“The moment your mind thinks of a revolution to be made, the first impact must be in your surroundings,” says the visionary Mr. Muruganantham Arunachalam who has been popular as ‘The Menstrual Man’ across the globe!

Today, millions of people around the world know Mr. Arunachalam who hails from a poor background in South India. He has made a revolution with just a small step towards hygiene for his wife. This Indian social entrepreneur had dropped out of school at the age of 14 and started looking out for work. But, today, he is known for his witty nature and his restless mind which even today looks out for problems and finding their solutions. “A real entrepreneur is one who looks out for problems and then their solutions,” he mentions. In 1998, shortly after getting married, he once asked his wife about the filthy rags she used during her menstrual cycles. He understood about this unhygienic practice which was a resultant of the unaffordable high rates of sanitary napkins from multinational corporations. Troubled and deep into thoughts it took him when he thought about others who had similar financial conditions. He wanted his wife to have a hygienic way of the activity.

Already working at welding gates and windows, he would come home and spend hours together making efforts to reach his goal. Rejections and hardships are a part of every success story as failure is considered as a stepping stone towards success. Initially he experimented on his wife and sisters for a few times, but they refused to continue the same after Muruganantham’s every effort went in vain. But his perspectives have always been logical and mechanical where he tells us, “If the blade is broken, by changing its angle, the blade becomes useful again.”

His words over failure are, “When a person fails at anything spirituality becomes his spectacle. Rather, I suggest people to think again with a scientific mind and think of possibilities which science and mathematics have evolved over the years. There is a possibility for everything you want to win over.” His efforts paid immensely and the rest is history! His story has been heard at many platforms like TED and INK and numerous times at colleges and schools too. When asked about his role models, he says that he doesn’t consider anyone to be his idol or role model! He adds, “Why do you want to be like someone who has already been? No one remembers the second person who did the same thing! Always be unique out of the 7 billion people on this earth and do what no one has ever done. Don’t look up to anyone and try to be like that person.” His lines came as a surprise for me as I was lost in search for an idol for two long years! In all these years, this truly engineer spirited man has gained immense wisdom due to his continuous deeds without thinking of the reactions from the society which also is a reason for TIME magazine to place him in its list of “100 Most Influential People in the World.”  

He calls himself just an inventor who has to overcome and change many more things in the coming future. His invention of mini-machines from his movement named Jayashree Industries that can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of pads from multinational corporations has been already installed in 23 states of India and his vision bears it to be expanded to more than a 100 nations! He believes that today’s youth gets discouraged more often and quit rather soon. According to Mr. Arunachalam, there are two buttons in each one’s life, the encouragement button and the discouragement button. He shares his point of view over these buttons, “Today, the youth who are considered to be the future of India are unknown about their potentials. When they get discouraged due to failure or rejections they tend to party, meet friends, enjoy and state that they are dismayed. This is foolishness where they tend to keep pressing the discouragement button longer and more often than the encouragement button. For me, when I am in my low phase, it wouldn’t last for more than 10 seconds while my encouragement would last for weeks together.”
The creativity has diminished in today’s youth is what he emphasizes upon strongly. With the small screens at hand and larger ones at work space or home, youngsters don’t get the time to think and use their brains for something that is created only in them. He feels sad for people of today as they don’t get a chance to stare at the stars laying their heads in their mother’s lap listening to stories. Also those morals, values and ethics have lost their place in this fast pacing world where each one runs for name, fame or money is what he feels.

Mr. Muruganantham Arunachalam’s success mantra says, “Creativity is the root to success. A creative person would never stop and ultimately succeed.”