Micro Fiction Story by Shikha Gupta

 Title - The Red Dupatta 

Written by - Shikha Gupta 

"Maa Durga is not outside, she lives in you." 

The city had forgotten how to be afraid of the darkness not because darkness had disappeared, because people had learnt to live with it. Every evening Meera walked home from work, clutching her bag close to her chest the streets were crowded then also she felt alone. She was tired of hearing "girls should be careful,"  why was the burden of safety only handed over to women? One night a group of men followed her she quickened her steps her heart pounded there stood a temple of Goddess Durga in front of her the doors of the temples were closed but a red dupatta fluttered from the entrance she stopped. "Her roar silences fear, her love empowers soul," on the temple wall there was an image of Maa Durga with ten arms, a lion as her carrier, and that picture of Maa Durga had a calm fearless face Meera looked at the Goddess and whispered 'Maa Durga give me courage.'  A strange calm filled her as she turned around instead of running away she raised her phone switched on its camera and said loudly 'you are being recorded I have already shared my live location with the police the men froze. 

A shopkeeper nearby stepped outside then another person joined him within seconds the street was no longer silent the men who were following her disappeared she looked back at the temple the red dupatta was still fluttering she smiled because Durga had never promised to fight every battle for her daughters. She had come to remind them that Shakti they prayed for already lived within them. That night, Meera walked home not as someone waiting to be rescued but as someone who had discovered her own ten arms because "Maa Durga is the embodiment of Shakti, the feminine energy that drives the universe."