The Framework of Suicide

The headlines of Malini Murmu a 1^st year IIM Bangalore student committing suicide, last week made a lot of ripples in the MBA world right from speculations for the reason to the twisted theory of how and why more so adding the IIM tag

It is estimated that over 100,000 people die by suicide in India every year. India alone contributes to more than 10% of suicides in the world. The suicide rate in India has been increasing steadily and has reached 10.5 (per 100,000 of population) in 2006 registering a 67% increase over the value of 1980. Majority of suicides occur among men and in younger age groups. Despite the gravity of the problem, information about the causes and risk factors is insufficient.

Perhaps there is no doubt that this is an extreme step taken by anyone and also perhaps nothing can explain a suicide other the person committing himself. Hoping to look for  a feasible answer to the same and a little bit of discussion with my friends I presume suicide to be something that happens when someone is trapped in a situation he knows he would never come out of

This mental block of not moving out of it is very hypothetical and depends completely on a person’s belief about the situation, his courage and will to come out of it and the gravity and perceptions with which a person has analyzed his situation

In the 20^th century farmer suicides in many parts of Uttar Pradesh were very common, perhaps the burden of debts, constant humiliation, and an ostensibly no way out looking situation forced many to commit this ultimate act of selfishness

For whatever the reasons maybe, when a person is so close to death he has to act very selfishly to kill himself, and he cannot blame anyone else for the same, because the courage to commit this sin comes from inside and cannot be superimposed

Talking of 21^st Century, from whatever cases I have come across in the newspapers they have mostly been related to relationship issues, breakups etc. Here again the person in concern has built up a mental block that whatever he does now, whatever heights he reaches there is nothing on this earth that is going to make him happy. He believes the day you slipped, I will never be the same again and neither would anything around me. This mental block as I said depends on the persons mentality and a person who has just not learnt to fail will be able to break this wall and move ahead, but unfortunately there are many who are not so emotionally strong and they really believe that this phase shall never pass and they will never be able to come out of it.

But the important thing to note here is the me me factor, that I will not be happy, that I will never be the same again and hence the selfishness I talked about. In the end everything boils down to me and myself and the agent causing suicide is only acting as a catalyst

All the good things in the past doesn’t count, all those love and care from parents, siblings and friends don’t count because at that moment you want to live only for yourself and no one else, it’s me my happiness and my life

Also suicides can be impulsive sometimes. We all have gone through the dark stages of our lives when nothing seems to be alright or getting better. In the height of depression and in the rage of the moment a person might commit an instant suicide. More often than not, not much thinking goes into it because they happen in a flick of a moment. But here again the mental block maybe so small is overestimated because of lack of thinking and hence the act

I have always believed that “This too shall pass” unfortunately both the good and bad times equally adore this theory and therefore it’s all about living the happiest moment to the fullest and let time take care of the worse one. My belief has not been negated yet once and I hope I don’t come across any such blockages which my courage fails to overcome.

Enter Modi!!

A day before Independence Day CNN IBN made an opinion poll which clearly indicated that amidst the entire furore over corruption, the congress is still the most favored party to win the elections if they are held the very day. But politics is volatile. With the way the Anna issue was handled and the kind of social, political, emotional outbursts on the street, congress really needs to think of its positions clearly.

In spite of the in-house divide with the speculation of the new PM for 2014 assuming the congress can yield the numbers again, of the conflict between the ignorant-old-saint and the Amul baby, a lackadaisical attitude of pulling up the elections might have seeped into the congress. But I say never underestimate anything, even a stopped clock reads the time right twice a day

Two news articles on the Times of India website made me think out of this compulsion of a pro-congress mania that is evident because of the rotten state of other players

While one of them was underscoring an opinion poll by Star News that showed BJP has surged in thanks to the Anna movement, and the other being a wiki leak cable disclosing a silent approach to project Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as a primeministerial candidate

The Bhartiya Janata Party had lost its aglow ever since Vajpayee put down his pads. The existing leaders are either irritants like Rajnath singh,or media savy politically dumb Sushma swaraj or the existing BJP president who is nothing more than a poster boy; Nitin gadakari

But this is one party that has had jewels like Vajpayee and posses people like Modi and Nitish kumar to name a few

The fact of the matter is that there is no better performer than Narendra Modi in India’s political structure. We all know what Gujarat has now become a state bustling buzzing with economic activities and life, an aftermath even of events like the bhuj earthquakes succeeding which immediately modi was elevated as a cm to the following of godhra riots

India is a land full of resources, intellects and everything that even the best supper power would loath of, but a lack of vision, the attitude of only being a problem solver with development only in the sense of resurrection and repairing of whatever wares we have is not the need of the hour

And here is a lot to learn from modi. He has a vision and he has some principles, he believes that the country has no apolitical strategy to confront terrorism.buisness is what keeps the people going and not emotions and sentiments as in West Bengal. And also to much liberty is not wise until the people bestowed on are not wise enough

Gujarat has developed into a pro business state; work culture subdues everything else and hence is the state progressing .But it’s not just the willingness to work but also the vision, the strategies of the people in the right places who are making things happen

Did you know almost all of the milk consumed in Singapore is supplied by Gujarat; or for that matter all the tomatoes that are eaten in Afghanistan are produced in Gujarat or the potatoes that Canadians gorge on are all farmed in Gujarat.

Having said what I have Gujarat has its history checkered with controversies and a kind of dominant rapo that modi has inflicted there. With the recent summoning of two IAS officers apparently whistleblowers in the godhra riot case, the apparent non consistent reports of the Banerjee panel and others may make us feel that he is a man who would have either his way or the highway. But in the present scenario that we are a little liberty curled here and there wouldn’t hurt much if we do look at the long term gains. Some have called him the Hitler of today, so be it, and Hitler raised a shattered Germany after the world war to a superpower in straight 20 years

But Narendra Modi has other issues to resolve first, if at all he is thinking of a national agenda. Narendra Modi is clearly a man in a hurry and he has every reason to be. There is no question in any one’s mind that he is the trump card for the BJP after Advani and Modi realises that but whenever modi has campaigned outside Gujarat it has usually been disastrous

Also post riots there is a kind off modi intolerance in the minor community more so outside Gujarat ,one because he is a member of RSS and two people outside Gujarat haven’t known the real character of modi,for had it not been so he couldn’t have been selected twice post godhra

Also there is some kind of media intolerance with respect to him. Editors like rajdeep sardesai and co haven’t been able to actually move ahead of godhra and keep revisiting the episode when it comes to modi. Hindustan times had the audacity to label him mass murderer weeks before the 2007 Gujarat elections. Also his outlook is pro-saffron.

Though im not completely satiated by the make shift government that runs us, bending at the slightest of arm-twisting by apolitical nobodies, but if be it someone other then the Nehru-Gandhi family ahead to lead us, it would be interesting to see, what this 61 year old visionary could do on a playground worth 1.3 billion people