Somy Ali: I beg parents to be careful with their words as their kids’ lives may depend on it

Be motivating, encouraging rather than demeaning and authoritative, says actress Somy Ali, as she requests parents to be more considerate of their kids’ life choices and professional endeavours. Somy, who deals with victims of domestic violence and rape through her US-based NGO No More Tears, says that the recent case of an 18-year-old JEE aspirant committing suicide is heartbreaking.

“No one is born with the knowledge of being worthless or a loser. These are crystal clear abusive words ingrained in one's psyche to make them feel small. Some grow up to change that around and fight to be winners while others like Stalin and Hitler turn into sociopaths and sadists. Sociopaths and sadists are all around us in every profession and they typically hide it well and get away with a great deal of animalistic pain they continuously put others through. These people are simply wired wrong and thus find pleasure in hurting others. Yet, they are worshipped because they have mastered the art of being so charming that people would rather blame the victims than the perpetrators. However, in this particular case, this teenager was in so much pain and lack of self esteem that she believed death to be the only resolve. It's beyond heartbreaking to see this and I unfortunately do see it due to what I do with my NGO on a daily basis,” she says.

She adds, “I beg the parents to please be careful with the words you use for and to your children because in today's world their lives depend on them. I know this personally and not everyone is resilient enough to grow up to start an NGO. Rather many can't take the pain and end their lives. It's all of us who are responsible for this teenager's suicide not just her parents or peers. Unless and until we all decide to be our true selves, nothing will change and we will keep losing more lives.”

Meanwhile, she adds that celebrities also need to make sure to spread awareness about mental health issues. “Everything our youth sees a celebrity do or post has an impact on them be it in Hollywood or the Hindi cinema. What is lacking and creating a significant void is authenticity on our social media which unbeknownst to many celebrities universally is impacting our youth in a harsh and dire manner. Celebrities such as Mark Duplass, Halle Berry, Hrithik, Shah Rukh, Kareena, and Kangana with a few others at least are keeping it real in their reels. We need more influencers because this is an era where a young child or a teenager's life is contingent upon what a celebrity, influencer, or anyone they look up to puts out there on their social media for the world to see and believe it to be an absolute fact without questioning it,” she says.