third one!
So, was it a normal phenomenon? Then, why didn’t her mother talk about it?
Now, she also wonders why there was no education about it in school? How will others girls deal with it? Or will everyone go through the worries she went through? Why?!
Image source: by Peopleimages.com – YuriArcurs Free for Canva Pro
Neelam Saxena Chandra is an Engineering graduate from VNIT and has done her Post Graduation Diploma in IM&HRD and also in Finance. She has completed a summer course in Finance from London School of read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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