12 ms·

I want to hug this guy. Like, really. Buy me a airplane ticket. Arunachalam Muruganantham is a hero. I use that word in its full magnitude. Since I am now

I want to hug this guy. Like, really. Buy me a airplane ticket. Arunachalam Muruganantham is a hero. I use that word in its full magnitude. Since I am now an expert on the matter, having read the entire article, I'll speculate on what motivates this man: - Grit. Crazy amounts of grit. The article is full of good quotes, but my favorite is what he said after being abandoned by his mother: "It was a problem for me," he says. "I had to cook my own food." - Humility combined with hunger: "Luckily I'm not educated," he tells students. "If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future." "Every time he comes to know something new, he wants to know everything about it," [his wife] says. - Love of humanity, on some level at least: "Anyone with an MBA would immediately accumulate the maximum money. But I did not want to. Why? Because from childhood I know no human being died because of poverty - everything happens because of ignorance." As an aside, I LOVE the picture of his wife and daughter toward the end. This one photograph lends better context to the story than all the others combined. I know a single picture means nothing, but the look in his daughter's eyes makes me think she'll inherit something of her dad's baddassness. And as another aside, bloody god-damn fucking hell, are the following bits really true? There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply - essentially they are considered untouchable. There are also myths and fears surrounding the use of sanitary pads - that women who use them will go blind, for example, or will never get married.

