It is indeed heartening to see that survivors of attempted suicides are coming out and talking about their struggles and in their own special way trying to reach out to others in the same boat.

What made the reading more sensitive was the fact that a ‘suicide-survivor-now-volunteer’ talks about the emotional impact that an attempted suicide leaves on the concerned person’s family whom she correctly labels as the ‘biggest victims’.
This is just so true because it is this group that is often neglected; a lot of time and attention needs to be given to the family and close friends of a suicide victim or survivor, to help them understand and deal with the emotions that they go through.
In the absence of timely counselling a lot of permanent psychological damage is done leading to lifelong feelings of guilt, anger and despair.  » Continue reading “Bombay Times, page 10, Thursday, 21 Jan 10 – ‘I was a fool to attempt suicide’”

Ronnie Screwvala’s story and success is inspiring but the article left me with some mixed feelings.
» Continue reading “Bombay Times, page 1, Wednesday, 20 Jan 10 – ‘if Ronnie can, you can’”

Pretty much made my morning; finally, a first-hand account from a parent-child team who have been through the tough and trying phase of a child contemplating suicide.  » Continue reading “Mumbai Mirror, page 1, Tuesday, 19 Jan 10 – ‘thinking of suicide? Read my story first’”

Episode summary: Loyalty test on 20-something Karan done at the request of his ‘steady’ girlfriend who is unaware that ‘her’ Karan is two-timing her; to make matters worse, the TV channel’s ‘undercover’ agent becomes the third angle in this convoluted quadrilateral and proves beyond reasonable doubt that the ‘committed’ Karan is actually a cheat.
What ensues is an ugly confrontation between Karan and the two ‘steady’ girlfriends, who were until then unaware of each other’s existence.  Rife with accusations with the added ‘masala’ of slaps, tears, shoving and pushing, breaking of equipment and expletives galore, the episode ends with both girls breaking off with the philandering Karan.
Whew, that’s a lot of action in 20 year olds life!  Wonder where the current generation finds time for other productive pursuits?

Is reality TV taking things too far?  » Continue reading “UTV Bindaas – Reality show “emotional atyachaar’ – episode aired during the week ending 17 Jan 10.”

Woke up this morning to a headline that seemed to hold some promise, alas, that hope was short-lived.

How is being spooked going to prevent our young ones from attempting suicide? Parents have now moved from one extreme (that of shouting at their children to study) to another – being ‘spooked’ (reluctant to ask their kids to study).

» Continue reading “Daily News and Analysis (DNA), Saturday, 16 Jan 10: pages 1 and 2 “Parents spooked by ‘S’ word” and “Board plays emotional card on kids””

Loss of such young lives, once again; with the frequency sky-rocketing and the reason for taking such a drastic step remaining supposedly ‘unknown’ in most cases.

Human beings have enormous potential for solving their own problems; look at where we have taken technology!  From the Stone Age to the Modern Age, we have come a long long way……. but ask yourself, have we covered the same distance as far as ‘emotional’ growth is concerned? Have emotions been given their due importance in today’s tech-savvy and fast world?

» Continue reading “The Times of India (ToI), Friday, 15 Jan 10: “No end to suicide spurt as 4 end lives””