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.
****
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.
***
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.
