Pranti and the dark room

PRANTI AND THE DARK ROOM

 Pranti found it strange when she noticed the dead red color on her underwear. She thought she is going to die. She rushed to her mom who was doing her mundane yarn work. Pranti called her mom and whispered on her ears .Both of them went inside the bathroom and stayed quiet for a while .Pranti pulled her inner wear and showed her mom that red thing. “Mom, What is it? Am I going to die? I don’t want to die. I have to win that quiz competition.” Her mom, Lata looked disgusted and cursed herself for giving birth to a girl child. She breathed heavily and spoke,”You are now untouchable. You got your first period, daughter. Now I need to hide you somewhere away from home so that you can’t be seen to male members.” Pranti rebelled saying, “I haven’t done any harm to anyone. Why should I hide?” Pranti started crying. Meanwhile her neighbour, Maya AKA gossiper aunty whose tongue functioned as sword, came at their home. She figured out the ten-year-old Pranti had got her menarche. She wanted to make sure Pranti felt worse. She exclaimed, “Oh my God!!! Daughter, you have become mature now Lata, the old people said it right, Mustard and daughters grow too fast. Pranti Beta, you got lucky .Now you don’t have to go to school now, isn’t it fun?” Pranti hated Maya as she knew that Maya was jealous of her family who were perfectly happy though they were from the lower middle class. Pranti looked at her mom to stop this upper middle class woman. Both the women then left Pranti alone, leaving Pranti to flow more of her tears. Pranti knew what untouchable meant .She knew that an untouchable woman can’t go to Puja room, kitchen and touch male, pickle and the flowers. She should try to bath everyday for four days but she never knew what the science was behind. But nobody had told her about the “Untouchable Holiday”. After a while both women returned but Maya with a devilish smile. She told that Pranti was going to stay in Maya’s home for “Hiding”. Pranti felt disgusted about it. But things had already been settled between the women. Lata then went to her yarn working colleagues and asked to check on the work. She grabbed some old clothes of Pranti. Her youngest son Saraj thought that his mom was just going to wash some clothes. Lata also bought some sanitary pads. Pranti and Maya walked to Maya’s home in a very awkward silence. Pranti was then shown the store room which was going to be her banishment place.”You know Pranti, this is a special place for you now. You will be getting special dishes to eat food .But you aren’t allowed to go out in day time and you know it quite well that I don’t like lights on in the day time .You should  not touch anything or else it will be impure. That old sofa is your bed now. Your mom will get you the blankets and clothes”. Pranti waited for her mom. Lata came after a while and demonstrated the way to wear pad. Praniti asked her mom how she was going to walk on the stairs to reach her class if she got her period during school time. “O Pranti. This pad is going to absorb your bad blood and it is going to be heavy. You need to be careful about leakage”, Maya added to make Pranti scared. Praniti was left in the store room as both women had to do their chores.  

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Pranti was recalling Mr Rai’s class when he was barely explaining the functions of female reproductive organs. She remembered the boys giggling and all girls having their eyes glued on the books. Pranti had an urge to ask questions but this scene surely discouraged her. She then thought of not being able to participate in the quiz which she wanted .Suddenly there was a knock on the door. It was Munu, Maya’s daughter who had brought Pranti the supper in most ugly looking dishes. Munu in proud voice said,” Mother has said that you can neither ask for more nor waste any of our food. You are not given any sweets or milk as untouchables can’t have it.” Pranti resonated this food to food in the hostel described by a hosteller. For Pranti’s hungry stomach it was a gourmet. Since the store room had old stuffs and was beside the cow-shed, it owned some kind of foul smell. After having her food, she laid on the sofa and thought of the animals within the room .The night grew darker. Again somebody was there. Pranti feared of an invader, ghost, rapist, thief and every possible threat. She convinced herself that it cannot be a ghost as ghost can penetrate through things. Suddenly a familiar voice said,”Pranti open it. I am scared.” Pranti finally held a stick and opened the door. It was Munu carrying a mat and blanket. She was mumbling and cursing her mother. Pranti watched Munu spreading the mat, grab a thicker mat from the old attic and cover herself with the blanket. It was around the midnight time. Munu shook Pranti and woke her up. Munu, in pleading voice and showing her pinky finger said,”Its emergency”. Pranti didn’t let go of this and replied,” When you drink all milk for yourself it happens.” Then both got out and responded to the nature’s call as fast as possible. They slept in peace afterwards.

