When the 14
year old sat on the 8th floor of her residential building in
Kandivali, I wonder what thoughts must have run through her mind just before she took the plunge from
that height to end a beautiful life. What problems could a ninth grade student studying
in a good private school have faced to take such a drastic step? Was the burden of her bag of text books too
much on her frail shoulders? Had she fallen in love at that early an age and then
experienced a heart-break just like they show in films? Did she face an
unpleasant environment at home where expectations were mounting at a speed
she couldn’t keep up with? Thoughts kept
scratching at the door of my heart and my mind hoped to get some reasonable
answer at least, but to no avail.
Rabindranath
Tagore had perhaps envisaged the troubles of this little child long ago when
she was probably a tiny free bird flapping her way through heaven wondering if
our planet would be a good place to visit. Obviously her
choice proved her wrong.
In his
story, ‘The Tale of a Parrot’, Tagore had long ago visualized kings who would
find all birds simply pecking away at the fruits in the forests as useless. The
free bird in Tagore’s story needed to be trained. It was believed that a simple
nest made of straw and grass would not be able to hold education and therefore a
golden cage appeared like an epitome of learning. Even if there was not much
learning, the cage looked remarkable and the bird was considered fortunate to
have got an opportunity to study in it. Texts then were shoved down his beak
till there was no space for a scream or even a single song to escape his
throat. If he ever gathered courage to peck at the bars of the cage, his wings
were clipped as a punishment for his ungratefulness. Grieved the poor bird
finally died and the erudite declared his education complete. There would be no
more flying or singing. When then, “The King
poked at the bird. It didn’t open its mouth or make a single sound. But the
dreary pages of textbooks rustled noisily in its tummy. Outside, the
fresh green leaves whispered a sigh into the southern breeze of spring – and
breathed a soulful note into the skies.”
The little
girl today is no more. Her family and friends today continue to grieve her death. Her
teachers look sadly at the empty seat in the class. People keep wondering about
the why of it all and probably the skies felt the load of the death of
innocence to an extent to pour out their tears and drown the city in a deluge.
So true ruby..
ReplyDeleteGlad you agree Sunita,
DeleteRuby
Death is not the greatest loss in life,
ReplyDeleteThe greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. Lets hope ppl do not fall under such a dark cast of suicide anymore .
Yes we need a kinder world to allow those who are weak to hold on to life.
Delete