Tags
#death, #help, #helpinghand, #police, #save, #suicide, #suicideprevention, Bollywood, entertainment, fiction, India, Short Fiction, Short Story, Stories, story, writing
Hello All,
Thought I’ll share this concept note. Whoever wants to use it, please feel free to do so. If such a programme / series is made and if it manages to save even 1 life and a family is reformed, I’d feel, I’ve been blessed.
FORMAT: TELEVISION SERIES
CONCEPT NOTE:
Each year, India witnesses about 150,000 suicide cases on an average across the country. And more often than not, it’s often the case of financial bankruptcy, family issues, fallout of marriage/relationship, illness etc. that leads to a person committing suicide.
Likewise, in most cases, suicide is a pre-planned decision and sometimes a spontaneous act undertaken at the spur of the moment.
But do we really understand the mental trauma that a person goes through as he faces hardships in his life that leads to his downfall? Do we see the tell-tale signs that might indicate that the person is on the brink of ending it all?
And what about the aftermath of the action taken by the person committing suicide? The financial repercussion on the family members, the emotional meltdown, the societal pressures, the other negative aspects that the family faces thereafter.
‘Watchtower’ will be dramatized stories of such men and women who have committed suicide under extreme pressure.
It will showcase the causes that led them to take such an extreme step, the tell-tale signs that might have given a clue to their mental state of mind to his/her near ones, the aftereffects of their action on their near and dear ones.
And finally the show will explain to others who face a similar situation in real life, what they can do to avoid taking a drastic step. To face the problems of everyday life with grit and determination, not to lose hope and to reach out to others for help and counselling.
The show will also showcase a lesson for the viewers on how to tackle such a situation where they come across someone close to them who shows suicidal tendencies, to keep an eye open for tell-tale signs of a breakdown, to be sensitive to such person and to offer hope and a helping hand.
It’s time we highlighted one of the biggest issues plaguing the families of our country – suicide… before the number of suicidal death increases many folds.
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Sample Episode – The Plumber Who Couldn’t Fix His Broken Life
Mumbai Santa Cruz Slums: The day started on a good note as usual for Uncle John as the neighbours knew him. He was a jovial man in his early 50s who rarely had a harsh word for anyone. But behind the façade of a humorous smile, lurked a deep dark desire to end it all. And he did it at 10.30 in the morning.
His wife who worked as a domestic help, was out at work. His good-for-nothing son had long ago moved out of the family house to stay at his wife’s place. One daughter had abandoned her husband and two kids to elope with someone else. The youngest daughter, always smiling, was alone in the house and was seated at the doorstep cleaning rice when she stepped in the house to bring more rice, and soon shrieks and wailing filled the air.
The neighbours rushed to the house to find Uncle John hanging from the ceiling, an act of suicide committed within minutes. Was it pre-planned? Was it spontaneous? No one would know for sure.
To go back in the timeline, Uncle John was a plumber by profession who took contracts to provide new water connections in their neighborhood. This was the time when legal water connections came at a premium price and after a lot of red tapism and offers of bribery to the BMC officials.
Over a period of time, Uncle John had taken a huge amount of money from various parties to provide water connections. But as the delay took place, the advance money dwindled, and yet the permissions for new water connections were not granted or simply got delayed.
To make matters worse, his good-for-nothing son was a typical local goon who every second day got drunk and was involved in fracas with other guys that often led his parents to rush to the police station to bail him out.
For the people who had invested their hard-earned money in Uncle John for new water connections, their patience was running out. Water is an extreme necessity and with empty promises from Uncle John, it just irks them to no end, and at times, the crowd will descend on his house and verbally abuse him to the point of threatening him.
A man who always had a smile for everyone was now facing the wrath of society for no fault of his.
And so as the pressure started mounting on Uncle John to either provide the water connections or return the money within a stipulated time, time was running out on him. He no longer had the requisite funds to fulfill his commitments as he had spent most of it in either greasing the hands of the powers that be in BMC or in running around from pillar to post to get the requisite permissions. Meanwhile, his nagging wife too offered no moral support while his son himself depended on his wife for his daily survival.
And then that fatal day, Uncle John decided to end it all.
Was it possible to save Uncle John’s life? Yes, considering the fact that a young man would often have tea at his house in the mornings and then offer to drop Uncle John at the BMC’s office on the way to his work. But that unfortunate day, he was late and had his usual cup of tea at the doorsteps offered by Uncle John’s youngest daughter. The young man assumed that Uncle John had already left for the BMC office and hence didn’t bother to ask her about her father. She meanwhile had stepped into the house to get for him a cup of tea and had seen her father seated at a table alive. And it was just a few minutes later, she had found him hanging from the ceiling fan…
For the young man, a daily routine went haywire and a death took place… a life he indirectly could have saved least he had asked his daughter about her father while he was still alive…
For Uncle’s son, he got what he wanted, his father’s house after his death.
For the youngest daughter, it was too big of a shock to witness her father’s death within a span of a few minutes, a sight she would never ever forget for the rest of her life.
For his wife, it was a moment to reflect on where she had gone wrong when her husband was facing issues and needed family support.
For those people who waited so long for a new water connection, the wait simply got longer.
And we ponder why Uncle John preferred to end it all by committing suicide. Was it the financial problems, family problems or was it simply because he lost face in society due to constant verbal abuses and threats?
It’s time for family members too to understand that they too are indirectly responsible for such suicides while people who look down upon those who owe them money too are privy to the death.
And what about Uncle John? Well…
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