Next day when Pranti woke up, she saw Munu accompanied by her mom to the bus-stop. She washed her dishes watching this. Around 10 in the morning that day she got her meal. She kept wondering what Mr. Sharma was teaching in the Maths class, what  Aisha  was thinking about her absence ,what had brought in lunch and what joke did the last benchers cracked in Ms. Nina’s class.

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 After five days Lata visited Praniti. Lata softly said,” Your friend came and asked about you. I told them you got wounded when you were in Mamaghar (Maternal-uncle’s house).” So, one of Pranti’s friends missed her too. Munu who was Pranti’s companion would complete her assignments with Pranti’s guidance as Pranti was agrade senior to Munu. Days went on and finally day of freedom, the tenth day came .But it was not the real one. Lata said Pranti could go to school but she had to stay in her “store room mansion” for five more days. Pranti could not see or speak to her brother. She could not talk about everything she had gotten through. Pranati promised to abide by the rule When Pranti got to school it looked like none of them missed her. She placed her bag near Aisha’s. The class had gotten more decorated with chartpapers of science experiments, maps, poems and motivational quotes. During the lunch break, Pranti stayed in the class after finishing the sandwich that her mother gave in the morning. “Let’s make a round of building and see pictures of Gandaki house who won the quiz,” said Aisha who had actually gone to Pranti’s house to see if she was ok. But she never told Pranti for Pranti knew it was only her , her best  friend who could come to her small home.They both greeted Mr Rai on the way. Mr Rai was hurrying to the staff room but he stopped and inquired Pranti about her absence. Aisha covered up telling the story told by Pranti’s mother. During the lunch break Ms Karki, Saraj’s class teacher  asked Pranti to visit her. “Just look down when she speaks. Don’t look at your brother no matter what.” Pranti said to herself.  Aisha stood beside Pranti. Ms Karki doubted the story Pranti articulated. Ms Karki was more concerned about Saraj not having his homeworks completed and no response from their mother. Ms Karki was about to call Saraj who was in his music class. “Ms Karki, Please don’t call him. I should not see my brother. It is the RULE.”, squeaked Pranti. Pranti explained her tales of surviving in the store room and the pains in her lower body. Ms Karki then asked if Pranti knew the cause and science behind the “RULE”. The science behind this is menstruation which would take place if it won’t meet a sperm.  Every month your body produces egg which stays on uterus. Didn’t you people study in health class? Again the same case! Ok listen to me carefully. When you will have intercourse with a boy then the egg inside your body can be fertilized by a sperm that comes from boy’s body and you can get pregnant means you will be a mother. Our society does not talk about intercourse so we need to know from school but may be you didn’t dare to speak as the teacher too might have  hesitated to talk about it .Our society calls us untouchable when we get our periods and we are called impure. Since it was your first period you are supposed to be hidden which I also had to do. I had to stay in cow shed and not have warm food. “, said Ms Karki. Pranti was now crystal clear about the theme of being untouchable. She thought Ms Karki was better teacher and guide. She wished her mother had told about this sometime earlier. Bell rang and Saraj came and hugged his sister. Pranti hugged him back and kissed him. She forgot the protocol set by her mother and the society. “Didi, I ate your entire share of candies that Papa had sent but I missed you so much”, Saraj confessed. Pranti said she had to go far to attend a program to be strong and protect him. Ms. Karki asked Pranti and Aisha to get back to their class. On the way back to the class Aisha with frustrated voice said,” My turn to banishment will come soon. I will also miss all of my family and classmates like you did. Why should only we be banished?  Pranti in a very calm said,” God has designed women’s body this way. We need to suffer these small pains to be strong to get greatest pain of being pregnant and giving birth to a child. The worst part is not this but the way you will be called untouchable and restricted to the things will matter. Now, every month for four days I will be impure and treated in very bad way. But I promise I won’t apply this RULE to my daughter.” Aisha looked thoughtful and questioned Pranti, “Do you really want to get a daughter and let her suffer being a girl physically and socially? Do you really think you will be able to cut those rules off till the time this society does not?” They had now reached the classroom with their minds evaluating a girl’s and a boy’s suffering. They thought boys can’t be moms and that was the only sad part they could think.