 Do you know that more than one million people die by suicide worldwide every year? Of these more than 200,000 are residents of India. That is 2 lakh people, more than 2 lakh people die of suicide in India every year. Today I want to touch upon the whole notion of mental situation leading to a suicide or suicidal tendencies. Sushant Singh Rajput's sudden and shocking demise a couple of days back, occasioned by him deciding to take his own life has shaken everybody, including me. I am not a qualified psychologist but I am definitely a legal counsellor and over a period of nearly 30 years I have interacted with hundreds and thousands of people with legal issues in personal, professional and commercial space. And many of these have had psychological and temperamental dimensions to their legal problems. Let me reveal something unique on this subject, on the other side of the break. So keep watching this video. Do you know that in India suicide was the most common cause of death in both the age groups of 15 to 29 years and 15 to 39 years? Do you know that as per a credible research study by the Lancet Public Health in 2016, which is 4 years, barely 4 years back, there were more than 200,000 suicide deaths in India? Do you know that as per the same study, India's contribution to global suicide deaths increased from 25.3% in 1990 to 36.6% in 2016? Among women and from 18.7% to 24.3% among men. The society brands people who take their own lives as weaklings and timid people. But I have studied lives of many who took their own lives. I am not using the expression committing suicide because it sounds very cruel as if it is a serious and heinous crime. Choosing to end one's own life is not timidity but an act of huge strength of odds against even. It is only complex riddle. It is a sensitive programming of mind software. We all know that death is inevitable. Yes, it is inevitable. We all know that but calling it or dialing it in early is a failure of life and not the failure of a deceased, of the deceased beg your pardon. Life at times can be unfair. We all have experienced unfairness at some point in time in our lives. Some accepted it while others gave it a jolt by killing the life itself. This is what you said is all about. Medical science has continued to believe in many conventional general causes for suicidal inclinations like depression, bipolar disorder, autism, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders and substance abuse including alcoholism and the use of some particular drugs. But in reality nobody has been able to conclude or crack with authority the actual cause leading to a suicide. It is eternal mystery. It is just branded as some kind of a mental disorder. Some suicides are impulsive acts due to stress such as from financial struggles, relationship crisis such as breakups or harassment but ironically mental condition is considered as a taboo because it is underlying, hidden and suppressed. It is perceived as a personal and private condition as against physical injury or ailment which is obvious and patent. Well, all must accept that each one of us has a unique mind software which is programmed naturally to begin with when we are born. We are born with an original programming and on the top it gets new programs as we grow in life. The letter is based on our day to day encounters, experiences etc. What we call impressionable events, incidents. These events, incidents build up a chain of feelings and emotions. These get stored and bottled up inside our mind and convert into beliefs and views and perceptions. That is why you notice people all around with diverse views and opinions and beliefs. Now you would have noticed that some people are open about these thoughts and discussions and they discuss freely, debate with friends, relatives. They get support in a way that brings balance of mind and stability, rationality as to positivity of emotional and psychological health. But there are people who are either introverts or are in a condition of solitude or loneliness either by choice or by compulsion. Like it happened in the last three months of lockdown due to COVID-19, people went into isolation, kind of a compulsive isolation. People living alone got bottled up with sadness, hopelessness and pessimism. Yes, I know some who shared their experiences with me and I quickly advised them to consult a specialist, a counsellor or a psychologist with no second thoughts and to have deep conversations with close friends and brothers and sisters or cousins or anybody for that matter who they trusted. It's important. So today my purpose of this video is to take a pledge and make promise to ourselves to shun and discontinue the practice of text messaging. When we can actually either pick up the phone and talk to the other person or can essentially meet him or her personally, it is crucial before it gets too late. Yes, before it gets too late. So thank you and see you next time with another video talk of your choice. Bye now, stay safe and stay blessed.