I write this with a heavy heart — not as an expert on police procedure or forensics, but as someone who watches how technology, culture and family life collide in unexpected and sometimes tragic ways.
What I read, and what stayed with me
Over the last few days I followed reporting about three sisters who died after jumping from their apartment building in Ghaziabad. Police reports and forensic teams are piecing together a painful timeline: the children had their mobile phones confiscated and — according to investigators — those devices were later sold. On the night of the tragedy they reportedly tried to access a device belonging to a parent but could not reach the online apps or content they had been using. A diary and a short note recovered at the scene have become central to the inquiry, and authorities are examining both physical and digital traces as they try to understand what happened Times of India, NDTV.
Points that should make us pause
Isolation in a modern home: The girls’ writings reportedly described a deep attachment to a distant culture and online spaces. When a child’s social world is largely digital, removing access can feel to them like being cut off from friends and identity.
The digital trail matters: Investigators are tracing IMEI numbers, sending fingerprints and notes to labs, and examining devices. That hard work seeks to move us from speculation to evidence — but evidence takes time, and grief has no patience.
Family complexity: Reports describe a complicated household and financial stress. None of these are excuses; they are context. Context matters because it shapes what adults notice — and what they miss.
Prevention gaps: These deaths expose gaps in how families, schools and communities recognize and respond to severe distress among adolescents. Too often we treat dramatic events as single tragedies rather than failures of multiple systems.
What this taught me about culture, control and care
- Cultural immersion is not trivial
Young people form identities in many places — classrooms, friend groups, fandoms, and online communities. For some adolescents, a distant pop culture or game community becomes a primary social world. Abruptly severing that connection without a compassionate bridge can increase despair rather than cure what parents see as obsession.
- Rules without conversation breed secrecy
Confiscating a device is sometimes necessary. But if the consequence is shame, secrecy or covert behavior, the parent–child relationship can fray. Conversation, curiosity, boundaries explained with empathy — these matter as much as rules.
- Digital addiction is a symptom, not the whole story
Screens intensify feelings; they do not invent them. When a teen is lonely, bullied, anxious, or living with family stress, the phone or game is often where the pain and solace both appear. Addressing the device alone rarely solves the underlying wound.
- Systems need to be ready: schools, doctors, neighbours
Children in deep distress rarely signal it in a single way. Schools, paediatricians, mental-health services and neighbourhoods must be places where concerns are seen early and acted upon — with counselling, family mediation and, when needed, urgent mental-health support.
Practical things we can do — as parents, neighbours and policy makers
Talk early and often: Ask open questions about online friends and games without judgment. Model curiosity rather than punishment.
Build digital bridges: If a device must be removed, replace it with supervised alternatives — shared activities, scheduled chats, or mediated access — while offering help to manage withdrawal.
Strengthen school mental-health support: Counsellors should have resources and referral pathways. Schools should be safe places to say, “I feel alone.”
Regulate and research: Policy must catch up with task-based interactive apps that blur games and intimate social play. Lawmakers and platforms must collaborate on safety, age-gating, and rapid-response interventions.
Community vigilance: Neighbours, friends and extended family can notice changes and intervene before crisis.
A personal note and a reminder of continuity
Years ago I wrote about suicide statistics and patterns in India — how grief and despair show themselves in surprising ways — and I keep returning to the same uncomfortable truth: numbers and headlines change, but the human vulnerabilities remain. My earlier reflections on the social determinants of suicide remind me that tragedies like this are rarely isolated; they are the end result of multiple warning signs that we somehow failed to join into a coherent response (My blog on suicide patterns, 2011).
I don't offer easy answers. But I refuse to accept indifference. This is about more than phones or cultural preference: it is about how we teach children to belong, and how we act when they show us they don't.
If you are reading this and feeling unsettled, disturbed, or worried about a young person in your life — reach out. Ask. Pause judgment. Offer a listening ear. If you are in immediate danger or thinking of self-harm, please contact local emergency services or available helplines — suicides are preventable when we act early.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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