If only .....

She buried her face into her cupped hands and cried uncontrollably. Her exam results were just out. She had failed in Math. Worse still, all her classmates had passed. Because of her failure, her school could not publish 100% results this year! "OMG, what will I do? How will I face my parents, my teachers and my friends?" Her inner voices grew stronger, the demons woke up inside her tender head…she ran out of the house..

Next morning, they fished out her lifeless body from the broken well. The dark waters had once again claimed another innocent victim. From a promising life ahead, she had become yet another faceless statistic. Buried deep inside the world of politics and glamour that had taken centre stage of the media these days.

Her parents were inconsolable. “Where we went wrong?”, her parents wailed. They wondered why their only daughter had taken such an extreme step. They had given her everything that she had wanted. The latest mobile phone, her own laptop, ipad, and generous pocket money. Her father had taken a loan to enrol her in the best coaching centre. Her mother had taken a month off from her office work to tutor her at home – in math.

Her teachers waxed eloquent on her ‘other’ talents. Kala Miss had said, “She sang very well, even wrote her own lyrics”.  After her final exams, she had wanted to convince her parents and join a music college… Her Facebook page had over four hundred friends.  Hundreds of them had posted crying smileys on her profile page. Some even posted ‘likes’ thinking her obituary photo was a selfie.

“If only we had known….”  If only she had talked to us… If only….

The questions swirled up and then merged into the dirge that was sung at her funeral.