When Sudha Kandarpa first got her period, her parents threw a celebration. But they also banned her from the kitchen. “When you get your period in India typically women would be shunned away, you couldn’t touch things or go into common areas. I never properly understood it, it was just something that was passed down to me.”

Now she’s navigating what traditions are realistic to keep up in her own life.

First Blood is a series where women from different backgrounds revisit the arrival of their first period, and share what they’ve realised since.

In partnership with Libra.