Near death moment of inspiration

In 2002, Gayathri Ramprasad tried to commit suicide, was hospitalised twice in an American psychiatric clinic within 10 days, gave up on caring for her three-year-old daughter, lost the child she was pregnant with, and lived to tell the tale. Today on the eve of the release of her memoir Shadows in the Sun, Ramprasad runs a successful NGO called ASHA International and changes lives which, like hers, were once overshadowed by depression.

“It was while lying in the hospital bed in America in that utter darkness that enveloped me that I saw the light and realised that I have to live,” says Gayathri, who is on a whirlwind book tour. Gayathri’s anxiety disorder and debilitating depression struck her in her adolescence and followed her as she crossed the seas to live in America with her husband.

“Because, like my parents and so many other parents, I was uneducated of this disease, I fell prey to it easily. It was not an easy subject to talk about but I did it just so parents of children who had killed themselves would not say, ‘I wish I knew’,” says Gayathri. Her own life, she reckons, was changed by just one soul who knew and understood.

“Aida was my husband’s boss’ mother-in-law’s friend,” recounts the author. “She insisted that I see her while I was in the hospital. I couldn’t even look up at her, but she persisted and held my chin up and told me that she knew. It was the first time anyone had known that my mental disease was just that a disease,” remembers the Portland-resident.

Using the power of her own experiences, Gayathri has empowered others to wake up to depression, along with their families, through the ASHA trust. “I once mentored an young woman and her husband in Thane. The lady’s biggest fear was having a baby. Her biggest dream, too, was to have a child. She managed to triumph over her fears and now she has a 15-month-old,” smiles Gayathri.

The book is published by Random House India.