Menstrual symphony

If I ever ran for an elected office someday, a day-off for women who are on their monthly cycle will be a prominent feature in my list.

Being a woman is tough. First of all, we have to settle for second best. The fact that things are finally changing these days has already been termed as 'Women empowerment'. How come we never used this term for the ahistorically male dominated society? Its my first day of the cycle today and boy oh boy! I wish to be in bed with a cup of steaming mocha and Notting Hill for company. A few months back, my good friend compared male and female agonies and stated matter of factly that getting kicked in the balls is way painful than menstrual cramps or child birth could ever be. I beg to differ ofcourse and here is why -- chances of the ball kicking happening might be to the tune of five per lifetime (at the maximum), whereas we suffer from these cramps every month, twelve times a year, some four hundred and twenty hormonally charged days of our lives; this while taking into account only the first of the five-day long ordeal!

My belly is the size of an official EPL football right now. I would have loved to be in the library, squatting on the netted chair in the research section but instead here I am feeling bloated, cranky, refreshed-after-a-shower-but-dirty-at-the-same-time, lazy and reflective all at once. Miss a cycle and it gives you the creeps. Most times it can directly be correlated with your active sex life, but when that too is non-existent then you start pondering over topics of some infection or (god forbid) infertility. You see, I had this paper on Population and Society way back during my M.A. days and we read up so much on childless couples. It was a revelation to know quite a percentage were going through it. Since then I have had this fear of ending up as one. I want it all- the family, the career, the life. Precisely why this thought scares me. What if one fine day I get married and realize I am infertile? Normally I would have suggested adoption to my friends, including myself, but the idea of having a being inside you whose every piece is made up of you and your partner, I want that. I want to go through pregnancy, the journey from single and independent to motherhood and responsibilities. I suppose this is every girl's dream, isn't it? Well, either ways, this is the cramps talking today.

Periods. You can't live with them. You can't live without them.