Time is a Mistake!

By Sriya Chadalavada

When Darshan’s grandfather was speaking to a drunk man in his village, he explained our project. The man came closer to us, and in his attempt to say it was a poor time for the project due to it being farming season, he exclaimed “Time is a Mistake! Time is a Mistake!” A good way to start the day.

It turns out the strikes were not successful. When we got the news, we set off to our next location--Binayi Triveni. As we drove, Ashwin was telling me that rural communities across Nepal are vastly different. In some villages, women face very little restrictions around their periods and speak more openly of them. In others, women and girls are hesitant to speak of them and it takes a lot of work to get them to open up on the subject. Similarly, even in cities, some families and communities have different ways of interacting with periods—some more restricting than others.

When we arrived, we realized it would be very difficult to hold classes and gather a collective in this location. As with the rest of Nepal, it was farming season, and few women could leave the fields. There was miscommunication with the local chairman (similar to a mayor) and he ultimately said that he could only ask for a few women from different areas to come together for our programming. Since this would not be effective to form a pad collective, Ashwin decided to simply talk to them instead and show them the general structure of his pad. Ashwin also told the women about sanitary hygiene practices and discussed things like keeping a balanced diet and resting well during their monthly cycle.

The chairman was impressed by the model of the pad and the general programming and if scheduled for a different time of year, wanted Ashwin to return for annual presentations. He even offered to allocate funding to host him and his events! After meeting with the women in Binayi Triveni for just 2 hours, we moved to our next location—the village Vedhiyahi.