Where Does She Belong?: Theatre Script

Every day when we listen to the TV news or read the local newspaper, we come across the news of a few suicides. Such pieces of news seldom shake us; we just consider how the statistics change over time and across the countries. Sometimes, we discuss that the youth of today are irresponsible and emotional. Only when a suicide happens in our own family we are shocked by the tragedy and try to find out the root cause of youth suicides, as attempts have been made in the drama ‘Where Does She Belong?’As he does in the early hours of every day, a father gets up from the bed and walks to the toilet. He stands shocked and devastated at the entrance of the toilet – his daughter has hanged herself from a ceiling kook, her body is suspended by the neck and is not supported by anything. The father stands dumbfounded, with his shoulders he tries to support the daughter’s feet, but no response is received from her still body; her feet are cold and hard. The father doesn’t know what to do next; he rushes out of the house and calls his neighbours for help, for getting the ambulance and the police.Why has she hanged herself to die? What has killed all her inspiration to live? Why have the age-old traditions have compelled her to marry? Why is the marriage so important in her life?History tells us, at one time slave trading was considered no different from trading other goods and services. Just as bulls and cows, horses and mares were traded between people; men and women could also be captured and traded. In the early ages of civilisation, it was customary to invade neighbouring countries and capture prisoners of both sex and of various ages and use them as slaves. History tells us that many kings, emperors and nawabs had followed these practice; these slaves were seldom treated as humans, who could have feelings, likes and dislikes. If we look at the tradition of marriages, it was started as a way of getting woman slaves, not just by kidnapping and capturing from the road but by negotiating with the parents of the young woman. The man getting the woman slave for life used to be termed as the groom and the woman slave used to be termed as the bride. Later, as people became more civilised the slave trade has been despised as a crime and the tradition of marriages were started so that no individual is exploited but more than one person.Inequality between the man and the woman is diminishing rapidly and the women are getting more and more capable to maintain the livelihood of the families. The Hindu marriage joins two individuals for life, so that they can pursue Dharma (duty), Artha (possessions), and Kama (physical desires). It is a union of two individuals as spouses, and is recognized by law. In Hinduism, marriage is followed by traditional rituals for consummation.This theatre script asks one important question on the tradition of marriage and the laws that support this tradition. With whom could a woman love to join for life? Can a woman be happy with a single man? Can a man be happy with a single woman? If a woman likes more than one man, whom would she select as her partner?

The author Dr Parames Ghosh is no one else but a common person like you.
The author have traveled around the world, mainly to earn the livelihood; but in that process, he has listened to people of different countries, collaborated with them in projects. He discovered the same oneness in people across countries and developed a vision of the future world.
The author came of a lower middle class family in a developing country. His family accepted that it is his fate to be poor, yet they cared for him, and one another. His parents and his siblings were his entire world; anyone in the family was prepared to sacrifice his/her share for the benefit of other members of the family. The ethos that his parents instilled in him in his childhood, he followed assiduously throughout his life, in search of the truth; he found answers in the concept of oneness, he owes to Swami Vivekananda.
A graduate Engineer specialized in cold rolling of steel tubes, he accepted the challenge of starting EDP in one organization.  He strove to develop computer-awareness in the society across industries. He migrated to a developed country and continued his endeavor by coupling his business vision with academic brilliance. He became an MBA, Master of Computing and PhD of computing only by part-time studies.He introduced architecture for integrating bank applications - perhaps with a mission of integrating the world later. He taught in the university, helped research collaboration between his employer and the university. He served banks worldwide, integrated mainframe-based applications with multiple channels of WWW, mobile phone, call center etc.
He thought it is his duty to become a visionary of a world where citizen would know no country boundaries, no family boundaries. Inspired by the connectivity achieved by Internet, he now envisages - "Let's belong to our World and Let World belong to us - to work for and to live in. Let boundaries disappear between countries and families."