Of course there will be difficulties in life. There can never be life without its share of problems. Many of these problems can be traced back to actions of people- including ourselves. Yet, the answer to problems doesn’t lie in running away from them. Worst of all, you have no right to end the lives of others because of your problems. These are my thoughts when I read about the shocking murder-suicide at Los Angeles recently.
It appears that 45 year old Karthik Rajaram shot his wife, three sons and his mother-in-law before shooting himself. There are reports which indicate that almost definitely financial problems caused him to act in the manner he did. From TV reports we hear that he was an MBA and had worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers some years ago. Apparently he was unemployed for the last few months.
An article in the LA Times gives more details of his financial background. He was relatively well off and seemingly had every comfort in life. Did his luck run out in playing the stock market?
Why anyone would like to end it all like this is beyond my understanding. Why couldn’t he seek professional help before taking such a drastic step. What, if anything, did his wife and family know about his problems? These are questions the answers to which I have no clue. Yet, it strikes me that things need not have come to such a tragic end- if he sought professional counselling help.
Basic lessons in human psychology teach us that our thoughts lead us to actions. If we have negative thoughts, they will mould our minds in negativity resulting in our taking negative actions. May be he felt there was no relief in sight. May be he felt that the worst he feared was coming true. Even then, nothing could be worse than what Karthik Rajaram did.
I fail to understand how he could write in his suicide letter that he felt killing his family was the honorable thing to do. Killing himself would have been a sad action- reflecting his inability to face the future with courage. Killing his family has no rationale at all.
At the end of the day, we are judged by our actions. We don’t know what was in Karthik Rajaram’s mind. We do know that his last actions were shocking to say the least.
You can subscribe to the A-Step-A-Day series using RSS at https://bprao.wordpress.com/category/a-step-a-day/feed
This is Post No: 308 of the “A Step A Day” series : To provide perspective and provoke thought to facilitate self-development across a wide spectrum of issues- big and small- crucial for executive success.
People at Work & Play 
It’s mental illness you dweeb. Its like saying there’s no excuse for a brain hemorrage.
You sound as though you’re a smart guy so please try to educate yourself on mental illness and try to undersand what millions of people who survive a close ones suicide go through and what a victim himself is struggling with.
Yeah! Try to get “professional counseling” yourself. Look someone up and get a quote for the time you may need it. Let’s see how comfortable you’ll feel and how confident you’ll feel that the “counselor” will be of life-saving help by just “talking about it.”
It is a lesson for the others who always are trying to live falls life. It is important that one should face reality in life and try to accept the changes!. “Money is not the only thing in life”.
Crores of people around us are living below poverty line,yet they live. Always it is important to understand the world around us and not to live in a “self centric manner”.
What happens within the walls of a household is beyond anyone’s comprehension. Laughter during parties, but, sadness when the party is over and the guests leave. It is not what is said by the guests at the party but what is said at the driveway when leaving after the goodbyes. When you laugh the whole world laughs with you, when you cry, you cry alone. That was the life of the late Karthik Rajaram. Playing the stock market is like gambling and one cannot differentiate between the two. Both are addictive, leading maybe to prosperity at first but ultimately to doom in the end.
A very thought provoking comment,Purandhar. What you say makes so much sense. There is so much we don’t understand about other’s lives- sometimes even our own.
Thank you, Mr. Prem Rao. The following was my comment on 2008/10/07 on the Canadian CBC news website that may be of interest to you.
“This man might have been over-educated to a degree to lose balance of his mind. This family appears to be South Asians of south Indian origin. There is a strong tendency in this community, especially in the United States, to measure one another with wealth. He might have been too ashamed to seek help from his financial woes, but, instead like a true American gun slinger went on a shooting spree. This is a wake up call to the rest of the south Indians in a similar mindset that amassing wealth is not everything”.
Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram, may his atma be at aaram.