World Suicide Survivors Day, video recording,recant of the entire program-

helplibrary 11:44 AM (11 hours ago) to aasrahelpline, me Dear Mr Johnson Thomas Thank you for your HELP TALK on World Suicide Survivor's Day-Surviving Suicide As you are aware, we had recorded your talk and have uploaded the same on our website and on youtube in 2 parts, the links of which are as follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp3zAn359Qc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK8xq2dpgeY You may wish to share it with your family and friends. We will appreciate your feedback on the same. Thanks & Regards, Rutuja ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- World Suicide survivors day 19th Nov 2011, 3pm. This day is basically being commemorated to egg on the process of healing for all survivors- whether it be people who have attempted suicide and survived, people who lost their loved ones to suicide and those who have been touched by the act of suicide by their near and near ones, who may not be their blood relative or spouse. Suicide is basically a cry for help. The attempt speaks of an unbearable pain. A pain so deep, persistent and strong that it becomes difficult for the person experiencing it to want to stay alive. That pain is mostly emotional. Aasra understands that for people to be able to deal with that unbearable emotional pain they need to be able to express it in secure spaces- where there will be no judgement or criticism, advice or force. This event is an attempt to create that safe space. Power point presentation on Aasra and suicide survivors day-A day of healing . Enactments by Aasra Volunteers An old person is sitting in the middle of the stage, watching over a distance. A person (aged 20 something) enters the stage. Major spotlight on the young fellow. He looks confused and tries to examine his surroundings in that confusion. He looks sad and in distress. Lets calll him rajiv. Rajiv: yeh kaunsi jagah hai? Mein kahan aa gaya hoon? Kuch der pehle tak toh mein apne kamre mein tha, I was wrting something. I dnt.remember wot, but I know I was writing something when I .....(he stops abruptly seeing the old man, he walks up to him aand asks) aap kaun hai? Wat is this place? Why do I not remember anything? Plz help me, meri madad kijiye! Old man: beta, tumhe kya lagta hai ki tum kahan ho? (rajiv.is.confused) Old man: ( continues) mera naam amar hai, mujhe bhi yahan aae jyada waqt nahi hua hai, par jitn mujhe samajh mein aaya hai, ooske hisab se, yeh woh jagah jahan pe yeh decide hota hai ki kaun swarg mein jayega aur kaun narak mein. I think this is just the start of the afterlife. Rajiv: kya? (he goes silent, and after 5sec. Starts remembering things - starts sobbing) Old man: mein tumhe aur dhang se bata par ......tum yahan pe aaye kaise? Rajiv: mein apne kamre mein tha.......mujhe .....thik.se yaad nahi aa rha hai.... Old man: pareshaan mat ho, I think its all too much to digest...mind takes its own time...just relax....mujhe bhi time laga tha...but once u relax..it starts coming back...all the answers...the hows an whys? ( Rajiv sits somewhr on the stage...starts relaxing....and slowly things starts.coming back) Rajiv: It wasnt n accident tht killed me...i killed myself. It was a suicide tht killed me! Old man: kya keh rahe ho? Par kyon, tum toh abhi kaafi .... Rajiv: (cuts old man mid way) kya karta mein aur? My life is a failure...(stops for a.second, takes a breath, thn starts) whn I was in school, I used to hope tht things will change once I grow up. It didnt. It never changed for me. I could not even get the bare minimum marks in my final year exams. Apko pata hai meri job lag gayi thi, it was just a matter of few marks. I never went out with people for parties,.movies, drinks....never...stayed in my room and studied hard. I spent last 8. Years, just on hope. That it will all change....it didnt....itdidnt...nd wkhn I saw tohe final result in my room. I just could not take it nemore. It was the end I knew it. I bought a rope and hanged myself from the fan in my room. I think its been a few hours since thn. I wonder if they have found my body by now? Old man: sure. They must have. Your friends would have come or some one might have called. Rajiv: I dnt.know. Never interracted with neone in my hostel. I never really had any close.friend. Every time I tried to make friends with someone, but after sometime found myself annoyed with them. I would compare my life wih theirs and eventually used to feel sorry for myself and alone. I had a girlfriend once, but she wanted different things I n life. She was very ambitious, alwayss with the plans for future. To.the extent tht once i ridiculed her for dreaming all.the time. Old man: this doent make sense. You had so much to do and u lefft everything half way through. Rajiv: I had so much to do? What.exactly did i have? No, i was done. What is the point of living if you keep losing at every point. I was lost, the life tht i wanted was lost. Old man: do you feel complete now? Rajiv, tumne life ko bahut hi galat interpret kar liya