Annoyed

A first year MA student at the University of Hyderabad died by suicide after drowning in Buffalo Lake yesterday morning. Word spread quickly across campus, with many attributing his death to drug abuse. Reports claimed that in the note he left behind, he mentioned a loan intended for his mother’s medical treatment that had instead been spent on drugs.

Suicide victims are made fun of and joked about with ease. Suffering is reduced to personal failure. The last suicide on campus took place less than a year ago, and the rhetoric surrounding it was not fundamentally different.

The youth struggles to make sense of unemployment, poverty, mental health, alienation, and the broader uncertainties of the human condition. In one conversation, a student maintained that drug use leads to suicidal tendencies. Is it that simple?