Steel...

...my metal :)

The pic is back cover of moi old watch.

Shadows of light...

Lazy warm afternoons...(~sigh~)..:)

I quit…

There is noise in the media that, there has been sudden increase in cases of suicide. Discussions have started on ‘who is to blame?’ (movies?, parents?,competitive stress?), blah blah. Following are some of my thoughts.
1. Its good to discuss this in media, but media guys, please don’t generate a feeling that there is a ‘wave of suicides’. People that are under pathological depression are really suggestible to negative news and creating an atmosphere of suicides might drive some of them towards the edge. I remember reading a news few years back when I was in bangalore. It said, the number of people that comitted suicide in that year in bangalore district was close to few hundreds. Shocking, but these are the normal numbers. So lets not twist numbers to 'make news’.
2. On ‘what The Government should do for this?’, my answer would be, do nothing directly. They should probably fund NGOs that provide helplines. The Government handles most sensitive things with extreme apathy, hope they do something sensible here. Probably they wont do anything much since this is not a politically useful issue, unlike suicides of farmers. Helplines are an absolute need. Most suicides happen in the mornings and there are pathological drives when the person does an attempt. Helplines are useful here. In general, getting psychological help in india is not so easy as it appears. Most people that seek professional help are students and part of educated upper class. As with all systems, it will take time to morph these systems to suit needs of indian people.
3. Schools and parents have been going through TZP effect for past few years and numerous movies are coming that comment on our education system. Creating awareness is welcome, and necessory. But lets not make our schools psychology labs. And lets not depend on wikipedia knowledge when it comes to raising our own children. Most ‘intellectual’ parents around me talk about terms like ‘child abuse’, ‘repression’ and techniques on how best to improve emotional makeup of their children. Yes, childhood is a sensitive period, but not all children that go through child abuse get psychological problems and not all psychopaths have had child abuse. Psychology is better left to professionals and lets not bring it home to be discussed over lunch table. Most of our abilities, (including mental resilience) develop with resistance, and its better to leave children to themselves and let nature take care of things, instead of doing experiments & overprotecting them.
4. Its extremely incorrect to call people who attempt suicide ‘cowards’. I have seen a person read newspaper about a guy who comitted suicide and call him a ‘coward’ because he chose to end his life because of some family problems. Suicides are done for reasons that the person thinks are severe enough to end life and usually there are more deeper problems that drive a person to suicide than ‘failure in exams’ mentioned in the newspapers. Suicide is extremely personal thing and I think its really very immature to comment on a person without even knowing him.
5. Do I believe in right to end one’s life? I think its ‘yes’. Cronically ill patients for example, should have the option instead of spending life in pain and misery. It is a personal choice really. There should be legal and medical approval system of course. Adopting indian legal system to accommodate this is out of question for another 50 years.

The pic is some bird. Innocent little things dont really have a choice, they must always live, isnt it?
Cheers!!!