Last plea for help

This is one voice that will never speak again and for which there is no scope for empowerment simply because it is gone. But the others who are standing on the brink, poised to take their own lives, can most surely be empowered, can be turned back towards life. We condemn suicide as a cowardly act, an irresponsible step taken by someone who does not have the courage to cope with life, forgetting that our lack of empathy towards the phenomenon can fuel it even more. But more often than not, in our fast-paced, frenetic lives, we fail to notice that this person has been crying out for support in many ways, but which has been unacknowledged due to indifference, or ignored due to ignorance and an attempt at suicide is the heart’s last desperate plea for help. Yes, they are voiceless, because they speak in voices that we fail to hear, until they choose to silence that voice forever.

In the poem below, Roop Majumdar puts forward the point of view of someone who is about to take his or her own life.

I want to die because I can.

Because you said that you wanted me dead.

I want death because I understand

the maggots inside your head.

I'll be gifted the respect I seek

when I die so you can keep

my rights that you're dying to read

to me at my grave.

I will deny you the secret pleasure

of hating me if I live on.

People will bay for your blood

if you hate me after I'm gone.

I am as condemned as you are.

Since both of us will end up dying.

So I will take the plunge first.

You see, I've had enough of trying.

No, I will not haunt you.

You suffer just fine in denial.

My body is easy to get over.

It's my love that'll take a while.