Yesterday afternoon when we all got numb with grief after we heard the sad news of a young and a talented actor /celebrity whose life enthralled us.

For the last 8 years since Sushant Rajput began his ascent into stardom, we all followed every aspect of his life.

His successes, his love life, his breakup.

Today someone forwarded on Whatsapp a 4 - minute video of Sushant taking his fans for a virtual trial of his house.

We saw and even forwarded the heartwrenching photos of a dead Sushant whose eyes were half-open.

It is sickening the level of our voyeuristic pleasures can fall.

Every status, insta story, and the Facebook post was about what a great actor he was, and how unfair his life has been cut short cruelly.

The television channels who were getting corona fatigue couldn't believe their good fortune.

The story of a successful celebrity ending his life.

Reporters reached his Patna house, hunted all his cousins, friends, anyone and everyone who claimed they had a slice of Sushant.

Few of his friends said they felt something was wrong. But did they do anything?

NO

So now expressing heartfelt regret (which Sushant is not going to read) is an eyewash and only for public consumption. If they had been his true friends, they would have grieved in private, not shed crocodile tears.

They all failed him as they were not there for him when he needed a support system to rely on and fall back on.

Whatsapp groups suddenly went into an overdrive discussing how they were grieved.

My college mates had a zoom call for a normal catch up, but most of them said we should skip it as they were not in a proper frame of mind.

In the last 1 month, this had happened earlier also

When Irfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor passed away due to illness, the nation was plunged into collective grief especially on social media and TV channels

But this time the grief is combined with shock.

Plus losing someone so young is another trigger factor.

After the grief outflow, the WhatsApp varsity took over.

Every 2nd message posted preached how to avoid another Sushant?

Do we have a right to know why did he take such a drastic step?

Just because he was a star, do we have the right to know and discuss everything about his life?

Every person goes through his struggles hidden from the glare of even their close and loved ones.

All of us feeling numb with grief, will we do something about it?

Is Sushant the first or the last tragedy which has occurred in Bollywood or this universe.

I can reel off a few recent cases – The Balika bahu actress Pratyusha, Nafisa who was a model, Jiah Khan the young actress.

As their popularity was not as high as Sushant there was media limelight, but maybe not a media and social media uproar. ( I am after a lot of thought using this very strong word)

The point is why have we lost all our proportions

Instead of an outpour of our grief on social media, did we reach out to at least 1 person we know who will be happy if we called?

I especially want to say this from my personal experience, my mother who passed away 2 years back used to give me a missed call and wait for my call.

And I would be busy and forget to call her sometimes or if I called would become irritated as I felt she had called for some trivial reason. And this one thing I will repent all my life and this guilt will be subsumed into me, as now no one gives me a missed call and expects me to call back.

We urban populace who have the luxury of social media and TV are losing the differentiation between reality and the virtual world.

Maybe we have been like this, but this pandemic where lockdown has ensured very little social interaction, we have all become slaves to social media.

We are obsessed with our social media accounts, likes, comments.

We feel our friends who are on social media who like or comment are our true friends and then when we become lonely, we don't even realize.

If we are really sad and numb with grief (I keep using this as most of the posts, I have come across says this), can we look into ourselves and ask ourselves what have we all become (Including ME)

Let’s all understand that under public glare; everyone will talk only good about us.

It is more important that we have few friends and of course, family members who will dare to show a mirror to us and call Spade a spade.

Let’s have a few select true friends with whom we can share, laugh, cry and pour out all our frustrations.

We need to connect at least once or twice a week with such true friends.

This will not only ensure we are grounded, but we will be able to face any ups and downs with this solid social fabric.

If someone is not able to take out this much time for us or just be there for us, ponder whether they are really our true friends?

We Indians always take pride in our social infrastructure of family, friends and relatives.

This social fabric is up for testing times and only those with social-emotional well-being will survive this social media onslaught and emerge stronger. 
An old English Proverb - True friends walks in when the rest of the world has walked out.