Belonging

“Oh Jesus” exclaimed Martha as a bike stormed by her side. She held her gown up and started walking swiftly. The Baraboo  town seemed completely different , the Ringing Bros Circus  was finally being shut down. Martha once visited the Ringling  Circus with her family when she was a kid, innocent animals  being put in the name of entertainment seemed extremely  immoral to her ,ever since then she started hating circuses.  Martha looked around her, she saw men wearing singlets , t shirts, shirts , jeans, shorts, colourful glasses. Women wore  knee length dresses; t-shirts , jeans and shirts just like the men around. 

Martha murmured cheerfully “The world is going to be  amazing. People somehow have strange look but I see our  great grandchildren living fancy -free.’’ Suddenly she noticed  people staring at her as she walked through the road. She  realized that it was because of her attire. She went to a  jewellery shop, sold her diamond earring and bought herself  the type of clothes she saw people wearing. 

As Martha stepped in the changing room , took off her hefty  gown and unfurled her corset a tear rolled down her cheeks  and she whispered ,”The new world won’t make any woman  ashamed her body” Martha smiled. 

As per the plan she visited several places in the city to see how  things would become in the coming time. Sammy Evans, 

England’s Research team’s head scientist and also Martha’s  fiancé had invented a time machine and Martha very  delightfully agreed to volunteer in this experiment. While the  research team desired to unfurl the future, imaginative  Martha questioned if Women of the coming time will have a life of their own or not. 

It was evening, Martha was done with her research work but  she had sometime left before she returned to the then present. She decided to live the freedom which her grandchildren were  going to live. As she walking down a street ,she saw a bunch of  people with candle and placards in their hands ,black tape on  their lips marching .As she went closer, she saw placards read,  “Free the nipples ”,”my body ,my clothes ”,etc. All this felt very  weird to Martha. She three ladies standing on the footpath who were also discussing about the scene and she asked them  hesitatingly about what was happening .One of the ladies  replied,”A 14 year old girl was threatened because of not  wearing bra to the school, but she refused to agree and then  she was raped by 4 of her classmates and seniors in her hostel  room and then they killed her. These people are carrying out  march demanding justice.”The ladies then continued chattering again. Martha was felt miserable. She started walking again. 

As Martha turned left from the crossroad,she saw a women  running hurriedly. As she ran,she kept looking back again and  again. After a while she stopped and hid herself behind a  tree.Martha ran and went to her.The woman asked,”Is he  coming”.Martha replied ,”No,no one is coming”.The woman  looked terrified,she was gasping,her body was full of bruises  and she had tears in her eyes.Martha requested her to calm  down and asked her what had happened with her.The woman  cried,’’My husband will kill me.He beats me everyday.He locked me in the house,i have been starving since last 9 days.There has not been a single day i haven’t been treated like a slave. Finally  i am out of his trap but he got to know somehow that i have  eloped.I don’t want to die,I want to live.”The woman started  lost consciousness but kept saying ‘’I don’t want to die’’Martha  held the woman in her arms and sat.Martha  

screemed,’’Help,Please help’’.The people living in the the  houses nearby came out and the lady was taken to the hospital  by the ambulance. 

The police asked Martha to come with them to the hospital for  the interrogation.Terrified by the incidents Martha went to the  hospital with the policemen.’’You can sit outside,we might call  you again’’ said the policeman after Martha was done with the  interrogation.As Martha went outside the room,she saw a  

women sitting next to her.Her face looked strange.Martha’s  inquisitive look made the lady ask,’’What?The face?’’.Martha 

replied,”Oh no,Nothing like that,I am sorry.What made you  come here?”The women smiled and said,”A man”.Martha gave  a a confused look.The woman said,”A man threw acid over me,I am here for my 90th surgery’’. Aghasted Martha asked ,’’But  why?’’. The woman said,”He wanted to marry me,but I didn’t.I  love someone else.I refused to marry him and he did this to me  and now the man I love has refused to accept me with this  face.’’Martha was dumbstruck,she felt terrible.She cried and  whispered to herself,’’Is this the future of women ,even after  100 years,we will still be enslaved?’’ The women said,”Ok,I  gotta leave dear,I am next for the surgery’’.The woman smiled  and left.The inspector came out of the room and told Martha  that herjob was done and she could leave now 

With eyes full of tears and a wrenched heart Martha left the  hospital .She realized it was time for her to leave. 

“So how does the future look? How humans in the future look?  How humans behave? What about the technology?”Martha  was rained with questions like these as she returned to the  present. Finally, Sammy, who knew Martha’s idiosyncratic  motive for going to the future silently, asked her,”What about  the Women? The women are just the way we imagined right.  How are the Women of the future?” Martha looked at him with tears in her eyes cried, “They exist, but they still don’t belong”.