We started writing this comic book in May 2017 and now it’s finally coming to life! It’s been a long time coming!
The book covers a range of topics such as menstrual hygiene, puberty, pregnancy, harassment and bullying all the while directly and indirectly breaking negative stereotypes and myths associated with menstruation.
We hope that this book would prove to be an educational, fun, and interactive source through which children can learn not only by reading the dialogues but also by observing the pictures and discuss the meanings the pictures project.
Attached below is a link to the video about the book composed by PULSE. Thank you for watching and sharing 🤗
I am a Buddhist. Because my parents are, and obviously I was “given” the same religion they followed.
When I was five, I followed them into temples, offered fresh flowers and placed them neatly among the other flowers that were already placed before. And I bent down and worshiped one of the statues of Lord Buddha. Then I followed my parents into the place we lit little lamps and joss sticks. I would only volunteer to pour oil into those tiny lamps. Neither did I light the lamps nor joss sticks because I was scared. (I still am!). Then I followed my grandmother, sat next to her and tried to concentrate on the verses she recited. Do you think I found that easy? Your guess might just be right. I never had the patience to sit in one place and concentrate on ANYTHING, let alone religious verses! So I used to secretly open my eyes and look at the passing crowd, their clothes, their bags and all the colourful things that distracted me.
I still walk into temples and follow traditions. Well, at 19 also, I found it hard to concentrate. I found it hard to stare at a statue and worship because I still got distracted. So I thought I was a sinful girl.
But that wasn’t the problem, as I found out later. One day, I found it really meaningless to worship a statue of Lord Buddha, and offer flowers. So I asked my mother, “What’s the point of offering flowers and worshiping a statue? I don’t mean to disrespect Buddha, but why do we offer flowers to statue made of stone? What is it we gain from this?”
She smiled. Then she said, “Look at the freshly kept flowers on the slab. Do they seem fresh and beautiful to you?” I nodded and continued to look baffled. “What about the ones that have been laid here for a while?” I noticed they were withered, and some had even lost a few petals. She continued; “Some followers of Buddhism do not understand this. They just perform this act unconsciously without knowing the reason behind it. The reason why we offer fresh flowers and worship is to understand the one simple and visible “truth” that is right before us: Change. The flower we offer today will gradually discolour and whither off within a couple of hours. This flower we offer is symbolic of the ageing human nature. That is what we must understand. That we will also change, pass many stages in life, and in the end we die” I looked down at my feet and started playing with a fallen leaf. “I’m glad you asked me this question” she said with a tone of pride and appreciation. I was glad I asked that too, without blindly following something I did not understand. “What about the statues of Buddha, Amma?” I continued to ask, in deep thought. “I’ll tell you one thing, child”, she said with a sense of certainty, “Lord Buddha never asked his followers to build statues of him and worship them offering flowers day and night. He never said that. Then whom do you think started this? Man!” She paused.
Then she looked directly at me and said, “We worship statues, because a long time ago, some followers decided to make something tangible to remember Buddha by. We offer flowers because, that must have been the way they thought it should happen. But never have I heard or read that Buddha asked his followers to build statues and do the things we see them doing now. He never did. All he wanted from his followers was to live in “Dhamma”. But that also he did not force it on any of us. He asked us to reason out what he taught, and then follow it if we our conscience would agree with what he said. He said the one who practices “Dhamma” will be protected by “Dhamma”, meaning, those who do good-deeds, will be protected, naturally.”
I looked at her with a sparkle of bewilderment in my eyes. I felt as if my life was fragmented before and every piece was now coming together. I felt a sense of enlightenment and I enjoyed it.
“So he asked us to love and dismiss hatred. He asked us to live in the present moment? Amma, I never thought Buddhism was that simple!” I said.
Then she added; “I didn’t tell you it is simple. It requires a lot of practice, my dear daughter” She pointed at my sister who was sitting opposite to us with my grandmother and said, “Try practicing love and kindness with your little sister and your family. That’s a good place to start. Both of you fight for the pettiest reasons you could find, right? The next time, you get angry because of something she did, try to remember what I told you now. All I’m asking you to do, is to remember what I just said. There is nothing we own in this world, my dearest daughter. I don’t “own” you, and you don’t “own” me either.”
“But it hurts to think of a life without you, Amma!” I protested.
“Pain is something you feel because you let your senses absorb it. Once you allow your senses to absorb it, then it registers in your mind and that’s how you feel pain. Same thing happens when you let your senses grip something that gives pleasure to you. So you see…”
Before she could finish her sentence I sprang up with the answer; “the mind is only created when we allow our senses to absorb pain or pleasure. If we don’t, then our mind ceases to exist, right?”
She looked at me with amazement. She said I had grasped the essence of Buddhism within a matter of a few minutes and all I had to do is practice.
“But how do I stop seeing things I love to see? And how do I stop eating things I love to eat? (My biggest problem was the latter)”
She said without hesitation: “You can eat, taste, hear, smell, and feel anything you like, but whatever you do, do it for the present moment. And do not make it a habit to think about it later. For the past is done and gone and there’s nothing you could do to change it. Have ambitions about your future, that’s great, but inculcate neutral thoughts about it. If you succeed in them, rejoice FOR THE MOMENT and if you don’t, make sure you’ve practiced enough to LET IT GO, for, there’s nothing you could do to change it, too. Embrace the present moment. Then let it go”
I found a reason now. I felt I’ve lived those 19 years without an aim. Without actually knowing what life is. Without knowing how to deal with sudden pain and immense pleasure. But now, at least I know something. Probably there’s a lot more.
I told her with a deeper sense of understanding; “So life is the “gap” between BREATHING IN & BREATHING OUT” She smiled and walked towards my sister. And that conversation ended, temporarily.
As I watched her walk away, I thought of the day that I might lose her forever. Just as I thought about it, I realized, after all, nothing is forever. That day will come and I’ll deal with it when it comes, not now. And it was then that I felt a sense of relief. Peace.
Now I am 23 and am still practicing. I am far from “living in the moment” but I am trying 🙂
On a final note, I would like to add something else I figured out that day. I realized that every religion is teaching us the same thing. That is to “love, be kind, and do good-deeds”. Though it is taught in every religion, it is illustrated in different perspectives. But that doesn’t change the fact that every religion teaches the same thing, in the guise of different names and practices (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islamism etc.)
So then what makes a difference in all of these religions?
It is the choice we make:
Whether to fight over the outward practices that demarcates one religion from another?
Or are we to be more insightful and realize the essence of all the religions and live by it?
[These thoughts of mine are randomly selected out of many more that reside in my boundary-less mind]Â
A girl can be up in the night, online, whenever she wants to be, for whatever reason. If you want to say hi to her, say hi, not “what are you doing online so late?”. She’s not berry picking, in case you thought she were.
A girl can wear clothes as she pleases. If you are not bothered enough to buy her clothes, then you certainly don’t have the damned right to judge what she chooses to wear. Kindly note that your opinion is not required, unless you are someone she might consider important.
A girl is strong, no matter how weak and fragile, the society brands her to be.
A girl is everything she can be. You cannot place her parallel to society’s expectations of what society thinks she should be.
Some of those people I’ve met in life, who think that the study of “Natural Philosophy” also known as “Science” is superior to subjects that appeal the human heart, otherwise known as “Humanitarian Subjects”; better know this. That no such superiority is seen anywhere in the world and if you are truly educated, you’d understand what I am trying to say.
“If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind” ~Mary Shelley.
Those with a balanced view are the truly educated.