hai. You have ruined ur present in anticipation of a perfect future. A perfect future dosent exist rajiv. It is an imaginary thought. Life in its completenesd is not perfect. There are ups and downs. May be the situationd were a little worse for u, but that doesnt mean tht u kill urselff over it. Aise karna agar sahi hota toh, hum sab bahut pehle mar gaye hote. Because believe it or not, we didnt have a perfect life either. Its wot u make out of the available situation tht defines u. Rajiv: baba aapko shayad apni zindagi mein Itna dukh aur akelapan nahi mila hoga, isiliye aap mujhe bol paa rahe ho Old man: haan nahi mila, kyonki mujhe jab bhi dukh ka saamna karna pada, meine hans ke kiya. Instead of.feeling miserable, i moved on with my life whenever it appeared tht it will never get better. And look, where i am now, i lived a long, fruitful nd loving life. Rajiv: i am sure u did. But we are.different, isiliye toh hum dono itne different hain. Old man: different. Tum.compare kaise kar sakte ho? Meine aapni poori life jee hai aur ab jaake yahan aaya hoon. You on the other hand, have not even seen half of what was in store for you. No, yours is an incomplete life. A life which could have been so much more, had you kept a little faith. You will never be able to feel the excitment of the first salary, the adrenalin rush of driving your first car,.the joy of finding a soulmate and the feeling of being able to share the life with someone, the happiness of seeing your first born.....aaah. You could.have seeen so many new things.and you chose nothingness over life. Rajiv: ( by now feeling regret) but how did u find hope? Old man: by not looking for it. I think ki hum log life bahut hi competitive.hoke.jeete hain. We let the results, success and failure govern our entire life. So much so tht we forget tht thr is one more thing which is important thn the result. The process, the path we choose to achieve things. Rajiv: are you saying tht the end ressult.dnt.matter. Old man: i m saying tht follow the right path and you dnt have to worry abt the result Rajiv is by now at loss of words Old man: you know, i had an accident whn i was still in college. 23-24 saal ka raha hooga mein. And they.had to remove both of my legs due to excessive blood losss. I dnt even remember what the doctor was saying. I was depressed for a whole month. Thought of jumping out of the hospital floor a couple of times. but thn, one fine day i saw a begger on the street. He didnt had his legs jst like me and one of his arms was amputated. Still he was surviving, living his life, making out of it.in the best.way he.can. And thn, i realised tht i still have both of my hands, its not tht bad. Tht was hope, it came.at a time and place i least expected.it to be. Rajiv: by now fully understoood tht he has made the mistake and its too late now. Old man: ( stage goes dark and a white light appears in a distance) come now, its time. ( they start moving towards the light, light goes out slowly into pitch black) (narrator can recite these lines in the end - Jindagi ki asli udaan abhi baaki hai Jindagi ke kai imtehan abhi baaki hai Abhi to naapi hai mutthi bhar zamin humne Abhi to sara aasman baaki hai) The end My Story Kaushalya Gandhi(name changed)

My story is hard to tell because I wasn’t really involved in his life the last couple of years he was alive. Adi was an amazing person. I met him when I was younger; he was my best friend’s older brother. There was always something special about him.I fell in love with Adi and in turn he fell in love with me. He was the absolute sweetest boyfriend I had ever had. He would send flowers to my high school almost every month. A dozen red long stem roses, my friends were always jealous. Adi and I were soon married. He would leave me notes on the table with cards’ calling me his princess. He was very much into music and writing poems, and really good at it. I still read the poems he left me. Sadly we did break up, got divorced and he and I went our own ways. His sister is still my best friend and his mom is my second mom. Though our families were close I didn't see or hear from him very much. He had moved on and met his new wife. I am not sure of what went wrong from there but he ended his life in August of 2008. Receiving the phone call from his mom at work was the hardest thing I have ever dealt with. I burst into tears and scared my co-workers. I had just received an email from him a few months before asking me to do a favor for him which I couldn't’t do. I couldn't’t believe this had happened. Why did this happen??? Adi was intelligent, funny, caring, artistic, and so much more. He would light up the room when he was around, and could make you smile. To lose your first love will always be a painful, but to have him gone forever is a pain that will never go away. I look back and find myself saying “well if I could have just done what he had asked me to he could still be here” or I sit and listen to our songs over and over, and read his letters and burst into tears. My Story Katy Daruwala(name changed) Scared My beautiful son Parvez ended his life 29 days ago. He was only 22. How 29 days can seem like only yesterday is amazing to me at times. When I heard of parents having a child who died, I always thought that it would be the worst pain possible and thought that I could understand how awful it would be.. Until it happens to you, you realize it is a billion times worse than you ever could have imagined. We were lucky in the sense that we didn't have a lot of the why questions after Parvez's suicide. