Besieged with calls, most of Aishwarya’s traumatized friends have switched off their phones. But two of her closest friends spoke to Manvi Gupta from Outlook.
Aishwarya Reddy, a second-year mathematics student at LSR committed suicide on November 3, stating financial difficulties as a reason in her last note. While everybody is talking about the pitfalls in the education system, there are people, who knew her as a brave, kind and humane soul, people who called Aishwarya their friend, are at a loss to explain why she took the extreme step. She was only 19.
Varshini, one of her closest friends said, “Aishwarya was an understanding, genuine and a bright student. She really had big dreams, was preparing for civil exams and aspiring to be a civil servant one day. She was a grounded person who never hesitated to say that her mother is a tailor and her father a mechanic. She was well aware of her family’s condition and shared everything with me. She has always spent her pocket money judiciously, buying only essential things."
Asked if Aishwarya ever talked about or hinted at the turmoil she was going through before she took this extreme step, Varshini said, “No, Not at all. She never talked about it, she never even said she is stressed or sad about anything."
Another close friend of hers said, “We had a conversation on the day of her death and she sounded so normal. I cannot imagine that she was thinking of taking this extreme step. We talked about our maths practical and how we were going to write it. Everything was normal."
“The Aishwarya I knew was a very brave and kind soul. She was actually a happy person, often limiting her company to a chosen few and always so polite," she added.