Vishnu Vijayan had 300-odd friends on Facebook, but those virtual relationships did not come to his aid when he ended his life over a botched relationship.
The 21-year-old engineering student of Lord Jegannath College of Engineering and Technology, Nagercoil, killed himself over an alleged love failure, but it could have been prevented had any of his FB friends tried to put sense into him on seeing his electronic suicide note.
On May 26, a day after his post on FB, he jumped off a running train at Karunagapally.
Shyam Mon, Vishnu’s childhood friend, said “Vishnu had an affair and they had a fight few days ago.
Minutes before his death he tried to get in touch with his friend and sent her a text message and then called her, but as she failed to respond, perhaps it had forced him to take his life,” said Shyam.
His mother Veena recalled her boy arriving home a few days ago, happy.
“He was home to prepare for the final semester. He never looked like somebody planning to such a step,” she said.
Dr. C. J. John Chennakattu, chief psychiatrist at Medical Trust Hospital in Ernakulam says that social networking sites reflect real life in many ways.
“The boy just got four or five replies, all but not with serious intentions and it shows the lack of
genuineness in some virtual relationships.
But we must not be dismissive about even a single mention of suicide by anyone,” he advised.