When Whisper Told Women to #OwnThose5Days

I remember growing up, Period was such a taboo. Not just the phenomenon. The word itself. Back in school we had all sorts of code words for period. Chums, Best buddies, Special Guests and what not. Indian Comic Aditi Mittal told us these common names and some uncommon ones like My Red Aunt at an event by P&G. Looking back at it, makes me think how naive it all sounds. In fact, that is where Aditi was going. telling us that how weird it is to hide behind such codes for a common body function. I was invited by Whisper (who, you probably know unless you have been living under a rock, are the largest sanitary napkins brand in India) to attend the launch of their new and improved napkin. It was an all girls party (for obvious reasons) and an event to remember! On Saturday, the 19th of December the women bloggers of Mumbai donned their white and green outfits and arrived at Worli.

After a lot of hugging, kissing and catching up, we welcomed Aditi Mittal with a loud cheer who in her unique style had us in splits while talking about period myths and taboos.

Aditi Mittal at Whisper Event — Aditi Mittal

Aditi talked about everything from the taboos on food to dancing to relieve period pain to Menstrupedia and then she invited Kalki to join her. Kalki has been associated with Whisper in the past too and has been speaking about period myths at various forums including prime time television.

Kalki and Aditi Mittal at Whisper Event — Kalki and Aditi Mittal

They were soon joined by Dr. Nandita Palshetkar (Gynaecologist) and Chetan Kotyalkar (from Whisper R&D). Dr Nandita spoke about the health issues women face during periods and even advised to reduce the salt intake to lower the water retention and bloating. Chetan then explained about whisper pads and the improvements added by the R&D team to their new product. They even did a live demo of the absorption capabilities of the new and improved whisper sanitary pad. We saw the awesome magic gel crystals at work and how they immediately converted the liquid to gel. We also saw how when poured on a pad, the liquid flew to the centre and was absorbed within a flash.

This was followed by a fun activity where all the bloggers wrote messages on the pad shaped cutouts and created a wall full of ideas about how to #OwnThose5Days.