Thursday, August 4, 2016

Atmahatya katha.

Sriram Ayer's, "The Story of a  Suicide " is the story of generation next. It is the tale of Charu, Mani , Hari & Sam .Charu, Mani, Hari & Sam study in the same college. Some are freshers & others are  older. Sam is born with a silver spoon. Hari has a doting family.Mani has worked extremely hard, to get admission to the institution. Charu is the one, who can make heads turn ,especially , those  of males.

Mani 's language skills are wanting. He is teased & taunted for his inability to communicate & express .He tries to end life. He is rescued in time, by Sam, professor Alex, Charu & others. Sam cannot stop looking at Charu.He feels, that he is in love though it is not. Like he felt, he was in love with Priya, earlier. Charu is not so sure. Hari has terrible childhood memories of being abused.He has been unable to confide, in anyone, about his trauma. He feels, Mani is the one friend who will empathise. Is Hari  right, in feeling that Mani ,will be his confidante ? Charu 's phone is hacked, so much so, that her pictures are being taken automatically.She discovers this hacking & gets scared .She leaves her phone with friends. And then , an  intimate  act goes viral.It stuns & shocks all .And wrecks havoc. Someone decides that the time has come to end it all & how .

Who is behind the hacking of Charu's phone ? Is he or she, a friend or a frenemy ? Do Sam & Charu break up or make up ? What about Hari ? Does he discover a true friend in Mani ? Does Mani overcome his language problem? Or is he back to thinking about ending his life yet again ?

"The Story of a Suicide " is taut & thrilling. It arouses curiosity & the reader reads faster & faster to know what will happen next. The illustrations by Ghana look like  watercolors & are eye catching. There are thirty one chapters & each chapter can be accessed separately. Each chapter has concerned issues stated by the side of the chapter. It is an audio book which can be heard in addition to being read on mobile, tablet,etal.

Sam is so sure of himself, that he never gives a damn. Charu opines that all males are losers & yet ,never lets it show in her behaviour. She is ready to help in need.Hari is doubtful of Charu. Mani thinks Charu has got all the timing wrong. Each characters is etched clearly.The characters are representative of the young generation who are confident yet vulnerable.They have their own demons & feel so overwhelmed that they feel that suicide is the only solution.Though, all youngsters are on the social network most of  the time, they are unable to confide & share their fears with their friends & family.They feel, that all are ganging against them, & they have to just end their lives.They keep, all their pent up emotions to themselves. They need to talk it out of their sytems with family & friends.At the most, they may get dejected by many.Yet, there will be one or two who will understand them. And most of the  fears are simply unfounded. People do not recall supposed follies of others, as public memory is short .Moreover, there are fresh follies happening on a daily and even hourly basis. And ,we are all human. To err is human , to forgive divine.



And what resonated with me, was the fact, that men will rant about women after break up .And the rants  will get sexist, because she is public property. Means , she wronged him, so all  need to find faults with her. Males are always right, females always wrong.And yet , all will continue to lust after her. It only comes to this, that all girls are  bodies to be ogled at , nothing more. Just goes to prove, that men seldom  love, they just want sex.And men slip fast .And they have no regrets about being disloyal etc. There are no emotions. Love sorry lust is all physical. Men have big egos which get hurt easily.And men will go to any extent to nourish & even refurbish their pricked  ego/s.Never mind the consequences.

And this katha  is a tale of awareness.It narrates that  things can go unexceedingly wrong & how.It also tells, that overconfidence can make us overlook our errors of judgement .And all this may create such conditions, that it ends the world for someone who is completely unaware & innocent of it all .So , the youngsters need to care .They should behave  such that  their acts & omissions should not hurt their fellow humans.When a person commits suicide, more than anything it points towards friends & family who failed in preventing the loss of life. All lives are worthy  As Oscar Wilde put it ,"The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future."

Thanks to IndiBlogger for this book review & contest  for IndiChange .

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