EVEN THE STRONGEST MEN NEED HELP


















“Depression is the inability to construct a future.”

-  Rollo May

Many of us were left rattled by the news of Himanshu Roy’s death!

For the uninitiated, Himanshu Roy, 54, was a supercop. He studied in Mumbai St. Xavier's College, completed his Chartered Accountancy (CA), passed IPS exam in 1989… went on to hold many top-cop positions across Maharashtra including that of Additional Commissioner of Police, South Mumbai. He presided over several high-voltage cases… and, as fate would have it, he was sidelined into less significant operations…

Then, Cancer took over Himanshu Roy’s life… There was no way of bouncing back, after that!

Many of us would look at the magnificent personality of Himanshu Roy with envy and admiration, both. His was a rare sight to behold in the police department… He was a fitness freak – strong, tall, bold and handsome… very articulate, too… He loved the limelight. I, always, thought, that he had in him what it took to become the chief of the cops…

But, destiny had different plans…

Himanshu Roy was forced to confine himself to his room… He was depressed!

Finally, on day before, he shot himself in his mouth with his own service revolver and ended his life. He blamed no one for his act...

Not even cancer… Not even depression… Not even God…

Who then?

May Roach said, “I don't fear death so much as I fear its prologues: loneliness, decrepitude, pain, debilitation, depression, senility. After a few years of those, I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach.”

We need tremendous amount of empathy in us to understand the plight of a depressed person. When we lack empathy – and most of us do lack it – we simply become judgemental about those who are going through the dark times of depression. Himanshu Roy was a Hercules to most of us. But, we did not know what was going on in his life… till we heard the gun shot, the day before!

To me, it is a reminder of my own mortality… That, no matter who I think I am – how qualified, successful and famous – there is, always, something in life that is going to make me humble, and grateful…

There are traces of depression in everyone’s life. Grace saves us… What else can do it for us?

I will never ask, “Why did Himanshu Roy do it?”

I only know, that he did it! I, also, know, that even the strongest of men need help when they are depressed and lonely… They need the touch of grace!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Millennium Post

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