The High Tech Mirage
Once nicknamed India's Silicon Valley, Bangalore is becoming better known as the suicide capital. Intolerance towards failure and ambition to increase their financial status is proving deadly for the city's youth.
The centre of engineering, aeronautics, biotechnology: Bangalore holds the key to India's future. "I'm free to live my life, make my own choices. It's an amazing feeling to be independent," says Nilut, a 20-year-old call centre employee. She works 12-hour nights shifts and earns $260 a month. But overwork, stress, separation from family and a culture of intolerance to stress and failure have increased Bangalore's suicide rates by 40% in the last decade. "As soon as your firm needs you, you have to be there and work, be it day or night", confesses one IT professional suffering from depression. Providing cheap labour and building itself on the needs of bigger international economies, Bangalore is now paying the highest price.
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