SRINAGAR, Oct. 11 -- On a quiet evening, a frantic phone call at Tele-MANAS broke the eerie silence. Sobbing on the line was a 35-year-old woman with a supposed dying declaration. Suffering from family and financial issues, the woman, in no uncertain terms, said she was ending her life. A stoic silence ensued. Counsellor frantically shouted, 'Hello, hello, are you there.'. After a few pauses, the woman answered, 'Yes'. The counsellor took a deep breath and started persuading the woman to stop thinking of death. He lectured her about 'life is beautiful' and invoked, sometimes, religion to dissuade her from taking the extreme step.

Hours into the conversation, the woman agreed to give life another chance. Such was the persuasion that she d...