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Traffic Of Truth

Suicidal tales and the whales around…

Published : Sunday, 22 October, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 483
Ahmed Tahsin Shams
Along with the heavy pour of rain, the country has been flooded with suicidal tales for the last few months. And most of the blames are being bestowed to the so called fake sites of 'Blue Whale Challenge' in Bangladesh.

Depression of youth has been a great concern around the world, which Bangladesh is facing newly in a bulk number. The root of this cause, if deconstructed, will unfold numerous 'whales' around: parents, partners in love-life, peer pressure, academic pressure, and economic crisis, which can be summed up in one phrase: the burden of capitalistic conservative society.

Youth, aged between16-30, mostly embrace self-death when life becomes intolerable. Ironically, the root is rarely talked about with an intention to resolve, apart from resonating inside air-conditioned seminars.

Parents, in Bangladesh, considering upper-middle income group, and middle-income group, are often seen to have extreme ideological paradoxes. These two groups toil and moil to make themselves fit in the economically 'elite group'. Children of these groups always remain under constant pressure.

'Standardized' notions work as the root of youth's depression which ultimately cast them in the 'other' frame of binary and label them as failures. Whether they fail in academic performances, love-lives, or economic contributions, they lose interest in life as they lose the 'standard' life defined by parents, schooling, and surroundings.
Let's start from the beginning of choices in life. Children are forced to acknowledge that 'good' students go for science after class 8. Many schools sectionize students according to the merit, and the better ones are pushed into science groups. Then children have one and only aim in life as injected by the system and parents: to achieve the 'golden' result: GPA 5. After that they struggle to get into a 'good' college, and again opt for the 'golden return' in the HSC exams.
After HSC, they realize that till-now-done struggle is vague if they don't get admitted in reputed universities. And thus, the standardized notions rule and frame their lives, let alone the ones who missed the 'golden' gift of our education system.
After graduation, they face the irony of 'fate' where the God of this fate is none but the system. Jobs are hardly available solely based on academic performances, rather easy for the skilled ones. Therefore, most bookish high academic performers suffer with a poor salary start.
In the meantime, let's have a look what they have lost. Most of them have lost their preferred beloved partners; many got married to economically 'established' persons.
Not only this, whenever this youth in their student life wished to go on a tour, to have a movie-night with friends, to watch theatre at the weekends, to perform music in a friend's birth anniversary evening --- parents of the two mentioned groups stand as the 'Great Wall'. Losing all entertaining moments in youth period, eventually they fall victim to the 'economic struggle'.
We live in such a society where most parents give 'curved look' when two friends of different gender chat in a restaurant. If a girl gets a call in the evening from her male friend, most parents raise storm in a teacup.

Oppressing these kids' lives and victimising their dreams will certainly lead them to embrace death. Many kids' are pressurized, not even asked at times, regarding choosing their desired career or subjects they wish to be parts of. Success is narrowed down in our society, and only fixed notions are counted when it comes to the so-called guardian-level.

Studying what one never wanted to pursue, doing job which one hated always --- are common scenes in the context of Bangladesh. That's how a youth's dream and life is squeezed up by parents, education, and surroundings.   
An official report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that, Bangladesh scored 8th position in the list of high suicide-prone countries witnessing nearly ten incidents of suicides among every 100,000 people.

For instance, in July, this year, a student committed suicide after failing to get desired marks in the HSC exam. She drank poison after getting her results. And this incident proves how the peer pressure took the hype of results into such a height which is above 'dear life'.
Another incident should be looked into: Risila Binte Wazer, a Bangladeshi fashion model died by suicide in August 2017 due to marital disputes, was studying her undergraduate in English Literature from Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology alongside modelling and raising her daughter.
In this regard, let's focus on the 'standardized' notion of the marital life. Majority of the family consider it a shame to have a divorce, and in most cases the girls suffer.

Parents, again, try hard to tie the knot which is already shaking, and it might be difficult for the girl to leave all the homes she knows --- her parents' home, and her husband's home. The notion of divorced women or single women staying alone in their own home is yet to be set as standard in Bangladeshi context. Even if it happens at few areas, society picks up their most favourite unpaid profession: rebuking under the shed of patriarchal notions. Here, sometimes, the scream of gender equity has a smell of patriarchy.

Starting from parental paradoxical conservative (in personal affairs) yet so-called progressive (in economical standardization) notions to capitalistically 'ambitious' academic system --- everywhere whales are around, of multi-colours. Hopefully, concerned authorities will take the challenge to knock down all the whales along with 'Blue' ones!       

Ahmed Tahsin Shams is Lecturer, Department of English Language and Literature, Notre Dame University Bangladesh, and Editorial Assistant,
The Daily Observer






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