Is human life so cheap?

You wake up on a bright sunny morning and pick up the newspaper ..and you immediately regret why you even bothered.The front page is full of  headlines like…

 Wife colludes with  lover to kill husband …

Daughter in law burnt to death over dowry…

20 killed in family feud over property …

Depressed man kills wife , 2 children before setting himself to fire….

….  or some such highly disheartening piece of news describing  a frivolous sounding murder or a suicide !Really ,what’s wrong with our world?Was human life not supposed to be precious?Were we not always told that one has to be really lucky to be born as a human being and not some ant or a rat or a bat!How then has it become so popular to take or give up life ?

Makes me wonder what forces one to a level of desperation or lack of control over mind and body that one indulges in a heinous crime as taking someone else’s or one’s own life.We owe our existence in this world to those who brought us in ..we form precious bonds and relationships over the years as we grow…our lives get intertwined with so many others around us ..and yet,a moment of blinding rage or desperation and we put all of that at stake?I am sure the murderer or the planning-to-be-dead suicide plotter are all normal people like us ,barring a few cases of psychological /mental illness .What is the form of suffering that then causes them to take such an extreme step as this?

We all suffer in our lives in one way  or the other and no doubt, sometimes, it indeed becomes a handful.Many times we feel zero control over life and do not know how to carry on further .Desperation sets in and the seed of ending it all starts sprouting .But to actually go ahead and do it ..would one call it a solution? May be it is for the dead or the vengeful who killed but who knows!On the other hand, is this not an act of total immorality,irresponsibility and stupidity?

And then there are more instances like …

A young college student commits suicide as she could not take rejection from her boyfriend..

A school student consumes poison and kills himself as he could not score good …

A son kills his father as he did not like the disciplinarian in him …..

and most recently read …

A man kills himself as he felt inflation is sucking his blood !

Really?Was that the end of life? No more hope left? No other way out?Another boyfriend, another year to score better , acceptance of parental fate ( after all, you do not get to choose them! ),improving economy,better income…...surely, there are things happening all the time to provide alternatives… difficult yes, it may be to see that light at the end of the tunnel but to think that it does not exist? To think that you do not have it in you to make it anyhow?Not for anyone’s sake in this world? Strange and beyond me is what I would say..And hope, I never ever get any bit closer in the other direction !

Though ,who is to blame here ? The one who fought against his or her suffering , could not cope up for whatever reasons, gave up , tried again , still could not cope up and then one fine day, decided to end it all? Or , the circumstances that led to it all ? Or the people around who are often found loading others with a burden of expectations that seem too big to be carried on living shoulders? Or the society at large which may not be doing enough to ensure people that they will be fine … that there are options other than killing or dying ..that they will survive if they just give themselves the gift of life and not take it away!

Difficult questions..am sure someone else knows the best ..but I sure think this is not the way.As a living ,thriving ,fighting and flourishing breed ,we are expensive and we do not leave the world just like that !