Indians are an enterprising bunch. We ‘discover’ newer ways of doing the same old thing so often, we’ve got it down to an art. Our latest discovery is how to get a date out of a supposed act of kindness.
‘Alert Condition: Red’ is a short film on menstruation, although that is definitely not the biggest takeaway here. Made by Xahid Khan, the film shows us a day in the life of a teen who’s just experienced her first period. As she walks down the road, she experiences her first bout with menstruation. Please note that she’s wearing a frilly white dress, which as we all know is a clear invitation for period blood. The camera pans to the teen checking out what the blood looks like (it’s red, in case you were wondering), to her legs, to the people sniggering as she walks down trying to figure out how to deal with the situation.
Also note that the first person to notice that she was mid-period as she walked down was a woman whose immediate reaction was to point it out to her male friend, who convinces her to walk on. Well well. How lovely.
So who helps the young lady in distress? A man, of course. The said gentleman finds the teenager sitting on his scooty and walks up to the nearest lady to solicit her help. She asks him to buy sanitary pads and tissues and then promptly uses said tissues to wipe the seat of the scooty and throws it on the road. #WhatIsEvenSwachhBharat
To cut the long story short, the guy finds a cab to send the teen home and the lady is so impressed by his ability to react normally to situations, she asks him out on a coffee date.
Also read: Stretch marks and menstruation: You cannot help but love this artist’s body positive work
Even stranger than this film however is the message it ends with : ‘Alert her before the condition gets red’.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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