Veronika Decides To Die

Paulo Coelho

A few days back, an early demise of young, talented actor Sushant Singh Rajput left everyone shocked. In an early investigation, depression was the main reason told behind his suicide. Suddenly, a new buzzword was created by people, mental illness. News channels started to discuss mental health. The newspapers flooded with articles on mental illness, causes, treatments etc. This less talked topic was fathomed long back by famous author Paulo Coelho. His book, Veronika decides to die sheds light on inextricably entwined threads; suicide and depression. Book gives a very unsettling reminder to readers that, "seize the day".

The story revolves around a twenty-four year young, beautiful and intelligent Slovenian girl Veronika. She had everything she could wish for- beauty, a steady job, attractive boyfriends, a loving family. Yet, Veronika was not happy in her life. There was not any particular reason for her unhappiness. But, her life was not compelling. She was unable to find the purpose in her life. And she had a fear that life would become more and more monotonous and empty in future. Apathy towards life made her take a bold decision of ending her life by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. Pills started taking effect soon and she became unconscious. When she opened eyes, instead of heaven, she found herself on a bed of lunatic asylum of the city, Villete. Dr Igor (chief doctor of the institute) told her that sleeping pills caused irreversible damage to her heart. She had only a few days to live. The news spread like the wind in Villete.

Initially, she was not happy with a few days of gifted life also. She wanted to die. But gradually, she accepted the reality because she knew that she would die soon. The Villete was full of mad people. I mean people who were different from others like schizophrenics, psychopaths, maniacs. They used to live in their world. Zedka was one of them. Veronika met here over breakfast. She told a short story of the mad village to her. The moral of the story was "A sane person has to act insane among insane people to live peacefully". Madness is the inability to communicate your ideas. So all of us, one way or another, are mad. Zedka’s words made Veronika realize that she had to cross her limits and try to live like a mad person to enjoy her the last few days fully. Gradually, she started to express all her feelings openly like anger, sorrow just like a mad person. And her journey to find her soul began. 

Inspired by Zedka's word Veronika decided to pursue her forgotten passion of playing the piano. One fine night, she got a listener to her piano sonnets. He was a schizophrenic. His name was Eduard. He didn't talk. He only listened. Veronika felt rare shine of appreciation in his eyes. She was happy that she got a true listener who never judged her for anything but only appreciated pure music. She started to realize that there is another Veronika existed within her that she could love. A sharp pain of regret was troubling her. But, it was too late. 

A desire to live was building withing Veronika's mind but there was no escape. A lot of inmates had been affected by her arrival in the hospital. Everyone knew about her short life and her deteriorating physical condition was indicating the same. So, everyone kept a distance from Veronika. A small group of the people existed in the hospital called, Fraternity. Members of Fraternity were the fully cured people but decided to stay in the hospital because they were too afraid to face the outside world again. The world inside the Villete was too safe. Everyone was mad there. No one was there to point out mistakes or judge anyone. But the presence of the young woman had touched a lot of people of hospital. Some were ready to rethink of their lives. Some started to ask themselves 'What if that happened to me? I do have a chance to live. Am I making good use of it?' Some were being forced to think seriously about life outside Villete, Mari was amongst them. Mari was a famous lawyer. Frequent panic attacks pulled her in Villete. She was completely cured but decided to stay in the hospital further. Death of Veronika caused her to understand her own life. She finally felt that she found her soul back. She decided to leave the hospital and live life on her terms and search for adventure. 

Meanwhile, Veronika was playing the piano every night and Eduard was always there listening. She got attracted to him. He never talked but still, she fell for him. Veronika expressed her love even though she knew he would not say a word because he was schizophrenic Surprisingly, Eduard talked. Not only he talked, but also he shared his  'Vision of Paradise' with her that he never shared with anyone. He was the son of an ambassador. He used to love painting but his parents forced him to pursue education against his will. He had a vision of paradise and he wanted to paint it. However, his parents thought it disgusting. He was so passionate about his vision and painting that separation from dreams caused big trauma to Eduard. And he was admitted in the Villete. Veronika's melodious music brought Eduard's lost passion back.

Veronika wanted to take her last breath outside the Villete. She finally realized that every moment in life is special and precious. So, she wanted to experience every second of her existence. She decided to escape from Villete. And Eduard decided to hold Veronika's hand till her last breath. So they both escaped from Villete.

When the news of the escape of Veronika & Eduard was learned by Dr Igor, he became very happy that his brilliant idea worked. Veronika had no serious consequences, no irreversible health problem. But, the doctor knew that failed suicide tend to repeat the attempt sooner or later. So he decided to experiment with fake death and kept it secrete. With mild medication, he kept her under impression that she was dying.

The doctor knew that an awareness of death encourages us to live more intensely. But what doctor had not counted on was the infectious nature of it; as experiment cured Eduard and Mari also. The doctor made Veronika realize that every second of existence is a choice we all make between living and dying.

The writer tried to convey a strong message that everything can be healed. Everything can be fixed. Sooner or later. Things have a way of working themselves out. Life is very precious. We need to ensure to make most of it. Suicide can't be a solution to any problem. Be a Fighter because "Janam kab lena hai aur Kab Marna hai, yeh hum decide nai kar sakte, Hume sirf kaise jeena hai wo tayye kar sakte hai".