Equalization in real terms!

This is my first piece where I must admit I had to muster a great deal of valor and certainly is not intended to point at anyone's personal choices or opinions. My thoughts are all fuzzy at the moment and I seek solace by clustering them and bringing them to you.

Adam and Eve, the most beautiful creations of the almighty. Very beautiful yet very different just like even the siblings can be. We are endowed with different body suits, anatomies, and hormones. Why my hands are shivering while I mention that Eve is supposed to have a monthly visitor. We call it periods or menses in today's world or we sshhh it in the lowest volume possible. Some of us even have developed a signal for it as if it is shame.

I remember when I was around 11 years and my periods started. It was always a painful affair and had to pop up painkillers, sometimes even 3 on my first day. My stark memories include missing out on school days when white uniform was the mandate on tuesdays and saturdays. Some times stains, some times crunching my stomach so that it can ease off the cramps. But when I look up to this day, the society around me hasn't much as compared to wireless technologies as we talk about 5G today.

Some companies have gone ahead and started giving period leaves to their employees. Yet when I was reading a thread on those discussions, most women would rather want to use their medical leaves or paid leaves if they had discomforts. They would not want people around to know or comment on having extra advantage "being a woman". Because how easy it is and how frequent it is to hear, ahaan, woman candidate. Even if it is purely merit, the success of a woman will somewhere be excused to her gender. And women themselves don't want to avail period leaves for the fear of being called out advantaged when biologically we are different than those who don't have so called "advantage".

A good number of couples don't want a child now. A, it is financially expensive than ever to raise a child. B, during your maternity leave, some are worried about their work, their clientele going away and C, your career progression meets a stall for few years.

So, while we say on the paper we have given period leaves, maternity leaves or nursing breaks have we really given the ecosystem for "real equalization". Has the mindsets evolved as sharply as building up vaccines for sudden pandemics. The answer lies in believing through heart and soul that how Adam and Eve are different and to celebrate this difference and give the best to the both. Unless we get rid of the shame and taboos, things remain status quo - on papers and on pads!

A lot depends on moms who have sons. Daughters have been taught enough to hide things as if it is their fault. Now is the time for boys to come out in the best of their values. Again, I say a lot now depends on "moms with sons".