The bin bulaye mehmaan turns up every month and throws you off gear. Every. Single. Time. Okay, you may have been expecting it but nothing can really prepare you mentally for the days that swipe the vivacious smile on your face. You feel like you’re in the doldrums but, when you look back, these days throw up some hilarious memories that are worth the laughs.
…unfortunately, there’ll be this dark brown blood spot staring right back at you, more often than not, appearing way larger than what it actually is. And there goes your bed sheet to ruins!
All your requests, exclamations, threats, and counter-efforts fall into deaf ears. Then the unwanted happens and you cannot help but cringe in disgust from the sudden barrage of warm blood in your pants.
Ey, dekhna zara, you say while turning away from your friend, with your eyes indicating towards your butt. Your body language screams that you want her to check for period stains on your pants. You feel conscious thinking that the brown mark will be a huge giveaway to the world about something that you don’t want them to know. So you find yourself asking your friend to check on you every now and then.
Okay, you get off the bed with that godforsaken waterfall in your pants and then look at the mirror, perhaps to start your day with a positive affirmation or to examine your period skin. And who decides to greet you? Yes, that ugly pimple is back again! If that is not enough to go “ew” yet again, you feel enraged by the spot it has chosen for itself – between your eyebrows, on the bridge of your nose, and sometimes even down south.
Hah, sounds funny now. But it isn’t so at all when you are bleeding. Sometimes you catch yourself thinking funny thoughts, noticing unusual stuff, and imagining bizarre things. And one of them is finding patterns in your blood clots and identifying shapes – from stains on your sanitary napkin, blood spots on the floor, and even those left at the bottom of your toilet bowl.