A dejected Kalpana dragged her feet back home after tutoring her favourite student Ananya, a student at Bishop Green school. Ananya’s family celebrated the Ganesh festival for 5 days and Ananya had been pestering Kalpana to come visit. She obviously couldn’t because of her periods. However, it made Kalpana wonder… a meaningless practice of not participating in holy or divine activities only because of a bodily function over which she had no control. Was it the Gods who had decided this? Or was it God’s agents who decided that a bleeding woman was impure, untouchable and disgusting? She knew the answer, but suddenly when Ananya questioned her innocently why she had not attended the Ganesha festival at her place, she felt like she too was propounding the same old blind rituals.

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