Dwayne Bravo is perhaps the first cricketer to have made a sanitary napkin from scratch. He did so with help from Arunachalam Muruganantham, who was the inspiration for Bollywood film Padman and Oscar-winning documentary Period. End of Sentence. The Chennai Super Kings player, former captain of the West Indies team, travelled to Coimbatore to meet Muruganantham on July 3.

For Muruganantham, who lives a quiet yet hectic life, it was a pleasant surprise to see the strapping man in a hooded denim shirt at the gate of his company, Jayaashree Industries, on Thadagam Road in Coimbatore. “There was suddenly a buzz at the entrance,” says the 56-year-old, whose low-cost machine for making sanitary pads has played a major role in improving the lives of thousands of women across the world.

What followed was a two-and-a-half-hour-long interaction, during which Bravo trained under Muruganantham to operate his machine. Muruganantham says that he was pleasantly surprised that Bravo knew all about him.

“He had read up a lot about me, watched the films on me... in fact, I didn’t have to speak a word about myself,” he explains.

It didn’t seem like Bravo was visiting the factory for the first time, either. “When we walked around, he pointed out every aspect of my machines even before I did,” says Muruganantham, adding, “He told me that back home in Trinidad, they too have similar problems — girls were dropping out of schools because they didn’t have access to affordable sanitary pads.”

Muruganantham is all praise for Bravo. “He is the first cricketer to speak about periods and menstrual hygiene,” he says. “This action of his will inspire the younger generation.”

Bravo has vowed to spread awareness on menstrual hygiene in Trinidad, according to Muruganantham. “He said he was planning to set up a machine at a training centre in Trinidad and Tobago, and further train more people,” he adds.

Muruganantham explains that apart from the machine, he will also be sharing raw material and the complete technology for making sanitary napkins with Bravo. “I don’t believe in selling my machines just for a profit, since they create livelihoods,” he observes, adding, “I told Bravo that he is now the ambassador for menstrual hygiene in the Caribbean.”

In 2006, Muruganantham won the National Innovation Foundation’s Fifth National Grassroots Technological Innovations and Traditional Knowledge Award from then-President Pratibha Patil.

He has also trained several women’s self-help groups and NGOs across the world in sanitary pad making and today, it runs in 27 countries. It has been over a decade since the man resorted to his rather unconventional techniques.

Today, he continues to take his machines to every nook and corner of the world.

“I hope this article comes out online?” he asks as we end the conversation. “Today’s children depend on the Internet for everything. If they read this, especially with a figure like Bravo involved, my message of menstrual hygiene will go places.”

He [Dwayne Bravo] told me that back home in Trinidad, they too have similar problems — girls were dropping out of schools because they didn’t have access to affordable sanitary pads.

Arunachalam Muruganantham

. Muruganantham explains that apart from the low-cost machine, he will also be sharing raw material and the complete technology for making sanitary napkins with Bravo