A SUICIDE

Mrs. Padma Desai was the daughter of well-known industrialist Raja Ram Kirloskar. She was married to Mr. Kantilal Desai, the son of former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai. From this, one can imagine her social and financial status. Yet on November 16, 1984, she jumped from the fifth-floor flat where she lived and took her own life. She was 51 years old. Immediately after the fall, she was taken to the hospital, but doctors declared that she had died before reaching there.

Why did she end her life? The news report explained it in these words:

Padma committed suicide after hearing that the family has lost a case in the Supreme Court to retain their flat.

In other words, after learning that her family had lost their Supreme Court case to keep their flat, she killed herself (Hindustan Times and The Times of India, November 17, 1984).

After the Janata Party’s victory in 1977, Morarji Desai became Prime Minister. During his two-and-a-half-year tenure, his son Kantilal Desai was involved in several dealings, one of which concerned this flat. The flat was on the fifth floor of a large building called Oceana on Marine Drive in Bombay. After the Janata government fell, a case was filed in court claiming that Mr. Kantilal Desai had acquired the flat illegally. The court ruled against him. Mrs. Padma Desai received this news over the phone. Soon after, she jumped to her death.

She thought that by killing herself she was freeing herself forever from the court’s decision. But if she had realized that by committing suicide she was actually stepping into a greater court—where no such option would remain—her decision would have been very different.

A person’s greatest weakness is impatience. In haste, he takes a drastic step. Yet if he paused to think, he would never do so.