The kinder garden class started as every other day. And it was the 'Show and tell' time. When it was little Tom's turn, he went up to the board; wrote ' . '; and told the class that it is a period and went back to his place. The students and teacher were confused. So the teacher asked him:
Teacher: What is this Tom?
Tom: It is a period.
Teacher: And why do you think it is important?
Tom: Well, it should be. Today morning, my teen age sister told us that she has missed a period and my dad had a heart attack and mom fainted!
I found this joke online and thought of starting this entry with it. And you guessed it right, it is about the menstrual cycle, or the periods as it is usually called. I do not know about everyone, but I sort of knew that I would be having my periods after a certain age (but when, how and why was a mystery till it actually happened). All I knew was, the family of the girl will hold a big function for her and after that she will be considered a lady (I do not believe this now as my parents still tell me that I am not old enough to take a correct decision) and will get her periods periodically.
It all happened one day, I was in 6th standard and my Biology class was handled by Ms. X. That was when our science was spilt into Biology, Physics and Chemistry. So, we were all staring open mouthed at our teachers as they read through the syllabus and was threatening us with the if-you-dont-study-you-will-be-a-cowherd-in-future sort of explanation. So, I was telling about Ms. X. We did not know that her favorite ritual at the start of every year is to ask the class as to who all have attained their age (meaning who all started getting periods. It is told as attained their age because, in early times, the girls are married off at a pretty young age: like 4 or 5. So when they get their periods, they can bear kids as they have 'attained the age' to start a family. If the girl was fortunate enough to not to be married till then, she will be married of immediately). In our 6th standard we did not know what it was and hence stared at her with even more blank faces till a guy stood up. His reason? He passed 5th standard. When I think now, it is funny. But back then, he was a hero! A guy stood up in class in the first day in 6th standard (In my school, kinder garden to 5th standard was housed in one building and 6th to 12th in the other. So we had the glory of being the intelligent ones when we were in 5th standard which drastically reversed when we entered 6th grade. In this building we were little ones who knew nothing).
And I came back home and asked my mom. She kinda explained it to me and I kinda understood. And Ms. X's tradition continued. In the 7th grade, our teachers decided that we were talking a lot and made girls and boys sit together. So it is always a girl and boy sitting next to each other. As for me, I had my best buddies, A1 and A2, sitting either side of me. And the 4th student on the bench was a girl, let me call her Y. She never liked to sit between boys and hence it was Y, A, me, A. The As switched places as they liked. And they always press the cock-a-doodle-dooo button on my then-famous talking watch during the prayer session and get me in trouble- yes, we were that thick friends.
Back to Ms. X, she asked her famous question on the first day of our 7th grade and Y stood up. Then Ms. X launched into an hour long speech about how girls should be careful; should hold her values high and you know, our-culture-is-too-good-to-be-true-we-should-not-be-tricked-by-foreign-culture things. And right on cue, A1 and A2 started pestering me as what is the meaning of attaining age. I got out of it by telling then to ask Y as she was the one who stood and not me. And she shouted at them all the things she could think of and stormed away. And the day progressed without much ado. After our classes ended, I was the last one to leave the class (I have no idea why).
And A2 was waiting for me. When he spotted me, he rushed over and said that he figured out what attaining age was. I was like, here we go again. What he told next still causes me to laugh out loud. A2: 'Hey, last year, yen akka ku neraya jewels pottu, podava katti vittu, big celebration ellaam panninaanga.. athu thaane??', in the cutest i-though-a-lot-about-it-now-bulb-is-glowing-in-my-head kid voice (roughly translates to 'last year my family held a big celebration for my sis and made her wear a saree and adorned her with jewels. that is when you attain age right?'). I burst out laughing at his tone and told him that he was a genius as he had figured it out.
Anyway, next day, Y's mom came to school and told my teacher that Y will not sit with boys anymore and hence our sitting set up was changed to Y, me, A, A. It was not fun commenting on our teachers anymore. But we had our fun by having a drama club for school, which, is for another post. But as different as Ms. X be, she was the one who helped us, bad drawers (artists), during our 10th board practicals.. We owe her that. And around that time, A2 changed school as his family was relocating. And our gang lost all contacts with him as it was the pre internet-in-home-or-cafe era. So, A2 (I hope you remember our sweet school days), if you are reading this (the probability is pretty much equal to zero), please do contact me through the blog.
