"Whel did grhandpa go?", she asked her mother for the fifth time in three days. When not replied to, she said again,"He promised to take me to see the animahs ." "You mean animals at the zoo?", her mother corrected her five year old daughter. Disliking her mother's disinterested tone, she started crying.

Her 'grhandpa' died two days ago. As she didn't get the desired attention, she cried louder.

Finally, her father came to rescue. "He went to a beautiful place which only has angels", explained her dad. "Can I go there?", she asked. "No, only people who haven't offended anyone can go."

For years, she lived and believed that lie. She lived in the world made by her parents. The peaceful, happily ever after world. They did it to protect her but she became more of a coward.

One day, she got a message from her friend who had failed in an exam. She rushed to her place, but was late. Her friend had already attempted suicide. The neighbours questioned her about her friend but she avoided them. Recalling her mother's advice of not falling into trouble, she ran from that place. Her friend passed away because nobody was there for her.

Had her parents should have told her the truth about the real world, the truth about death being a part of life and the truth that how much one’s life isn't important but how one lived his life or lives his life matters, she would have lived. But she didn’t receive this truth either from her relatives or teachers. Everyone knew but they still chose to keep quiet.

If she had known, she would have been brave. She could have saved her friend. She could have made her own decisions by weighing all opportunities rather than following the herd! She could have made her life worthy and purposeful instead of being useless for the greater good.

She could have 'lived' and then died instead of living in the constant fear of rejection and death and die painfully!

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PS: This article originally appeared as #5 on the official online blog of SIES Graduate School of Technology, Scintilla Weekly on June 7th, 2013 [link].