CHENNAI:Warning: Not for the faint-hearted. Five women are here to show you how loud they can make you laugh with a hilarious take on all things about being a woman. ‘Uterus & I’ is about the many tales of womanhood, written and performed by Benagaluru-based Shrirupa Sengupta, Sejal Bhat, Pragya Shroff, Seema Rao Narayan, and Khyati Raja. Three of them — Pragya, Kyati, and Shrirupa — chat with CE about their love-hate relationship with the uterus
What is the best part about being a woman?
Pragya Shroff (PS): We create life. The concept is awesome, not the process.
Khyati Raja (KR): To have full control of having a baby. I wouldn’t be able to handle finding out about mystery babies.
Shrirupa Sengupta (SS): I haven’t been a man yet. So I wouldn’t know for sure.
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say ‘uterus’?
PS: I was shocked to find out that an entire body could fit in a uterus. It’s the ONLY organ that can create another organ.
KR: For the longest time, it was a mysterious organ in the body that was always confusing because of my lack of knowledge about it. Now I’m always in search of new information!
SS: Oh good! Now that we have established we know about its existence, let’s talk about it.
How would you describe your relationship with your uterus?
PS: My uterus wants baby. I don’t want baby. My uterus wants revenge.
KR: My uterus is the HR executive who is always taking decisions on the human resource this company needs.
SS: It is complicated. My uterus is like that temperamental roommate who begins a war and bloodshed often without warning. It accepts challenges that I don’t offer. And I swear it can hear me when I make beach plans.
What is your worst (or best) memory associated with your uterus, queefing, or menopause?
PS: I was disappointed when I learned that the clitoris has about 8,000 nerve endings and the other gender isn’t able to find even one.
KR: Finding out about queefs was a lot of fun, it was just as exciting as finding out I could lift my eyebrows separately.
SS: I was at a clinic for an ultrasound to check on my uterus and the gynaecologist decided she will put a dotted condom over the wand/probe. It was one of the most hilariously awkward and outlandish encounter I have ever had with another human being. And then, the clinic asked me to fill a feedback form which had questions like “Was your encounter comfortable?”
What is the worst stereotype associated with a uterus?
PS: I recently heard someone say “Period is a mood”. PMS and periods are two different things.
KR: A lot of things around it are myths, extreme period pain is a problem, it’s not something that happens to everybody. We’ve been so ignorant about it all this while, that we actually never pay attention to the cramps.
SS: That having an uterus makes women incapable of doing normal human being things.
What is your message for a young women discovering their womanhood and uterus?
PS: Breathe, embrace it and screw them over.
KR: USE MENSTRUAL CUPS OR SWITCH TO CLOTH PADS.
SS: Congratulations on finding in yourself, a personality morphing device that will give you gumption when you need it the most. My uterus, through its controlled, mood swings has ensured I give it back to people who have been getting on my nerves consistently the entire rest of the month.
What would you tell a man who thinks he knows a lot about uterus?
PS: I really wish you did.
KR: Good for you man, I wish all men cared
SS: You get one first.
Do you think stand-up comedy is the best way to send a message?
PS: Comedy can definitely help ease them. If my uterus is trying to kill me every month, you must know!
KR: There is something beautiful about making a joke and making a point at the same time, which I was attracted to as an audience and then I just wanted to be wired in the same way.
SS: There is a lot of joy in laughing about something together. And it makes you think without letting you set up walls in your head about what you’re about to hear.
What do you have in store for the audience of ‘Uterus & I’?
PS: A hilarious journey right from puberty to menopause. I hope they break the menstrual taboo and normalise it.
KR: I just want them to see that women can be miserable and brave and retarded all at the same time. We got more dimensions than you think we do man.
SS: A lens through which they can truly look through to enjoy the idiosyncrasies of all things around womanhood.
Catch Uterus & I on Mar 11, at Bay 146, Hotel Savera, Mylapore, from 7.30 pm onwards. For details call: 28114700