I had just started my day in office when my husband called.
"A girl in Bangalore is about to commit suicide. She has some pills with her and she is alone. I spoke to her. But I think it will be better if you talk to her," he said.
Who is she? What is this? What am I to do?
Jeevanand quickly explained that it was a girl who had applied for a job in his department a couple of months ago and that she was online on instant messenger when she saw him online and chose him to tell her final goodbye.
Jeeva was online when her message popped up: "Hi," it said.
When he said hi and asked her how she was doing (she did not get the job) Rita said: "Not too good. You are the last person I am going to talk to."
Jeeva asked her not to do anything stupid and asked for her number so that he could talk to her. When he called her, she told him, nothing was going right for her. Jeeva got her talking and asked her to stay where she is and had called me.
I dialled Rita's (name changed) number.
She was weeping when she answered the phone. I could hardly understand what she was saying. A girl who I never even knew existed was now pouring her heart out to me; how she had been cheated and left alone by her boyfriend, and how she was in no position to go back to her parents.
Just a day after her boyfriend had promised to marry her in a court, Rita had come back to the flat the two had been living in only to discover that the guy had vacated and the landlord was getting it painted to rent it out to another tenant.
Rita, who was already teetering on the edge of despair, lost all hope and will to live.
I kept on talking to her, trying to calm her down. I told her: Don't worry. Don't cry. I am there with you
words, which even I did not believe in.
Now when I look back, I realise the distance just didn't exist. She believed me. And though she did not stop weeping, I could feel she was at least out of the suicide mode.
She was in a corner of the city and wanted to go back home now. She had just fifty rupees and a cell phone. I promised to send her help.
But Rita was clear about two things: she did not want to see cops or people from NGOs.
So I tried calling a few friends in Bangalore. When nothing worked, I decided an NGO would, after all, be the best place to approach. I would tell them to pose as my friends.
A friend helped finding numbers of all NGOs in Bangalore. After trying a few numbers, I could get through one of them -- Women's Helpline. I spoke to Shanti from the organisation and told her of the situation.
Shanti spoke to Rita posing as my friend, and asked her to sit in an auto and gave directions to the driver so that she did not know she was going to a NGO, to some strangers.
She reached there safely and Shanti handled the case very carefully. Rita's family members were called from Mangalore and she was sent home safe before evening.
Apparently the family was not even aware of half the things that were happening in their daughter's life. Earlier, when they came to know that Rita was in love with someone, they approached the boy's family. The family said they had an elder son and till the time he got married, Rita had to wait.
Then, Rita, who came to Bangalore for a job, told her parents that she was living in a hostel and moved in with her boyfriend. Even her brother, who was in Bangalore, did not know anything.
Rita conceived twice when she was with her boyfriend but had to go through abortions. This was the time her mental health started to disintegrate. She managed to persuade her boyfriend to marry her and it was the day before the court wedding that he deserted her.
Shanti, who has the boy's contact details, is apprehensive about contacting him because Rita's brother said the family was trying to work out something, and NGOs and rights activists are never welcome in such a setting.
But when Rita's mother and brother went and spoke to the boy's parents in Udupi, they were humiliated and sent out of the house.
Rita's family is now trying to get her married to somebody of their choice, but Shanti advices against it.
"She had to undergo treatment for some more time and she is not ready for marriage. But her family won't listen.
It's been two weeks since the incident happened. I keep speaking to Rita now and then so that she does not feel lonely. Her problems are not solved yet, but she wants to wait for a better future. I spoke to yesterday and she is still disturbed. Her family has also moved to Bangalore to be with her.
