Category: English Articles
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A Workshop to be organized at Kala Ashram about Learning to make and apply traditional Collyrium
Kala Ashram has been continually observing and hence believing that Bhaarat has been an industry oriented nation in her own ways and our people have been capable of making everything in their village right from Collyrium to Iron and all these production endeavours did not require any humongous machinery unlike today. The collyrium doesn’t just…
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Unearthing Menstrual Wisdom – Why menstruating women don’t go to temples and follow many such practices : Part 5/5
Click here to read part 4. Personal experiences While I began exploring the origin behind menstrual practices and the understanding of it as per Ayurveda, I also began experimenting with my own menstrual cycle. I learnt about Mudras from the book “Mudras & health perspectives” written by Suman K. Chiplunkar, and got interested in the…
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Unearthing Menstrual Wisdom – Why menstruating women don’t go to temples and follow many such practices : Part 4/5
Click here to read part 3. 7. Taking time off during menstruation In Dakshina Kannada (Karnataka state), we came across a woman who explained to us the relevance of the Tulu festival called Keddasa. This festival is celebrated in the month of January or February for 3 days. This is a celebration of the beginning…
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Unearthing Menstrual Wisdom – Why menstruating women don’t go to temples and follow many such practices : Part 3/5
Click here to read part 2. 3. Avoiding sex during menstruation One of the cultural practices surrounding menstruation is the restriction on sexual activity. On one hand, the conversation in the west is shifting to talking about “period sex” as being more pleasurable due to the extra lubrication that blood offers and also because women…
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Unearthing Menstrual Wisdom – Why menstruating women don’t go to temples and follow many such practices : Part 2/5
Click here to read Part 1. In this write-up, I have covered the following cultural practices around menstruation: Not attending religious functions, visiting the temple and not touching menstruating women Avoiding cooking and eating with others during menstruation Avoiding sex during menstruation Avoid swimming or washing the hair during menstruation Avoid eating certain types of…
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Unearthing Menstrual Wisdom – Why menstruating women don’t go to temples and follow many such practices : Part 1/5
On the second year of the world menstrual hygiene day on May 28th, I write this blog. I write it, as I read articles, posters and materials dismissing cultural practices around menstruation; calling them Menstrual Taboos. I write it, as I read about organizations deciding for Indian women based on what they think are superstitious…
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Menstrual Hygiene is not about Sanitary Napkins
This article was first published on https://mythrispeaks.wordpress.com/ on April 8, 2013. When I started the Menstrual Hygiene awareness initiative 3 years ago, I assumed the answer to menstrual hygiene was distributing Sanitary Napkins. So we got donors and napkins and gave them for free in rural government schools. And then, we ran out of donors.…
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Children learn to be teachers!
The Teaching teacher teaches the child to teach. They also teach authoritarianism, mindless obedience, blind fear of power and authority etc. Children absorb what they encounter and experience. They absorb the world as it happens in front of the child. What the children need to see, to engage, to experience is a leaner learning or knowledge…
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Bharathiya Panchanga
After the advent and popular acceptance of the Gregorian calendar, the use of the Bharathiya Panchanga has almost been very limited and in many cases it has been eliminated. The Panchanga has been labelled as “Hindu Calendar” or “Hindu Almanac”. These terms are wrong and they are used only for convenience of translation. It is…
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BHARATHIYA – NON-TRANSLATABLE WORDS: PART 14 – 2
111. Aushadha: This word Aushadhi is derived from the word Oshadhi which means ‘medicinal herb’. This word is generally employed for all medicines especially of vegetable origin. According to Charaka – Samhita (Sutra. 26, Ch. 12), there is no substance in the world which does not have some medicinal use or the other, but one must consider…