Contents

• Cry for help drowns in well
• Appreciations
• Risky fun and games
• The race for tuition
• Villagers in, jumbos out
• Fast and furious
• Women of the world, wake up
• Between life and death at Sri Jayewardenepura
• Fashion
• Bridgeteens present Beauty and the Beast
• When you are alone
• Abstract emotional exploration
• Popular column in book form
  
• Letters to the Editor

Cry for help drowns in well

By Chamintha Thilakarathna
It was a village in shock. There was shock and agony too as the villagers of Porugoda-pitiya in Horana tried to come to terms with the horrifying suicide of a young mother who took her own life and that of her two little daughters when she jumped into a well last Sunday.

Handkerchiefs were in every hand and tears poured from many eyes as the two coffins, one with the body of the elder daughter, Sandeepani and the other carrying mother Nishan-thi and baby Randi were brought to their humble home for the final rites last Tuesday. The husband had fainted and the victim's mother was in severe shock.

People from adjoining villages as well as curious relatives thronged the family compound. All those who gathered at the funeral had one question to ask.
Why? What had led this young mother aged just 29, to take her life?

According to the Horana police, the cause of death was suffocation. They suspect the reason for the suicide was a dispute between mother and daughter. In a letter left for her husband, Nishanthi wrote that the problems she had with her mother were instrumental in taking the decision to commit suicide. She had said she did not wish to leave her children in the situation they were in at present. But, she made no mention of what the problems were.

Police suspect that the young woman had been contemplating suicide for some time. A few days prior to the tragedy she had asked her daughter if she would like to take poison but the child had replied, "Let's go to our aunt's house, Amma."

Nishanthi had apparently woken up last Sunday morning and got her two children out of bed. She had made up her mind and this time the children were not going towards their aunt's house but to their own well.

The well is situated not more than 50 feet from the 'takaran' shack (converted into a house) adjoining the main house. She dragged them there only to forcibly push them into the 17-foot deep well, before jumping in herself, according to police reports.

Her husband claims that he was not aware of her intentions and didn't hear a splash. He awoke later to find his wife missing, only to discover the letter that said she had jumped into the well. When he reached the well, it was all over.

It took the villagers several hours to retrieve the bodies of the little girls, Mihiri Sandeepani (4), Malka Randi (1 1/2) and Nishanthi who was found clinging onto a rope.

Neighbours say that arguments were frequent between daughter and mother. The mother had taken a loan of Rs. 25,000 from Nishanthi on the promise that she would give her a plot of land to build a house. Later, her mother had stated that she would not pay the sum back nor hand over the land, which had led to the dispute between them. Nishanthi had filed a complaint at the Horana Police Station and it was to be taken up by the Samatha Manada-laya shortly.

Some justify her action of taking her children's lives on the grounds that it was overwhelming love that led her to this extremity. Others were of the view that it was uncalled for. Yet others felt that she had no right to take their lives.

While people at the funeral debated and theories abounded as to what led to the tragedy, the crux of the matter was that Nishanthi committed suicide and took the lives of her two innocent daughters as well. What would lead a mother to commit such an act?

Like many young women, Nishanthi had dreams of building a house, and giving her children a better future. She worked hard and asked for little. Yet, she found that she couldn't cope with the stresses of life any longer. Her solution was suicide.

Nishanthi's death and that of her two young children are another sad statistic in Sri Lanka's ever mounting toll of suicides. "Suicide is not an option. Help is available," say counsellors, but Nishanthi, had no one to turn to.

Officials at Sri Lanka Sumithrayo, a volunteer organisation that focuses on helping the troubled, said that suicide, whatever form it comes in is caused by insufficient social support, lack of coping strategies and often results from acute depression.

"Although figures have come down by about 30%, this does not mean that it is not a problem. It seems that the victim had been undergoing stress and depression for some time and that her situation was not identified in time," a Sumithrayo counsellor said.

Nishanthi's particular case was an instance, Sumithrayo officials felt, where chronic depression had paved the way for a tragedy that could have been prevented. "Nowadays people don't have time for others. This is a reason that leads to depression. Some don't have a listening ear in times of trouble."