UNDER THE BURDEN - Aditya Gupta

The article publicizes the tragic tale of a diligent girl Shaifali, who killed herself due to academic stress and tension, even before she could know she had topped her school and city in her Class 10 Boards (O levels equivalent).

These ten years of your life govern the whole of it. A small mistake can have a grave impact on it. We are paranoid of getting distracted, failing socially and academically and hence ‘screwing up our future’.

Filial expectations and punishment on failure is additional. Honestly, my own parents become despondent when I’m unable to deliver outstanding results academically. Last year I failed to achieve the chronic (my apologies for bragging) ninety percent after my 8th grade finals. Stringent restrictions were imposed on my recreational activities and following admonition, I was to attend tormenting remedial tuitions. Not being one of the recalcitrant kind (though I do get rebellious feelings, I re-assure you) I was compelled to oblige. Amongst my peers, the following few days were ignominious. And the immense remorse for disappointing your parents is accompanied with punishment and self-inflicted guilt of failure, peer pressure, and inferiority complex. So much I went through.

And the predicament has aggravated to the level that every time I pick up a football to go outdoors and play, every moment is embellished with guilt of not utilizing the time productively and finishing that chemistry assignment that keeps biting inside at all the wrong times. It is exasperating and depressing.

But for me and many fellow students it’s a comparatively mild stage.

Unfortunately the world values a person more or less solely on academic results which is shameful, unjust and lethal, for the article is an epitomic example of its grave consequences. Belittling of human worth and subsequently, rights is not fair. It can be grave.

Several times it is repeated "she wanted Science in her XI grade". I'm very sorry to comment but in India, there is little scope for any other subject or recognition of holistic traits. Science, Mathematics and Economics are the goals of life for every regular student. Moreover, it is an expectation, and the only direct road to a comfortable bourgeois life.

It is agonizing and regretful to see that such a talented person ended her life for mistakes which she might not have made. Minor trivial errors that we rated crucial, in fields that we introduced, and in so doing became guilty of her death and many more like her.
A person commits suicide just because she cannot perhaps make her future more prosperous? Her parents satisfied? What sort of asinine pragmatism is that?

So I put forth a request to all, please do not underestimate teenage stress and pressure. We need your moral support and encouragement, not pressure. It is not easy. After all, how much can a butterfly in a cocoon do?
God made the cocoon so that the struggle for emancipation strengthens the butterfly. Cementing the cocoon will not make the butterfly will not emerge stronger but will surely lead to its demise within.