To Arjun and the youth of India...

Recently a student suicide case became the front pages news of our city. The incident is drawing a lot of attention, and social media is abuzz with opinions.

First of all, I taught this student, and I knew him quiet closely. Secondly, he has left us and deserves to be remembered for the smiles he gave, and not in a way which sees him as an offender. The problem is, thanks to social media, we have become self-enabled judges, jury and executioner. No one even checks the facts. I read so many articles about him and most papers have not even got the college name or course correctly. Social media has concerned parents commenting 'Didn't the boy think about his parents? His family?' I ask these commentators — did you ever think why did he take such a drastic step? Is it easy to kill yourself?

This case has made me sit up and think. Why are our kids so vulnerable? So feeble and so isolated? The guardians of the system have jumped up and said that counselors are available, there are efforts made to look out for such kids and other methods to track such students. But have we tried to look into our system itself. We have an academic system which, from day one, is only about performance and results. The system decides that certain students are brilliant while certain others are misfits. The brilliant and average ones make their way ahead while the misfits are crucified publicly under the guile of attendance, Keep Term (KT) and what not. The system puts it into the brains of these students that they are not meant to be a part of this. Also, the pressure at home increases. In an age of social media where we are judged by the number of likes and comments on our pictures, these very students feel isolated. This isolation leads to the sowing of drastic ideas. And this harvests into that one action which becomes fatal.

We as academicians and guardians of the system need to introspect more. I know we are under constant pressure of syllabus completion and tallying marks amongst other academic pressures. But we should look out in class more humanely. We need to bring our heart back into teaching. The system needs to really change and make us equal stakeholders and responsible for the lives of students. One or two counselors are not the solution to the problem. Every teacher needs to be a shoulder when needed because all that the children ask is for someone to listen to them. Believe me, through personal experience I can say that by listening half the battle is won.

I failed as a teacher as I could not be there for my student when he needed someone like us the most. For every child I have got out of depression or suicidal instincts, I lost one and that's the worst thing. I am sorry kiddo, we failed you. Hope you are smiling upstairs. You are a star, always.

(Joyanto Mukherjee is currently the Dean at Thadomal Shahani Centre For Management Bandra (W), Mumbai. He taught Arjun International Economics, two years back, at a well-known suburban college in Mumbai.)