Few minutes back (1st of April) I had left my office at Worli and was in a bus on the way to Antop Hill, where I am residing in a rented room. In a short span of time my whatsapp got flooded with Pratyusha Banerjee’s news. Being a news reporter, it was just a news for me and as I was supposed, I cross checked with Mumbai Police and Hospital Authority and broadcasted this news on the news channel, I’m associated with. I disconnected my data in cell phone and tried to divert my attention towards other things but it was not easy for me. The thing which made it too difficult, was a whatsapp message by one of my colleagues, quoting “If she committed suicide then she is the big fool.” After a short argument, I quit the whatsapp group in the same way Pratyusha quit this planet.
In 2012, first time I aborted the idea to commit suicide in Delhi after all arrangements were done. After suffering extreme emotional trauma I took this step because my number was black listed by my eldest brother following my affair with a girl got public in my family. I wanted to speak to someone at that time to unload myself but there was no one around me to share it. With the help of Google, I accessed a helpline number in midnight for free counseling but the suggestion I got from counselor was nothing but an impossible thing for me. She had advised me to engage in a friendship with someone, but it was not possible for me to trust anyone after my first horror break up which was nothing but cold blooded murder of trust. I was about to take second suicide attempt, in between co-incidentally I met a girl. Her name was Varsha Vashisth and she was an ignored member of an stereotyped Brahmin family residing at 54, Sultanganj. My meeting with her was perhaps need of the hour and she totally changed my life and today she is my idol. I love her the most and since last four years she is staying with me in my bookshelf. Varsha is nothing but a character of “Mujhe Chand Chahiye”, which is written my Surendra Verma. If I am alive and if I get rebirth and having courage to have good dreams in my life, the contribution goes to none the other than this novel.
Literature is a mandatory diet, which boosts immune system and empower a person of any age to live in this infectious society. As the immune system is a system of many biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease, similarly, literature is a system of many emotional structure and processes within a brain that protects against major setbacks in life. There’s a say in English that a room without books is like a body without a soul. We can extend it and say that a person without literature is a brain without sense. Literature is one of the best ways to combat emotional turmoil. In depression, a person stops thinking, observing, imagining anything. There is a state of mind when thinking simply doesn’t work. Literature most commonly refers to works of the creative imagination, including poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, journalism and in some instances song. Literature teaches skill of imagination, information and observation. The accepted definition of literature is constantly changing and evolving. Literature has the power to decode everything theoretically, using a mythological, sociological, psychological, historical, or other approach to better understand the context and depth of a thing.
In metro cities, life has truly become competitive in terms of social and personal life. Most of the time, a person finds himself nowhere. Nothing needs to be said about metro life because series of tragedies have already exposed the cruel reality of metro cities but does it mean we should give up! Not at all, it simply means we should reach out at a cure and the cure is meditation, relation and literature. Meditation needs time as you cannot meditate in a running Mumbai Local or chasing a bus, similarly you cannot ensure better relationship with new people because of sacrifices, one needs to make to maintain a relationship, even family members generally don’t have time for you because they have their job to finish so ultimately the only way you have to head is merging yourself with literature. Start writing diaries, start typing your emotions and save in drats, try to record your voice and listen it later, read good writings and build a healthy relationship with pen and paper. Literature is an artistic form of thought. If your family turns deaf year of your issue, let it be. Always remember, you have an option to commit suicide but you have also better options.
“I’ll call for pen and ink and write my mind”, William Shakespeare, Henry VI.
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