Recently, one of my colleagues committed suicide (pic in the public post to follow). The reason – her parents didn’t agree to get her married to the guy she was in love with.

It kind of shook me up a little. Happens every time actually (this is third such incident I’ve seen). To realize that a person who was talking/working with you just a couple of days ago is no more.

Why did she do it then? After all, she’s not some uneducated woman dependent on someone. She was well prepared there would be some resistances at home right from the start. She even saved money for her own marriage. And then we get this news.

But is committing suicide the answer? This is a hot topic of discussion in our office right now. Most of them tend to agree that what she’s done was stupid. Maybe it is. But I don’t think many realize that such decisions aren’t taken with a rational head. And most of the times, we see wide array of people commit suicide – age, gender, family, financial or society backgrounds. Nothing matters. Nothing.

I always believed that what one person considers as ‘painful’ might not mean a damn thing to the person next to them. Forget about people breaking down because of heartbreaks. Ever wondered why few school kids commit suicide when they fail in examinations? Trivial thing, isn’t it? Lose your life for a bloody examination of 100 marks? Maybe for the kid the failure/pain is so unbearable, it shakes the very foundation of his/her existence. Again, as I said, the “pain” is relative here. You and I might say, “That’s stupid”, but in the shoes of the kid, it isn’t. The conditions, the circumstances, every thing around you is so devastating, the good side of things (if they’re relevant anymore) doesn’t come into your vision. I call that the ABP – the Absolute Breaking Point. After that, everything around you is just irrelevant.



Maybe it’s like asking a guy to put one of his fingers in fire for just one minute. He does and he undergoes excruciating pain. Every second hurts. Asking him to hold on doesn’t work, even if it’s just for a minute. He can’t hold on any longer even if his life depended on it. No pep talk or motivation speech helps either. “It doesn’t matter if you lose a finger. There are nine other fingers!” Equivalent to saying “It doesn’t matter if you lose a loved one. You have your family and friends with you!”

The fact is – friends, family and the entire eco-system (just like nine other fingers) means a lot to anyone. It’s the pain they undergo at THAT point of time is something which tests the ABP. Some people are blessed with high ABP, they do manage to keep their finger burning for a minute and will overcome things. Some of them, unfortunately, don’t. Everyone goes through rough times. Whether they reach their ABP or not, is left unto them.

All said and done, I think humans have mastered the art of complicating anything they do. And I do at times wish if life was lot simpler though. I really do.