The Vagina Monologues: Odisha denizens take a plunge into sexuality

Bhubaneswar: It was a forbidden topic, something best avoided even in hushed tones! But the House Full board at the Mayfair Convention here last evening pleasantly hinted at a possible change in people’s perception and willingness to speak and hear.

Odisha’s capital city witnessed a one-of-its-kind play on hushed-up issues concerning the fairer sex. More so, vagina has been a forbidden subject for many to discuss even with peer groups.

To mark the 20^th anniversary of The Vagina Monologues and the V-Day movement, Eve Ensler’s famous work was staged to a packed house.

The first-timers – Tanaya Patnaik, Flora Swain and Prachi Mahajan – along with Gargi Bhattacharya, Bineeta Ghoshal and Dhrubani enacted the pertinent issues through their soliloquy, binding the attendees to their seats.

“When I was in U.K for my higher studies, I had watched the play in university campus. Then, it had struck me to bring that to Bhubaneswar. We were a little apprehensive about participation but finally we were able to shortlist participants through audition. UNZIP took up women issues last year and this year we wanted to take it to a different level altogether,” the initiator and lead member of the group Tanaya Patnaik said.

 

A clean shaven vagina or a hairy one turns your partner on? It doesn’t matter… he will stray anyway. According to Eve Ensler’s show based on interviews with hundreds of women about their vaginas.

While there were moments where people erupted into laughter, there were still moments which left many a toe curl.

A septuagenarian narrating her numerous experiences of flooding “down there” was one of the highlights of the show.

My vagina was my village – A woman’s experience of rape who narrated it as sound like anything but sanitised bad poetry portrayed the gory picture of the sex crime.

The 90-min show galvanised the audience to speak out and join the crusade to end violence against women and girls (cisgender, transgender and gender non-conforming).

The actors received a standing ovation with deafening applause at the end of the show, speaking loud and clear about its acceptability among the crosssection of audience from varied age groups and gender.

The fund raised through the event was given to a local NGO ‘AAINA’ which strives to end violence against women.