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression and was just released from the hospital the day of his death. We thought he was ready to come home. And although it was a huge shock to come home to find that he had hung himself, I knew that he just wanted the pain to end. I wish that he would have given his medication more time to work, but I realize that no matter how much I want it, nothing will let me turn back the clock. No one teaches you how to do this. How do you let go of someone who you love so much? I hold onto the fact that Parvez knew how much I loved him, how much I supported him and how proud I was of him and all the progress that he made. I will ALWAYS be proud of Parvez! I am not ashamed to say that he had a mental illness and commited suicide. I think as suicide survivors it is our job to try to end some of the stigma that goes along with suicide. I do this by being honest with people about what happened. You think this only happens to other people, I want people to know if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Story - Anonymous I want to remain anonymous., My friend died recently. He committed suicide in the bathroom, of his mother's house. His nine year old brother found him. He was hospitalized on life support for about 24 days. He had hundreds of visitors, and as the days past he showed no improvement. Eventually, the time came. I am 14, I am grieving, and I wish I could have helped. My friend was an amazing person. He was a musician, a poet, and above all, a friend to everyone. Our community misses him, the world misses him, and nobody knew it was coming. There was no signs of depression, there was no immediate note, there was no goodbyes. In fact, he planned for the future, he wanted to move on with his life, he had the most potential I've ever seen in a person. I love him, as do his friends, his family, his peers, his teachers, and his community. I want to say to everyone who may be grieving, perhaps contemplating suicide, that you are not alone. You think all the doors are closed, when all you have to do is knock, and they will swing right open. There are hundreds of people who care about you, who will take the time to help you, you just need to make a call, or walk to the next door, you only need to say the word. You may not want to hurt the people around you, you may think nobody loves you, and by doing this, you can make it all go away. It is wrong though, suicide is not the way out, people want to help you. They gladly will. Thank you World Suicide Survivors Day Program You are Attending • Share • Public event See all Time 19 November • 14:30 - 17:30 ________________________________________ Location HELP library D.N.Rd near CST station ________________________________________ Created by: Johnson Thomas ________________________________________ More info "I wish I could say that it ended there, that I've worked through my grief. I am still plagued by what I call the "if onlys." If only Hrithik and I could have switched places: if I had been born five years before him, instead of the other way around, he would have received more appropriate treatment and perhaps not seen suicide as his only option. If only the psychiatric hospital had committed him. If only he hadn't been on the sixth floor. If only he had been in restraints." 300 other cities in 19 different countries.AASRA and AFSP join hands to make it possible for people living with suicidal loss to come together and express their pain. While we gently encourage all survivors, familiies of suicide attempted victims and as well as those who have themselves survived the attempt, to participate in this day by attending a conference site in-person, this isn’t always possible, and some survivors may not feel emotionally ready. Please For those who can't attend there is a webcast at www.afsp.org. It can be watched from home, 1-2:30 EST, with a live online chat immediately following. (If you live in a time zone where that won’t work – don’t worry, the webcast is saved online survivors can watch online at anytime afterwards too.) Program at HELP library on 19th November 2011 at 3.00 pm onwards Introduction of the theme Powerpoint presentation Video film on survivors General Sharing and discussions Johnson Thomas Director Aasra www.aasra.info aasrasuicideprevention.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/aasrasuicideprevention @aasradotinfo on Twitter “There's a story behind every person. There's a reason why they're the way they are. Stop judging. If you're not in their shoes, you won't understand.” Mob: 9820466726