Hyderabad: A 42-year-old PhD Scholar from University of Hyderabad committed suicide by jumping from his flat on the fourteenth floor of an apartment in Chandanagar on Saturday evening. Police said Vishal Tandon, pursuing his research in Gender Studies from the UoH was severely depressed. Minutes before he jumped from the balcony of his flat, he wrote a long email to his sister residing in Mumbai stating that he was depressed as he could not “make it big in life and cannot settle for small things.”
According to the police, Vishal Tandon originally from Mumbai, was residing in a rented flat in Aparna Sarovar in Nallagandla village within the Chandanagar police station limits. Till a month ago, his mother had been staying with him. She had left recently to visit his elder sister Prateeka in Mumbai. Since then Vishal had been alone in the flat.
On Saturday afternoon, at around 3.45 pm, he sent an email to his sister Prateeka saying that he had decided to end his life. In a two page long email, he stated that he was not settled in life still and at this age had not achieved anything big. “I have not achieved anything big and I cannot settle for small things in life. I am not able to achieve my dreams. I am also suffering from serious health issues”, he mentioned in the mail.
As soon as she saw the email, she called Vishal but there was no response from him. She immediately alerted a friend of theirs, Pradeep, who resided on the thirteenth floor in the same apartment and asked him to check on Vishal. But by the time, Pradeep rushed to the flat, Vishal had already jumped from the balcony. He first fell on a car parked on the ground floor and then to the ground. He suffered a severe head injury and died on the spot. The fall was so intense that the bonnet of the car on which he fell was damaged. Police said the car belonged to a resident of the apartment.
“He locked the flat from outside and kept the key in a shoe kept on the shoe rack outside the flat and jumped from the balcony. He also mentioned in the suicide note that he had kept the flat key in a shoe and also asked his family members to re register his car on their names and use it. He could be suffering from loneliness and health complications. However, he did not mention which illness he was suffering from. We are looking at more clues that led to the death,” Inspector N Tirupathi Rao said.
Based on a complaint from Pradeep, a suspicious death case was registered. The body was shifted to Gandhi Hospital for autopsy.-
Friends, guide shocked
The death of Vishal Tandon, a UoH research scholar of Gender Studies has shocked his friends and research guide. A self-professed ‘Queer’, he would often tell his friends about how dissatisfied he was with his life. “He would always say that despite being 42 years old, he hadn’t achieved anything. He came across as a very ambitious guy who wanted to do a lot. However, he was very hard-working and his research was also progressing smoothly. We would often attend meetings with our guide together and he always seemed on track. I am married and he would often tell me that at least I had a family to fall back on but he was alone. He said all of this with a smile and therefore I always saw him as a 42 year-old who never gave up,” said a fellow research scholar.
Vishal’s guide Deepa Srinivas was shocked. Vishal’s PhD was titled, ‘Muslim Mascul-inities in Crisis: A Queer Reading of Hindi Films.’ Vishal death was a shock to many including followers of his blog. There were a series of photos of paintings by LGBT artists.
Dean of Students Welfare, Prakash Babu said Tandon never faced any discrimination at UoH.
