Text Credits: Shibul Pavithran 

A long time after social media and news channels erupted regarding Sabarimala Temple’s long held tradition of barring women of Menstruating Age from entering the temple due to the consideration of them being ‘impure’. Here comes a punching revelation that is contradictory to the orthodoxy beliefs and pious standards in our country which often goes parallel with patriarchy: Raja or Raja Parba, a festival from Odisha which celebrates the biological cycle of women that many consider as a taboo. Pronounced as raw-jaw, it is derived from the word Rajaswala which means menstruating women. It is a three day long festival celebrating menstratuation and women hood, and is celebrated at the beginning of the solar month of Mithuna, during the begining of monsoons.

According to the popular myth, It is believed that the mother goddess Earth, or the divine wife of Lord Vishnu, undergoes menstruation for 3 days every year, and those 3 days are celebrated by women and girls by taking a break from work, wearing new clothes, playing games together and generally enjoying themselves. During these three days, agricultural activities is forbidden and unmarried girls in the countryside are feted. As girls avoid cooking during the festivities, their commonest pastime is to take turns on swings hanging from tree branches.

Source: Youtube

The first day of the ceremony is called Pahili Rajo, the second day is Mithuna Sankranti, and the third is Bhu Daaha or Basi Raja. Each day signifies a different phase of celebration with the second day signifying Mithuna, the solar month. The festival, which started as a tribal practice, has now gained importance in many parts of Odisha. Even though the festival has undergone a lot of changes over time, it still revolves around respecting and celebrating women irrespectively.

Bollywood movies like Phullu and Padman  have tried to bring about a little change in people’s perception about menstruation but still we have a long way to go. Hopefully festivals like Raja and other local initiatives bring the much needed enlightenment in our Indian society and someday we accept that menstruation is part of a biological process and not a curse; Menstruation is a part of life cycle and part of reproduction process, it signifies fertility.

The post Odisha’s Festival ‘Raja’ Honours Womanhood and Celebrates Menstruation appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

Text Credits: Shibul Pavithran 

Akshay Kumar’s latest release PadMan is doing great business at the box office. The movie has been getting highly positive reviews by the critics received and the common audience. Although the movie is facing some issues in the Arab countries, the movie has released in all places, except Pakistan. It’s a great achievement in itself to see the success of such a daring story line. The movie is inspired from the real life story of Arunachalam Muruganandam, what started as a simple quest to ensure proper menstrual health for his wife Shanthi, turned into a revolution of sorts for rural women. His low-cost sanitary pads provided a cheap and healthy alternative to the dirty rags, sand bags and what not that were being used for ages by menstruating women, directed by R. Balki.

Akshay Kumar played Arunachalam’s role but the movie was set in Madhya Pradesh. The makers chose Madhya Pradesh as the location as they felt the need to address such a critical issue was more relevant in a backward state. The real life Padman Arunachalam was asked by many about why he let the movie to be made in Hindi and not in his own language. While there is no doubt that Akshay Kumar gave his heart and soul to the character, Arunachalam Muruganandam feels Dhanush would be the ideal choice to play him if his story ever gets made in Tamil. Speaking at a special screening of the film last week in Chennai, Muruganantham said it’d be nice if Dhanush featured in the Tamil version of his story.

Arunachalam felt that the story and its message would reach to more people only if it was made in Bollywood. Akshay Kumar is a big star and the movie naturally reached out to a wide audience.

It will be very interesting if such a remake really materializes. Like Akshay, Dhanush is also a fabulous Actor and he will try to give his best for the movie. It’ll be interesting to see if Dhanush would accept the role if he’s approached with an offer. It’d be brave of him accept the offer given that it’s a very unconventional role.

Dhanush is currently busy shooting for Maari 2, in which he returns as local rowdy – sporting John Lennon-like shades, wearing dhoti and twirled mustache; Dhanush also awaits the release of Enai Noki Paayum Thota, which marks his maiden collaboration with Gautham Vasudev Menon.

The post Dhanush To Star In The Tamil Adaptation Of Akshay Kumar’s Padman appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

“Take care not to touch any of these clothes when you pass through. These kids, nowadays never care to put themselves closed in a room, during their menstrual cycle”, Grandma used to say while I was having my periods. It was so horrible in her days, but as we started to ‘progress’, such customs started to vanish. Today my Amma doesn’t resist me from sleeping on a mattress or entering the kitchen. But still, there are things that haven’t changed. I have never in my entire life got an opportunity to touch any Holy books or attend to a sacred gathering or visit a temple during those days.

We are still following some fallacies without knowing that they indeed are misconceptions. Proper awareness and destruction of stigma is inevitable for balancing the society. In such a situation the relevance of R. Balki’s Padman is beyond words. Padman is an upcoming comedy-drama written and directed by R.Balki, based on Twinkle Khanna’s book “The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad“, which was inspired by the real life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social activist from Tamil Nadu.

The Padman Challenge has reached a wide range of people via Twitter. Many celebrities including Sonam Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar, Deepika Padukone, etc have taken part in the campaign by posting a selfie of themselves with a sanitary napkin.

During the Sabarimala season of 2015, a conductor of a KSRTC bus asked a few women to step out of the bus, because in case if they have some untouchability(menstruation) it could spoil their Vritham. On what grounds did the conductor deny the right of a citizen to travel on a public transport system? How can a someone deny the civil rights of a group of women, just because they are Women? If we seek the actual cause of this problem, one thing is clear. The cause of the problem has started from decades. Even though we argue that this is a different era, things haven’t changed at all, it just took some new forms. The entry of women at Sabarimala is still a talk of debate.  As women tend to bleed for every five days a month they can’t follow the mandatory fasting, because menstruation is something against sacredness.  How can it be cursed? It’s because of this curse the world still survives!

Let the taboo and stigma behind menstruation reduce with the Padman Challenge. However, applause to the team and all others those who participated in the challenge. Let these small moves be a part of drastic changes.

Text By : Silpa Rajan

The post The Need For Padman Challenge appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.