“We were too busy to create a name of ourselves that we forgot the ones we were brought up with, the people we called friends”.
I received a message on my Instagram from a friend of mine. The message said, “Sujeet is no more.” I was shocked! My heart came in my mouth. The ground below my feet sank. A few hours later my phone rang. It was a familiar number, lying in the corner, full of dust and completely unexpected. I asked him directly, “Did you hear?”, he said, “Yes!”. A pause followed thereafter. The silence, which said it all how sorry we both were.
How sorry? That we didn’t keep in touch, how sorry that we weren’t interested to know how we were doing, where we were and how sorry that demise of a friend is uniting us over a call! The modulation of his voice changed; he sounded pitiful and squeaky, unlike his regular tone. He was shivering with the fear of what had happened.
He was indeed sorry that he kept delaying responding to the calls and texts he had received. After a point of time, he relaxed, and asked me when I was coming back to Delhi; to which I replied, “Soon.” He asked me for a favour, and it wasn’t easy, by assessing the situation and what had happened. “I want to meet you all and die without regrets. I don’t want to die in grief that I couldn’t meet you all. Please let me know once you come back and we’ll meet”, he said. I was more astonished than baffled after what I heard.
I was in grief. Yes, I was! But rather sad that people realise the fact that we need them when it’s too late. We don’t understand when someone is in need until it’s too late. We hardly pay heed to human emotions; the suffering one is going through behind a mask. The mask acts as a system to repress those screams which cannot/ couldn’t find a lending ear and couldn’t echo. My friend died of uncontrollable circumstances. What affected most of us was the fear of death and the chances of no one being there for them.
It’s on us to be the flag bearers, the harbinger of the change.
Sagar Pandey is a Senior Content writer at College Dunia and is running an NGO called, The Jigsaw Company, parallel for the cause and need for mental health. He feels that the typical 9-5 job limits the person in more than one ways and majorly affects the inclination towards thinking beyond the limits. This greatly affects the mental health needs of the person and somehow lays boundaries towards a well – versed growth in an overall sense.