No one cares for me, rues Sandeep

George Bowen, a ninth standard student of Vashi’s Sacred Heart High School, reportedly hung himself with a nylon rope tied to the ceiling fan in his room between 3 and 3.30 pm when there was no one in the house. The cause of his suicide is not immediately known as the Vashi police have still not found any suicide notes in his house in the Jai Jawan Co-operative Housing Society.

According to the principal of Sacred Heart High School, Father Philip Falcao, George was a quiet and timid sort of a boy and was below average in studies. “His suicide has come as a shock to all of us as his close friends have told me that George never showed any outward signs of depression. “In fact on Wednesday afternoon, George had telephoned a classmate to come over to his place at 5.15 pm to complete the science project,” informed Father Philip. Reportedly, the boy’s mother had left the flat by 3 pm after having tea with George, thereby leaving him all alone in the house. “George did not attend school on Wednesday as he had hurt his hand after falling down from the bicycle and I had personally told him to rest till he recovered. It’s sad that in spite of having a fully trained councillor in our school, such an unfortunate incident had to happen to one of our students,” said the principal. On Thursday evening the relatives were pouring in with their condolences to George’s family and preparing for funeral, as the body was cleared after the post-mortem. His father E J W Bowen is a mechanic and his younger brother Jackson also studies in the same school in class seven.While the police is still investigating this suicide case, the unsuccessful suicide attempt by FYJC student Sandeep Sarkale was apparently due to acrimonious family environment. According to eyewitnesses, Sandeep went to the college terrace after taking the mathematics exam on Wednesday afternoon and just hurled himself down fortunately the ground was soft and he escaped with compound fractures in his legs, knees and arm. He is currently in the emergency ward of the municipal hospital at Vashi.College staff who rushed Sandeep to the hospital said that even in the presence of the police, the boy kept mumbling that he was very upset as no one cared for him.

College Principal Dr S N Shetty stated: “I personally met Sandeep in the hospital and urged him not to be so stressed. We will soon be appointing a councillor in the campus, as per the directive of the vice-chancellor.”

Sandeep’s father Baliram Sarkale informed this newspaper the boy was mentally disturbed for the past one year as his mother was physically unwell for a long time and had also become slightly whimsical. “However, I’ve told Sandeep not to talk to her as it leads to unnecessary quarrels.” However, speaking from his hospital bed, Sandeep merely said that he himself does not know why he jumped from the terrace. “I have to now requested the principal to exempt me from appearing for the other test papers in the ongoing exams,” he added.