It always mattered...

I'm utterly and deeply shocked at actor Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide at such a young age of 34. More so in the trail of events that followed this tragic incident. Switching to bullet points:

• It took a high profile suicide for a country like India to talk about mental health. A country where one in 20 people suffer from depression which according to the WHO is over 90 million Indians. Mental health had always mattered. In fact, the sirens have been deafening all these years but it took the life of a young, brilliant and successful mind for the country to start talking about why we should start talking about mental health!

• Every country has a mental health awareness day/month where they promote acts of kindness, sharing stories of overcoming mental ailments. Why isn't this practiced in India? When do we learn to break the stigma associated with mental illness and stop calling those suffering 'lunatics'?

• All the sudden love, praises and odes to this poor soul, Sushant. Nobody ever uttered a word about his brilliance when he was alive. It is extremely saddening that a person's life and true value is evaluated only after his demise. Had he seen these eulogies when he was alive, he may have reconsidered taking his life.

• On a similar note, it hurts to see that overnight (that is the night after he passed away) the actor has gained 500,000 followers on IG. It's like a cruel joke that life plays. 

• Lockdown and Covid are hard for people as it is, with all the fear lurking in minds, misinformation playing their rounds and the paranoia over maintaining excessive hand hygiene. Honestly, not everyone can embrace this new normal and disruption of their old routines/profession as normally as others. Try stepping into the shoes of a movie artist. Suddenly all the lights, cameras, rehearsals, dialogues, makeup, spotlight...everything vanishes! It's like an unsolicited sabbatical that nobody saw coming. 

• Influencers are on a rage updating their status saying "DM me if you want to talk about anything". While on the surface it may seem like a kind gesture, please share this ONLY if you're sure you're going to engage with those hundred thousand messages you're going to be flooded with. Cuz we certainly don't want 24 hour stories that reek of sympathy pretense. Their dernier ressort might as well be the national helpline number, not your inbox.

• Talking about mental health starts at home. All members of the family can be in the same room, but what's the point if you're all glued to your screen? They may be physically with you but mentally they may be getting sucked into a vortex of depression. Look up from your phone, hold the hand of that person seated next to you and ask him/her how their day was. What was the best thing that happened today?What didn't go too well? Tell them about your day! 

• Be kind to everyone, send positive messages. Check on people if you find a deviation in their social media activity. And when you're sending messages out to friends, try to use emojis wherever possible. One thing I despise about chatting is that it fails to capture the tone of our voice. The last thing we want is someone to misunderstand what we're saying and feel hurt. 

• Just another thing that sprouted in my head this morning - Mask your face, but don't mask your loneliness!

Enough of my rants. Stay safe, be kind and reach out to others, guys!