TROUBLED SKIES

 

Fame, money, flashy cars, wealth, recognition etc have always been the paramount parameters of success, especially in our country. These are the most important things  drilled into the minds of children since a very young age, and this is how the upper and lower middle class rear their children, I use the term rear here since children oftentimes in this country are not born out of love and want to raise a decent person but as a means of self fulfillment, for the selfishly vested interests of their parents -to carry out their bloodlines or to support them when they are old , marry a person of their choice etc, and this is the reality of several generations. About a month ago a successful Hindi film industry star who came from humble backgrounds such as this passed away by suicide, and the whole country went into shock and a state of disarray. Now  India is a country with the highest number of suicides in the world, farmers, middle class workers, daily wage workers dying by suicide is  one news that has reports everyday in the newspapers and is ignored everyday as just another passing event. Why did this particular death affect everyone so deeply? 

Because it essentially lifted away the illusion that money and fame equates to happiness, it brought forward the fear that what are we even working towards if a guy with everything is not happy, then how will we ever be? Any one can suffer from depression or anxiety. It brought the very essential topic of mental health to the forefront, especially during this pandemic. For a few days while everyone was still processing this news, they were urging people online to be kind to everyone and check up on each other, it seemed like maybe there was still hope in the world. but as everyday has a night, people who cannot grasp the concept and extent of the despair suffered by people going through mental heath issues, decided to lay out conspiracy theories, who used this an an excuse to further their own agendas and of course fueled by the conscious less scavenging news channels of India. Ministers, actors etc jumping on the bandwagon of someone's death to bite pieces for themselves like vultures. Why is it that at a time when the world needs kindness more than ever, people think it is okay to become the judge, jury and executioner all by themselves and tear innocent people to shreds? Why is it that there is no dignity even in death?