The Inside Story

News report in a distinguished news paper: blaming no-one:

“ Yesterday night around midnight, cops in XXXX area found an abandoned car containing 2 bodies near a dark play ground. One of the deceased is a middle level manager in a well known public company. No foul play is suspected as suicide note was found near one of the body.”

News report from a cheap tabloid looking for sensational news: (The Inside Story) Blaming the deceased.

“Mr. Srinivas Iyer and his wife lived in a posh locality in Bangalore. He had recently defaulted a load from a bank and his house was slated for auction. Close friends from company indicated that his bad financial position may be due to his habit of betting on chit funds.

He is assumed to have preferred to end his life rather than face the consequences of his bad habits. He along with his wife were found dead near a playground last week.”

Mr Iyer’s neighbour had his own “Inside Story”: Blaming human greed

“Why was it necessary, all that involvement in Chit Fund and going around with those notorious money lenders. He had such a peaceful life, successful manager in a well known company, owning a house in this area, son settled in US and daughter married and working in an MNC here in Bangalore. He had all that was required to be happy.

But human being is such a greedy creature. He always wants more than what he has got. God only knows what more he wanted to get involved in such flimsy money making schemes.”

The deceased tells his own story: Blaming his childhood experiences

“As a student I was so successful. Every body expected me to rise rapidly in the company. But, I knew I was better at finance than my actual profession. I used the knack to illegally start a small financing business of my own and succeeded quite well. As you know, only on that money I could build a big house in this locality, Send my son to US and also marry off my daughter.

But success has its own problems. Now every body including my son has some expectations on my standard of living. My relatives expect me to help them whenever in need. I surely could not have achieved all of that with my salary. Hence I got stuck with that semi-legal venture of mine. What I dint realize was that with age my financial acumen had gone down and a series of bad decisions brought me into a situation which caused my death. I wish I could have stopped this long time back.

I don’t blame anybody, but somehow in some way my mother is responsible. As a child when our financial position was not well-off, she kept comparing our position with others in her family and making remarks such as “how comfortable they (our relatives) were!”. That made a lasting impression and someway made be look for other ways of making money. But I don’t blame her. ”

Mother of the deceased: blaming nobody.

“I was married at 18, and had a kid in one more year. In that age, I was too young to take into account the prosperity of my relatives. I did not know better than comparing our position with others. I wish I had better sense then.”

Thus the Inside Stories end, with none to blame in the end.