dspillett 13y ago
> are the following bits really true? Unfortunately yes, and it isn't just in India. Many religions (if the relevant magic texts are followed literally and/or followed by the more aggressive interpretations) consider menstruating women to be a curse upon the world to be shunned until they get their shit together and stop all that bleeding nonsense.
BhavdeepSethi 13y ago
"Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply". I've seen educated folks doing this as well, so, sadly yes. It is true. Most women follow it because their mothers/sisters have been doing it. Since it is so common, people tend to accept these superstitions more easily.
- apalmer 13y ago
  No REALISTICALLY If as stated in this article in these regions during menstruation: 1) The woman uses dirt, sand, ash and rags which are never sterilized but just reused month after month. 2) 70% of all pregnancy related medical issues can be tied back to this lack of hygene Then its not unreasonable to say that the women are unclean in this period and should not have contact with the village water supply... its actually good sense.
  - jt2190 13y ago
    > ... its actually good sense. It's only "good sense" if, and this is a big if, (a) we have a strict scientific understanding of what we mean when we say "unclean" and (b) we know that we have literally no other way of mitigating this "uncleanliness." Just as surgeons learned to sterilize themselves and their equipment once they had a scientific understanding of infection, we now have lots of scientific understanding of human menstruation and cleanliness. We should therefor look upon those that insist that women be treated as "unclean" and kept away from the village water supply and temple the same way we'd view a surgeon that insisted that there was no need to wash up before operating.
    - apalmer 13y ago
      No one knew scientifically for thousands of years why pigs were unclean. Or shellfish, or 80% of the stuff that was considered 'unclean' food according to the first testament. Now a days there is a particular scientific explanation for it... traditionally it was the pig rolls around in its own feces, and smells bad, and folks seem to get sick from its meat... the menstruation situation, its bloody, it smells bad, and the women seem to be in pain when they have it... maybe we should not have them handling or washing their clothing and rags in the communal drinking water does not seem like an irrational conclusion. It seems pretty rational to me...
      - sizzle 13y ago
        last time I checked, these rural villagers do not have running water which affects how they bathe, clean clothes, prepare food etc. Add in religious rituals and you have some powerful persuasion to do things in a way that seems backwards to us.
yawz 13y ago
Religions (and consequently certain traditions) that have survived until today have an incredible obsession with mensturation. This is just another stick to beat and humiliate women with. It is unbelievable (for a questioning, inquisitive human being) that Bronze Age traditions and beliefs are still revered today.
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  I'm not aware of an obsession with menstruation in any major variant of Christianity.
  - kiiski 13y ago
    Maybe not anymore (at least in the west), but the bible does have that stuff in it too. http://www.openbible.info/topics/menstruation http://www.openbible.info/topics/menstruation
    - nsxwolf 13y ago
      These practices wouldn't have been observed by Christians, except perhaps by early Jewish converts.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
      - acqq 13y ago
        Wouldn't because they are in Old Testament? Like the famous http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Exodus-22-18/ http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Exodus-22-18/ which was also "not" observed by Christians: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_Early_Modern_period http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_Early_Moder...
        nsxwolf 13y ago
        Yeah well, welcome to the early modern period. The Catholic Church from the beginning had outlawed the persecution of witches and condemned belief in their power as superstition. But people will still do crazy shit.
jfc 13y ago
> There are also myths and fears surrounding the use of sanitary pads - that women who use them will go blind, for example, or will never get married. Such myths abound globally, especially in rural environments. Worse myths exist around tampons--that a woman who uses a tampon is no longer a virgin. The implications of this in more rural societies are staggering, as young women can lose marital prospects or even be killed. What impressed me most about his work was the lengths he went to in order to understand the problems the women were facing. That "football uterus" made him an outcast and he was rejected, which is not wholly unlike how menstrual women were treated in his village. He really got the full "customer" experience. His work will also greatly help those women who have severe menstrual bleeding problems, in which they bleed non-stop for weeks (or months or, sadly, years) at a time. Not only are they outcasts in their communities, but even children will pelt them with rocks. It's profoundly sad. It might sound trite, but we hear about the man who built the Taj Mahal for his beloved wife. Look at how much he is revered! Now consider what this man has done out of love for his wife--he has far eclipsed even that magnificent structure.
- silencio 13y ago
  > Worse myths exist around tampons--that a woman who uses a tampon is no longer a virgin. Lest someone believe this is a belief held only in rural areas, let it be clear that ideas like this are incredibly common in not-so-rural places like in the US. It's usually accompanied by some equally ridiculous beliefs about what virginity is in the first place (protip: it's about having sex for the first time, not about whether the woman bleeds or how "tight" anything is), hard to find comprehensive and unbiased education, the total lack of knowledge of or misinformation concerning alternatives to pads and tampons (reusables, cups), and straight up shaming and misinformation about birth control usage. The big difference between the poorer and the richer is that honor killings, genital mutilation, and whatnot are far less common for the latter. I love what this guy did for his wife and other women in the same situation, but there's no shortage of similar problems for women elsewhere and I wonder if there will be something revolutionary on that front too any time soon. I've been considering going to med school and see if I can eventually merge my interest in that and tech at the same time to do something here but that's a long term iffy goal, and surely there are already others interested in the same thing too. I'm pretty lucky to have had reasonable and educated parents that were willing to tell me (or let me discover) all I wanted to know about these things when I was 10. But it feels like at least once a week if not daily I discover a teen or a preteen or even an adult woman asking basic questions on one of the women-focused communities I spend my time in. I wish I could help them. :(
auctiontheory 13y ago
There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply - essentially they are considered untouchable. Every religion has elaborate rules to oppress woman. FYI, the Hebrew Bible has all the same stuff. (So I read in The Year of Living Biblically.) It's a question of "how literally does society obey those rules?" Will Americans who use the Bible to justify their bigotry against gay people ... also agree to lock up Sarah Palin for five days/month? Not so far.
- nate_meurer 13y ago
  Thank you, quite right. The ongoing fight by (a slowly shrinking segment of) American society to continue blatant persecution of gay people is one of our most shameful failings. And I agree, the Church (big C) is largely responsible.
  - sveit 13y ago
    The Catholic Church teaches against persecution of gay people. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition
    - fennecfoxen 13y ago
      There's also a biblically established protocol for dealing with sinners established by one 'Jesus' in the New Testament. (It starts with a baseline of having a nice civilized dinner with them even if people gossip about it, and continues all the way to laying down your life for their protection if it ever should come to that.)
    - dghf 13y ago
holycow19 13y ago
Agreed, these are the type of heroes that change the world and often go unnoticed.
machbio 13y ago
People interested in seeing his motivation to work in one of the InkTalks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4_MeS6SOwk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4_MeS6SOwk
piyush_soni 13y ago
I had seen this YouTube video of his (TEDx), where he starts with a question "what do you need a meaningful life?" ... and was almost brought to tears when finally he repeats the question and answers it: "So what do you need to lead a meaningful life?" - 'All you need is a Problem.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1iWhljEbTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1iWhljEbTE
- piyush_soni 13y ago
  Aah. Badly formed the first sentence. I meant "What do you need to lead a meaningful life"
amalakar 13y ago
> There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply - essentially they are considered untouchable. Note that in earlier times getting water in certain region might mean traveling for miles and then bringing water home, which could be pretty heavy. Same is true for cooking, an Indian joint family could be very big (20/25 members). And cooking for the whole family in open fire is not an easy feat either. So most of household work in a big joint family could be extremely strenuous. Some of these traditions let the woman avoid strenuous work during the mensuration. Though I am speculating here, some of the tradition indeed could be meant for the well being of the woman. It may not be very relevant in the modern world though.
Yourfags 13y ago
he really is!

