A Teenager's Dilemma--All Facts No Fiction

A sixteen year old boy living in a hostel comes to his room and finds it locked from the inside.When repeated calls elicit no response he breaks open the door and sees his friend hanging from the fan.He goes into shock,crying incessantly and losing all sense of his surroundings.The next ten days are spent in stupor.He boards a train to go home but returns after a week.Back in his hostel,he again loss touch with reality.He cannot recall later on,what he did in the next two weeks.

Then,one month after the tragedy,he again attends his coaching class but he has lost the link due to his long absence, and finds himself in a limbo.Three more months pass but his depression shows no sign of abating.Two nearby shopkeepers refer him to my counseling center.

This is how I meet Sunil,a student of class eleventh,now taking coaching for IIT-Jee in Kota.The sorrow engulfing him gets to me.

It all started when his uncle suggested he go to Kota to attend coaching classes to prepare him for the above exam. Sunil had thought of giving the state Govt. Service exam after graduation but he decided to fall in with his uncle's request.He did well in the first test,then came down and then this tragedy happened.

Now he could not decide what he should do.If he went home without completing his course his uncle would be disappointed,his friends would jeer at him and his mother,who was a teacher in his school;would lose face.

But he was feeling very lonely here.His mother asked him to carry on for five more months and then she would come and stay with him.Sunil was not happy at this prospect.He did not care much for her,since she had gone to live in a hostel for further studies when he was very young.

When Sunil met me his parents too were present in Kota.They came to meet me the next day and asked me what they should do.I advised them to let him rest for one year as he was very jittery.He was still in eleventh class.He could return after completing his twelfth board.His mother was not amenable to this suggestion.

I requested them to let me know what they decided and also asked Sunil to meet me if he stayed back.However there was no response from their side and there the matter rested.I do not know what transpired after this,but I was astonished at the mother's apathy for her son's  happiness and well-being.