Thursday, February 12, 2009

Survival of the fittest

Everyday morning you open a newspaper and browse through the contents, you get to see that there is a spurt in the number of deaths due to suicides. People tend to take their life in extreme conditions. Love failures, debts, failed marriages, depression- the reasons are aplenty. But what makes me wonder is how do the kith and kin of the deceased take it after the death of their loved ones, that too in a tragic manner. This morning happened to see news of a couple, who had killed themselves after they were unable to clear their debts. They have two children, both 12 and 8 years respectively. When the kids last saw their parents before leaving to school, little would have they known that their parents would kill themselves and orphan them overnight. The kids posed for the photographs holding the picture of their parents (may be an 'absolutely creative' news photographer would have asked them to hold it that way) and looking pathetic. It was said that their relatives were reluctant to give shelter to the kids. Leave alone the fact of providing them the basic essentials of life, but what about their education? What sin did the children do? If at all the parents, before taking the extreme step, had thought even a second about what the children would do after their death, would have got some second thoughts and changed their mind. Humiliation and criticisms from society might have pushed them to turn selfish not caring even about their offspring.

It’s even more appalling to hear about cases when the persons kill themselves and their children. Whenever I happened to type a headline "Woman kills her kids, self", I feel heavy in my heart. What rights does she have to take the life of her children even when she doesn’t have the right to kill herself? Not only it is against the law, but against the dharma too. How would have the kids psychologically felt when they come to know that the death is knocking at their doors or sometimes not even aware that it is approaching them. In fact I feel one should have a gut feeling to commit this crime. They should turn stone-hearted and grim to face the situation.

I read this poem somewhere penned by a father, who lost his daughter.

Was on this day that your were born
A ray of sunshine that I adorned
From heaven above you were sent to us
Hand crafted and unique,
one of a kind you were made
With big brown eyes and a gorgeous smile
Why couldn't you stay longer than a while
An aura you had that shown like a star
I search and look in the night sky you are
As quickly as you arrived
You had suddenly departed
Not right, not fair
For your life had only just started
So today a wish I make for you
One of love and happiness
Happy birthday to my girl
so true You'll always be in my heart and soul
Beautiful as a butterfly
Your spirit set free
Wishing I could be near you
To hold you close to me
Happy birthday my sweetheart

Forever loved,
A father.

1 comment:

Yamini Nair said...

The guts those parents will have no comparisons, I guess. Many cases I've felt it was better than leaving the kids amid a group of selfish people in a more selfish society. There will be people to condole and console but when it comes to looking after the children, even relatives will turn away unless there is a heavy bank balance or some property in the children's names.