dspillett 13y ago

> are the following bits really true? Unfortunately yes, and it isn't just in India. Many religions (if the relevant magic texts are followed literally and/or followed by the more aggressive interpretations) consider menstruating women to be a curse upon the world to be shunned until they get their shit together and stop all that bleeding nonsense.

BhavdeepSethi 13y ago

"Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply". I've seen educated folks doing this as well, so, sadly yes. It is true. Most women follow it because their mothers/sisters have been doing it. Since it is so common, people tend to accept these superstitions more easily.

apalmer 13y ago
No REALISTICALLY If as stated in this article in these regions during menstruation: 1) The woman uses dirt, sand, ash and rags which are never sterilized but just reused month after month. 2) 70% of all pregnancy related medical issues can be tied back to this lack of hygene Then its not unreasonable to say that the women are unclean in this period and should not have contact with the village water supply... its actually good sense.
- jt2190 13y ago
  > ... its actually good sense. It's only "good sense" if, and this is a big if, (a) we have a strict scientific understanding of what we mean when we say "unclean" and (b) we know that we have literally no other way of mitigating this "uncleanliness." Just as surgeons learned to sterilize themselves and their equipment once they had a scientific understanding of infection, we now have lots of scientific understanding of human menstruation and cleanliness. We should therefor look upon those that insist that women be treated as "unclean" and kept away from the village water supply and temple the same way we'd view a surgeon that insisted that there was no need to wash up before operating.
  - apalmer 13y ago
    No one knew scientifically for thousands of years why pigs were unclean. Or shellfish, or 80% of the stuff that was considered 'unclean' food according to the first testament. Now a days there is a particular scientific explanation for it... traditionally it was the pig rolls around in its own feces, and smells bad, and folks seem to get sick from its meat... the menstruation situation, its bloody, it smells bad, and the women seem to be in pain when they have it... maybe we should not have them handling or washing their clothing and rags in the communal drinking water does not seem like an irrational conclusion. It seems pretty rational to me...
    - sizzle 13y ago
      last time I checked, these rural villagers do not have running water which affects how they bathe, clean clothes, prepare food etc. Add in religious rituals and you have some powerful persuasion to do things in a way that seems backwards to us.

yawz 13y ago

Religions (and consequently certain traditions) that have survived until today have an incredible obsession with mensturation. This is just another stick to beat and humiliate women with. It is unbelievable (for a questioning, inquisitive human being) that Bronze Age traditions and beliefs are still revered today.

nsxwolf 13y ago
I'm not aware of an obsession with menstruation in any major variant of Christianity.
- kiiski 13y ago
  Maybe not anymore (at least in the west), but the bible does have that stuff in it too. http://www.openbible.info/topics/menstruation http://www.openbible.info/topics/menstruation
  - nsxwolf 13y ago
    These practices wouldn't have been observed by Christians, except perhaps by early Jewish converts.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - acqq 13y ago
      Wouldn't because they are in Old Testament? Like the famous http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Exodus-22-18/ http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Exodus-22-18/ which was also "not" observed by Christians: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_Early_Modern_period http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_Early_Moder...
      - nsxwolf 13y ago
        Yeah well, welcome to the early modern period. The Catholic Church from the beginning had outlawed the persecution of witches and condemned belief in their power as superstition. But people will still do crazy shit.

