Not just because of the pain that the person experiences, which in turn leads to the act, but because of how it affects every person in their lives. But what if someone confides in you about a suicide attempt they are planning? You’d be frozen in place. That’s what happened to comedian Sapan Verma, after his video on suicides went viral. He was flooded with messages. Some thanking him, some relating to his video and some confiding in him about their own attempts. One such student reached out to him, as a cry for help and Sapan Verma, did what he thought was right. He helped him. He saved a life. And here is his story. He saved a life. And here is his story. Bharat mata ki jai. Now that we’re safe, let’s go ahead. FYI, this is not a funny post. If you want jokes, The Times of India is doing a good job these days. Recently I’d released a video named EIC Outrage: Student Suicide Capital where I spoke about aspiring engineers killing themselves due to stress. It was shared around quite a bit and was covered by several media outlets (I’m just trying to avoid the term ‘viral video’). Within a week of its release, I received more than a hundred messages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc from students across the country either thanking me or telling me about how they’re going through the exact same struggle. I was obviously overwhelmed and I replied to whatever messages that I could. Some messages were also scary. Like the one that said, “Thank you for the video. You just saved me from doing something really terrible to myself.” Then one night, I got a message from this guy. I can’t reveal his name so let’s call him Ramesh for now, because Ramesh sounds like a generic name of any guy who is always struggling in life. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met a happy Ramesh. The message said, “Hey man I’m a confused student I don’t know why but I think you can help me from committing suicide or leaving home please help me out.” “Maybe he’s just another stalker who wants my number”, is what I thought, living in my pseudo-fame bubble. But my comedian friend Kunal Rao said that I should speak to him because maybe he’s in serious trouble. I finally gave him my number when I realized that even if there’s a 1% chance that he’s serious about it, it will probably haunt me all my life. The phone rang. I heard a panicky voice from the other end. Shivering. Trembling. Fumbling at times. Ramesh had called but had no idea what to talk about. I just asked him to tell me his story. It was a typical case – parents wanting their child to study something mainstream and safe, and the kid wanting to do something else that he/she is passionate about. Standard story that we’ve all heard a thousand times over. But as with everyone else, he thought it was a unique situation that only he’s going through. I let him rant for about thirty minutes. Now, I’m a comedian. I make stupid jokes for a living. I’m not a career counsellor or a psychiatrist. So I told him the only two things that I knew. One, suicides are stupid. (Because if you kill yourself you don’t become what you want to become. You just become…dead. Unless you always wanted to die when you grew up.) Two, talk to your parents. Explain to them what you want to do and make them realize that you’re passionate. Convince them that you’re serious about it and that it’s not just a phase of excitement. I kept the phone and got back to trying to post funny tweets to validate my existence. I didn’t think much of the phone call. I just didn’t want it to become a regular thing. Two weeks later I was about to board a flight when I got a call from the same number again. This time, the voice on the other end was happier and more confident. Ramesh had called to say that he mustered up the courage to speak to his parents and defend his career choice. And after a lot of pestering, they agreed! (Madhavan from 3 Idiots kind of a scene, I imagine.) He also told them that if he sucks at it, I’ll give him a job at East India Comedy. (Which is not something you should tell your parents because they’ll be like, “What is East India Comedy? I thought they left India decades ago.”) Point of the matter is (and I write this because in retrospect, I should’ve mentioned this in the video) – your parents are not your enemy. They’re just worried about your future. They want you to do engineering or medicine because that’s what they know and think is a safe option. The more they know about new career options, the more open and accepting they’ll be of them. So talk to them, tell them about your day and about all the new/weird things you encounter. They don’t know about a lot of new things happening in this generation. And frankly, I don’t blame them because you guys use stuff like Snapchat that even I don’t understand. To put it in young people terms – Be chill af with your parents. They should be your squad goals. Because their love game is on point. It’s fleek rn. smd. mdh masale sach sach. In the meanwhile, here’s to Ramesh – the boy who lived. Here’s where you can read his note. Which proves, that.. He’s not only a kickass comedian but an amazing person.