Celebrity after death

Poor, sweet Viveka. If she had got this much attention when she was alive, she might never have taken that final drastic step.

Like in every instance of coming to know of someone who has taken his or her life, there is a deep feeling of regret. A thought that, if the effort had not been successful, what might have been, and whether the person’s life would have taken a new, wonderful turn.

We are all, at some point or the other, driven to thinking the thought that it would be delicious to end one’s life or at least wonder why we go on living when things go horribly wrong. But I think the eternal optimist in us makes us wait for the time to go quietly past, for life to turn the corner and meet something that will make living more than worthwhile again.

But sometimes the optimist is quelled. And when the will is drowned in depression and agents that help aid forgetfulness, one can forget that everything including bad times pass, and the sun will rise after the darkest night.

So it must have been with Viveka, who, in the eyes of some, must have been living a charmed life. Looks, fame, wealth, you name it… the high life. But so much of what we see is not real, and hides the truth beneath.

But even as we mourn the loss of one more young woman with enough grit in her to live in the spotlight and wish she had held on to that courage in her personal life too, the sneaking feeling remains that Viveka’s case would not have been such a focus if she had not been young and beautiful.

How many more unnecessary deaths happen every day in this city, and elsewhere.

Young people die because they meet with their parent’s disapproval. Because they failed to make the grade in an exam, because they were twarthed in love, because they went broke. People take their lives because of illnesses they don’t want to face, or money problems or a broken heart, lost jobs or a mixed bag of problems that seem too overwhelming to cope with.

But do they get the same attention from the media? Do women in trains spend time discussing their lives, and their deaths? Do the police spread a net that takes in the person’s past, present and almost forgotten friends, and do television channels hold discussions in news hour on the reasons for their suicide?

No way! The deaths of school children succumbing to pressure does get some attention, but it is a passing fancy. Then some kind of corrective action is suggested and everything slips back to normal.

Entire farming families get pushed to the verge of starvation when the bread earner hangs himself, under the pressure of a bad harvest and ever growing debts, but except for some crocodile tears, nothing much changes in our lives.

Then why is Viveka so important? Or rather, why has she become so important, after her death, and in the manner of it?

Because we are a society afflicted.

Because we are so empty in our own lives that we live off that of others. And because nothing can move our hearts, pockets or minds today if it is not linked to a celebrity. Even invitations to parties and weddings now have celeb invitee lists of who will attending added on, as a lure!

And nothing fascinates us as much as a celebrity who proves to us that despite her having everything we desire, she was unhappy and wretched and lonely and had enough of that to want to end her own life, and did just that!

Poor Viveka. Fifteen days from now we would have forgotten her. She will go the way of al the others who have dazzled us with their success and their sorrows, and be wiped clean from our minds.

By then, we would have found a new celebrity story to occupy that space. And will be happy with that new toy!