Sunanda Tharoor: The chinks in her armour...

Last night, screaming headlines shocked the nation about Sunanda Tharoor's untimely death in one of Delhi's poshest hotel rooms. News reports informed that the union minister and his wife were staying at the Leela Hotel since two days prior to the catastrophe, due to some renovation at their residence. The horrific incident apparently occurred somewhere between 3.30pm (when she was last seen in the hotel's lobby) and 7.25pm (when Shashi Tharoor along with the hotel staff broke open the hotel door only to find his wife's lifeless duvet covered body in bed). In the absence of any suicide note or source, the police are left clueless about the cause of her death. However, mystery shrouds the case as suspicions arise due to recent comments and happenings that have transpired in the recent past.

It is no secret that there have been strained relations between the seven year long married couple due to Shashi's alleged affair with a certain Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. All those following the celebrity couple would be well aware of the twitter war that the trio were fighting.
Who would know that an immature online squall would result in such a disastrous consequence? Who knew that a social platform would be responsible for wiping off fifty two years of a beautiful life from the face of the worth?
Who can know when something is getting too much to handle? and then again, how much is too much?

I wonder if Mehr would still pass those angry comments she made about Sunanda in her tweets had she to know that it would have such fatal consequences...I am not being biased. Some might say that what Mehr tweeted was just a counter reaction to Sunanda's accusations. I am not in any position to say that there is any truth to whatever Sunanda Tharoor claimed. But the woman in me refuses to believe that she could have have imagined it all, like Mehr in one of her tweets is trying to make it sound. However, we the aam junta, can never know anything for sure. In someone's personal affairs, however, this 'not wanting to knowing' is mostly a good thing....unless ofcourse, it becomes a social catastrophe that could have been prevented..or perhaps a suicide that could be stopped. That is when, society is handed over the right to intrude and fight for justice on behalf of someone who quit midway for what she/he thought as something that could not be helped.

Everyone and I mean EVERYONE (right from the maid who works at my home to the pesky news reporter who barely allows the interviewee to speak and is most happy answering his own questions) Perhaps Sunanda resorted to this ghastly method as a desperate measure to quit the losing battle of a rocky marriage. Perhaps it was the depression that stemmed from her poor health condition that stepped on a nerve, causing a breakdown. Perhaps it was twitter, the friendly social platform, that was taken way too seriously in this 'internet' world. Or perhaps it was just a case of real bad timing...and (like we all want to believe) she died a peaceful death. So many interpretations, no fixed conclusion yet. The autopsy report promises to exclude a few possibilities.

But what stays in mind is her last tweet, "Who knows when I got to go with joy hastay hue jayenge (will go laughing)," she said.

The mystery around Sunanda Pushkar's death made me review my panoramic outlook on life. It made me ponder on societal definitions sprinkled all over the news reports---'true love', 'happily married', 'social circuit', 'depression', 'PDA', 'insecurities'---the elusiveness of it all. Is there any age to all this? Rather, is there any age at which we move beyond all these expectations (from us...from those we love...from life)? Or is this something we humans are cursed with, until our dying day?

Sunanda Tharoor's friends are now seen speaking of the lady's charm, joie de vivre, warm and friendly disposition and striking personality. She was known for her sense of humour and vibrant attitude. What nobody could spot was probably the chinks in her armour.
What nobody ever spots are the bruises on the soul...

May afterlife grant her the happiness that life did not allow...
Rest In Peace Sunanda Tharoor!