jfc 13y ago

> There are also myths and fears surrounding the use of sanitary pads - that women who use them will go blind, for example, or will never get married. Such myths abound globally, especially in rural environments. Worse myths exist around tampons--that a woman who uses a tampon is no longer a virgin. The implications of this in more rural societies are staggering, as young women can lose marital prospects or even be killed. What impressed me most about his work was the lengths he went to in order to understand the problems the women were facing. That "football uterus" made him an outcast and he was rejected, which is not wholly unlike how menstrual women were treated in his village. He really got the full "customer" experience. His work will also greatly help those women who have severe menstrual bleeding problems, in which they bleed non-stop for weeks (or months or, sadly, years) at a time. Not only are they outcasts in their communities, but even children will pelt them with rocks. It's profoundly sad. It might sound trite, but we hear about the man who built the Taj Mahal for his beloved wife. Look at how much he is revered! Now consider what this man has done out of love for his wife--he has far eclipsed even that magnificent structure.

silencio 13y ago
> Worse myths exist around tampons--that a woman who uses a tampon is no longer a virgin. Lest someone believe this is a belief held only in rural areas, let it be clear that ideas like this are incredibly common in not-so-rural places like in the US. It's usually accompanied by some equally ridiculous beliefs about what virginity is in the first place (protip: it's about having sex for the first time, not about whether the woman bleeds or how "tight" anything is), hard to find comprehensive and unbiased education, the total lack of knowledge of or misinformation concerning alternatives to pads and tampons (reusables, cups), and straight up shaming and misinformation about birth control usage. The big difference between the poorer and the richer is that honor killings, genital mutilation, and whatnot are far less common for the latter. I love what this guy did for his wife and other women in the same situation, but there's no shortage of similar problems for women elsewhere and I wonder if there will be something revolutionary on that front too any time soon. I've been considering going to med school and see if I can eventually merge my interest in that and tech at the same time to do something here but that's a long term iffy goal, and surely there are already others interested in the same thing too. I'm pretty lucky to have had reasonable and educated parents that were willing to tell me (or let me discover) all I wanted to know about these things when I was 10. But it feels like at least once a week if not daily I discover a teen or a preteen or even an adult woman asking basic questions on one of the women-focused communities I spend my time in. I wish I could help them. :(

auctiontheory 13y ago

There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply - essentially they are considered untouchable. Every religion has elaborate rules to oppress woman. FYI, the Hebrew Bible has all the same stuff. (So I read in The Year of Living Biblically.) It's a question of "how literally does society obey those rules?" Will Americans who use the Bible to justify their bigotry against gay people ... also agree to lock up Sarah Palin for five days/month? Not so far.

nate_meurer 13y ago
Thank you, quite right. The ongoing fight by (a slowly shrinking segment of) American society to continue blatant persecution of gay people is one of our most shameful failings. And I agree, the Church (big C) is largely responsible.
- sveit 13y ago
  The Catholic Church teaches against persecution of gay people. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition
  - fennecfoxen 13y ago
    There's also a biblically established protocol for dealing with sinners established by one 'Jesus' in the New Testament. (It starts with a baseline of having a nice civilized dinner with them even if people gossip about it, and continues all the way to laying down your life for their protection if it ever should come to that.)
  - dghf 13y ago

holycow19 13y ago

Agreed, these are the type of heroes that change the world and often go unnoticed.

machbio 13y ago

People interested in seeing his motivation to work in one of the InkTalks - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4_MeS6SOwk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4_MeS6SOwk

piyush_soni 13y ago

I had seen this YouTube video of his (TEDx), where he starts with a question "what do you need a meaningful life?" ... and was almost brought to tears when finally he repeats the question and answers it: "So what do you need to lead a meaningful life?" - 'All you need is a Problem.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1iWhljEbTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1iWhljEbTE

piyush_soni 13y ago
Aah. Badly formed the first sentence. I meant "What do you need to lead a meaningful life"

amalakar 13y ago

> There are still many taboos around menstruation in India. Women can't visit temples or public places, they're not allowed to cook or touch the water supply - essentially they are considered untouchable. Note that in earlier times getting water in certain region might mean traveling for miles and then bringing water home, which could be pretty heavy. Same is true for cooking, an Indian joint family could be very big (20/25 members). And cooking for the whole family in open fire is not an easy feat either. So most of household work in a big joint family could be extremely strenuous. Some of these traditions let the woman avoid strenuous work during the mensuration. Though I am speculating here, some of the tradition indeed could be meant for the well being of the woman. It may not be very relevant in the modern world though.

Yourfags 13y ago

he really is!