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Thursday, August 11, 2016

One Life: Book review of The Story of a Suicide



I was preparing for my class 12th term examination for the next day, when my phone rang. It was my school principal. Being the head girl of the school, she had called me to inform very sad news. One of my teacher’s daughter, who was also my junior had committed suicide and hence the exams were postponed. I was so stunned to hear the news that I could not speak for few minutes. There were so many questions in my mind and I was regretfully remembering the time when I had scolded her. My last interaction with her was not so good. The next day we visited her house and I was shattered to see the sadness. Our teacher was crying like a small baby. There were no words to comfort a mother who had just lost her child.


That incident changed the teacher tremendously. she was well known in school for being a harsh teacher who gained happiness by punishing the students. But after this, she became so soft, that we all were sad to see her this way. The whole year I was there, I never saw her raising her voice again.

This incident left me wondering what goes into the minds of people who think of killing themselves. At that point they only think of getting rid of their pain either mental or physical, but they don’t think for once about the people they are going to leave behind. They have to live with the pain of losing them forever. With their mind always trying to find answers, like what went wrong and how did they fail to see that their loved ones were in trouble. That pain is worse than killing oneself.

The Story of a Suicide is one such story. I applaud the author ‘Sriram Ayer’ for touching this subject with such honesty and brutality. The story is simple but the way its told is commendable. He is successful is getting into the minds of the young and describes beautifully the cause and consequences of their actions. It was a gripping novel and one cannot predict the end.



Characters:

Sam, Charu, Mani and Hari are four young students whose lives get entangled to each other when they all meet at a prestigious college, KIT in Chennai.
Sam is a self-proclaimed tech-genius who has recently been dumped for being too into social media and paying less attention to his girlfriend. Charu is a senior in KIT who is a feminist with an I-don’t-care attitude. She is very moody and one cannot really understand what is going on in her mind or what is troubling her. Mani has had a really tough childhood and has come this far by help from people who believed in his abilities. Hari has also been sexually abused in his childhood by his uncle and his friends and was never able to share this with anyone.

Plot:

Sam and Charu hook up and Sam falls in love with her but Charu is not a girl to get committed and ignores him. Mani and Hari too realize their sexual orientation and express feeling towards each other and become a couple. Hari even shares his childhood atrocities with him. Sam is hopelessly in love with Charu and when he doesn’t get his love reciprocated, he starts doubting that Charu is having an affair with Alex sir. Being the geek he is, he plans a revenge on her misusing his genius brain to develop something to expose Charu-Alex affair. His actions lead to a very major twist that changes the life of all four. 


As I said earlier the story is simple but the incidents that happen along leave a mark on the reader. The author has succeeded in exposing the minds of the young. The jealousy to see your loved one with someone else, the feminist young girl who hates men and writes aggressive controversial posts on social media, the society who do not approve of the gay community, the parents who force their decision on the children by blackmailing them on their lives and the actions of the obsessed hot-blooded young men who can go to any lengths to get their revenge.  In all this drama, sometimes the innocent gets trapped and succumbs to the pressing situation.

I relate most to the chapter where Sam’s girlfriend leaves him because he is over obsessed with social media. In today’s era we have forgotten the real worth of people and have deeply entangled ourselves into the hands of web.

As young people, the magnitude of our action out of jealousy, revenge, sadness, humiliation or enmity is doubled. We don’t really think of the consequence s and just do what we want to do. The worst possible thing to do is to kill Oneself



Whatever maybe the circumstance, however big the pain is, Committing suicide is never justified.

Anyone who has the slightest idea that someone they know is thinking about it, should confront and counsel him/her to get out of it. The parents should not force their dreams and decisions on their children. Instead they should understand and even have discussions to see what’s going on their life and what’s troubling them before its too late.

The novel hits you deeply and gives a strong social message. I would definitely recommend this to everyone.

You can read the full story at : The Story of a Suicide.  It is also available in audio book format.

                                             The Ad is chilling and gives goosebumps.

 This post is written for The Story of a Suicide an IndiChange initiative by Indiblogger and NalandaWayFoundation.

Pic courtesy: The novel Illustrations by Ghana

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