How often have we ridiculed and rewarded Google for completing our searches and showing thousands of results within seconds? How often have we found almost everything that we are looking for in that little search bar? How often has the biggest search engine on the planet listened to your commands and obeyed them? More often than we pause to realize. But Google just took that on little step further, when it matter the most.
Google has become a part and parcel of our lives. It was the same with a 24 year old girl from Bareily who stood on the corner of Yamuna on January 3rd, looking for answers to ‘How to commit suicide’. The poor lass was distraught having been rejected by the love of her life. When the parents of her boyfriend pressurised him to leave her over a government job, the girl in question felt devastated. Unable to face the rejection from the boy who had been her lover since two years, she turned to end her life.
But thankfully, as ever, Google was there. The girl, having initially made her mind to jump into the Yamuna Canal 4 km from Saharanpur, took a step back as fear overcame her. Not wanting to die in such a painful way, she took out the hone and asked Google what to do. And like a messiah, Google didn’t show her the gruesome ways to death, but actually popped up a number of a helpline! Instead of quickest results of people hanging themselves, or eating poison or other unfathomable results, the lucky girl was shown a door to a second chance.
She took it and it connected her to a deputy inspector general of police in the area. “On January 3, I got a call from the girl on my public number. She was quite nervous and was about to end her life. She told me she had even searched how to kill herself on Google. Among the search results, she told me, she found my number. I heard her out and told her to come to my office so we could talk about it in detail,” said DIG Jitendra Kumar Shahi. “We come across such cases every day. Sometimes girls level harassment or assault charges after a relationship ends. This girl was just deeply traumatized and wanted help. She made no allegations against her boyfriend and in fact spoke warmly of him. I asked the station officer of the women’s police station to counsel the couple and look into the matter,” Shahi was quoted as saying.
After the girl was convinced to come to the Police station, she was introduced to a counsellor while her boyfriend was also called down to the place. A thorough conversation later, the girl is now rid of her suicidal tendencies. Google, after all, gave the right answer without giving the correct results!
