Javid Parsa, a 27-year-old businessman, is facing the wrath of social media users for having posted a comment on sanitary pads.
The other day some customers who visited his food outlet –Kathi Junction at a mall in the summer capital of Srinagar –forgot a bag of sanitary pads worth over Rs 1000. As a goodwill gesture, Parsa took to Facebook saying: “Someone seems to have forgotten their packets of sanitary pads at KJ. You can pick them up from my office anytime tomorrow!”
Parsa looked ahead to get a response from the one who forgot it with word of thanks. However, the comments he received was totally disgusting and different from what Parsa expected. The first comment said: “I think your sister forgot it.”
And then there was no end to thw hate messages as a section of the “conservative” society felt outraged by the “abusive post.” Parsa is being trolled since then. While some say that his post brought disrepute to the entire Kashmir, others accuse him of having crossed all limits of “sharam and haya”.
An MBA by qualification, Parsa stands firm on his post and has started to counter the trollers with all his wisdom and humor under a hashtag campaign #SanitaryPads.
As the debate goes on some well-meaning voices in Kashmir including women have came to his rescue. Prominent businesswoman, Gazala Amin who is the executive member of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, publicly appreciated Parsa for his endeavor.
Another woman Pamela Dhar Anand commented: “Javid knowing you as much as I do I always thought of you as a pleasing guy with a good sense of enterprising skills with a beautiful heart. But after reading your post my respect for you has increased many fold. There are very few people who will acknowledge about a lost sanity packet keeping in mind the society you live in. Kudos to you for breaking the barrier. “
But some like Arifa Begum believe that people often exploit social media to be in the spotlight by stocking undue controversies. “Forget others, we now have journalists in Kashmir who can do stories even on underwears. We are losing values in social media race.”
However, all this trolling has made Parsa upset. Talking to InUth, he said that such “unethical tabooing over things of necessity” send a negative message about Kashmir. “I have lived most of my life in other states like Hyderabad and people there make fun of such silly arguments being voiced from Kashmir. And by the way what’s so unethical about sanitary pads? Why are we making taboo out of a thing of necessity of our mothers, sisters and daughters?”
While the debate is going viral on social media in Kashmir, Parsa has a witty reply for trollers: “So, next time if you forget your Underwear at KJ, I will wear it without posting on facebook. Don’t call my act ‘Unethical’ or don’t question my ‘honesty’!”