Teacher: What is this Tom?
Tom: It is a period.
Teacher: And why do you think it is important?
Tom: Well, it should be. Today morning, my teen age sister told us that she has missed a period and my dad had a heart attack and mom fainted!
I found this joke online and thought of starting this entry with it. And you guessed it right, it is about the menstrual cycle, or the periods as it is usually called. I do not know about everyone, but I sort of knew that I would be having my periods after a certain age (but when, how and why was a mystery till it actually happened). All I knew was, the family of the girl will hold a big function for her and after that she will be considered a lady (I do not believe this now as my parents still tell me that I am not old enough to take a correct decision) and will get her periods periodically.
It all happened one day, I was in 6th standard and my Biology class was handled by Ms. X. That was when our science was spilt into Biology, Physics and Chemistry. So, we were all staring open mouthed at our teachers as they read through the syllabus and was threatening us with the if-you-dont-study-you-will-be-a-cowherd-in-future sort of explanation. So, I was telling about Ms. X. We did not know that her favorite ritual at the start of every year is to ask the class as to who all have attained their age (meaning who all started getting periods. It is told as attained their age because, in early times, the girls are married off at a pretty young age: like 4 or 5. So when they get their periods, they can bear kids as they have 'attained the age' to start a family. If the girl was fortunate enough to not to be married till then, she will be married of immediately). In our 6th standard we did not know what it was and hence stared at her with even more blank faces till a guy stood up. His reason? He passed 5th standard. When I think now, it is funny. But back then, he was a hero! A guy stood up in class in the first day in 6th standard (In my school, kinder garden to 5th standard was housed in one building and 6th to 12th in the other. So we had the glory of being the intelligent ones when we were in 5th standard which drastically reversed when we entered 6th grade. In this building we were little ones who knew nothing).
And I came back home and asked my mom. She kinda explained it to me and I kinda understood. And Ms. X's tradition continued. In the 7th grade, our teachers decided that we were talking a lot and made girls and boys sit together. So it is always a girl and boy sitting next to each other. As for me, I had my best buddies, A1 and A2, sitting either side of me. And the 4th student on the bench was a girl, let me call her Y. She never liked to sit between boys and hence it was Y, A, me, A. The As switched places as they liked. And they always press the cock-a-doodle-dooo button on my then-famous talking watch during the prayer session and get me in trouble- yes, we were that thick friends.
Back to Ms. X, she asked her famous question on the first day of our 7th grade and Y stood up. Then Ms. X launched into an hour long speech about how girls should be careful; should hold her values high and you know, our-culture-is-too-good-to-be-true-we-should-not-be-tricked-by-foreign-culture things. And right on cue, A1 and A2 started pestering me as what is the meaning of attaining age. I got out of it by telling then to ask Y as she was the one who stood and not me. And she shouted at them all the things she could think of and stormed away. And the day progressed without much ado. After our classes ended, I was the last one to leave the class (I have no idea why).
And A2 was waiting for me. When he spotted me, he rushed over and said that he figured out what attaining age was. I was like, here we go again. What he told next still causes me to laugh out loud. A2: 'Hey, last year, yen akka ku neraya jewels pottu, podava katti vittu, big celebration ellaam panninaanga.. athu thaane??', in the cutest i-though-a-lot-about-it-now-bulb-is-glowing-in-my-head kid voice (roughly translates to 'last year my family held a big celebration for my sis and made her wear a saree and adorned her with jewels. that is when you attain age right?'). I burst out laughing at his tone and told him that he was a genius as he had figured it out.
Anyway, next day, Y's mom came to school and told my teacher that Y will not sit with boys anymore and hence our sitting set up was changed to Y, me, A, A. It was not fun commenting on our teachers anymore. But we had our fun by having a drama club for school, which, is for another post. But as different as Ms. X be, she was the one who helped us, bad drawers (artists), during our 10th board practicals.. We owe her that. And around that time, A2 changed school as his family was relocating. And our gang lost all contacts with him as it was the pre internet-in-home-or-cafe era. So, A2 (I hope you remember our sweet school days), if you are reading this (the probability is pretty much equal to zero), please do contact me through the blog.
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