Helping those who are deprived or in pain also has a very therapeutic effect on our state of mind, giving us real satisfaction and joy on making a difference.
Over the last ten plus years, I choose to have my annual medical check-up at the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI). This almost feels like a yearly pilgrimage, where the attitude and approach of the staff and doctors of the makes me feel good and breathe easy. A high point of these visits, over these years, would be the chats with a specialist in the gynaecology section. Even if she were not on duty for the check-up, I would seek her out and stop by for a few minutes to say hello to the very competent, successful, and helpful gynaecologist. We would talk on a host of issues from lifestyle, wellness to work-life balance, family, music and travel.
A few months ago, as I was sipping in the day’s news along with my morning coffee, a news item of a suicide grabbed my attention. As I read about the person who had committed suicide, I felt a lump in my throat. India accounts for 33% of all suicides worldwide, where an estimated 250,000 people committed suicide in 2012. Suicides are highest among young people between the ages of 15 to 29, and this is the second ranking cause of mortality. Holding the notoriety of having the 18th rank out of 182 countries for highest suicide rates, India is in the worst ten percentile of countries across the world by suicide rates.
My intention is not to further come up with gloomy forebodings of our suicide rates and the misery associated with this. But, knowing these facts, understanding these concerns, can each one of us take a few actions to change this scenario - Tomorrow is ‘World Suicide Prevention Day’. Starting tomorrow, the entire month would be observed as the ‘Suicide Prevention Month’. To change the world we have to start with ourselves. Can our emotional and mental hygiene be on top of our ‘To Do’ list - Eating nourishing healthy food, drinking lots of water, getting enough sleep, exercising are simple acts that can ‘frame our days’. We could reconnect with our long-lost childhood friends like storybooks, crayons, colours, songs, games, cameras and sports, in the company of young kids. Reaching out to help those that are needy and in pain can magically help clear the clouds in our own life. Regular affirmations about our life and ourselves reinforce our self-esteem and confidence.
That news that gave me a lump in my throat referred to a suicide committed by the same gynaecologist of GCRI. What was the desperation that drove such an accomplished, senior, mature, successful, rich and beautiful human being to take such a terrible step - Later that day, I spoke to Dr Shashank Pandya, the Director of GCRI and her colleague, Dr Pariseema Dave and sent my condolences to her larger family at the GCRI. Around then, we also came across the sad news of a suicide by a young nursing student over some issues of her pending mess bill. This seemingly insignificant issue had distressed her, making her take this terrible step.
The sun of ‘joy, love and truth’ shines bright, and the thick clouds of anger, resentment, fear and doubt would be cleared up by our faith and belief in the ‘all-powerful’ divine spark within us. Helping those who are deprived or in pain also has a very therapeutic effect on our state of mind, giving us real satisfaction and joy on making a difference.
These small daily acts or tasks would really keep us in good stead, and insulate us from many onslaughts of uncertainty and doubt. Suicides are preventable, it is a cry for help. Recently, our team got a tip off about a young lady working in Surat, who was about to end her life. Immediate concerted action by our mental health team lead by Dr Ajay Chauhan and Dr Rithambara from Surat along with full involvement of the Police Commissioner, Sh Satish Sharma made it possible to reach out to the lady contemplating suicide within 25 minutes. This death was averted, and she is being sensitively counselled and treated. There are numerous such instances. But, if each one of us resolves to join this mission of ‘saying Yes to Life’, it can snowball into a beautiful movement of saving and nurturing ‘beautiful life’.
(The author is a Harvard-educated civil servant & writer, and has worked in the education sector)
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