Quotes from Arunachalam Muruganantham

'Padman' was about my early life and struggles, including my wife calling me a psycho and leaving me.

I got married at 24. It was an arranged marriage.

I know that if I had got educated, I might have ended up as a call-center employee.

My wife gone, my mum gone, ostracised by my village. I was left all alone in life.

I have been working in north Indian villages, so I know the truth. Compared to the south Indian states, north India is less developed, and there's little awareness on menstrual hygiene.

Quality napkins are made in villages at a cost of just Rs 2 per piece with my simple and cost-effective machines.

When I work in the remotest villages, it reminds me of who I am... India is not built on 14 metros and 100 cities. It's made up of 600,000 villages.

When I tell a foreign audience that 90 per cent of Indian women have no access to sanitary napkin, there is a visible disbelief. But there is hardly a ripple when I say the same thing to an Indian crowd.