Manilal was a lovely boy, who somewhat inexplicably, suffered from depression. The problem of depression is that there is usually no obvious cause; some children who are successful academically, socially and at sports are nevertheless depressed. If they could put their finger on the cause of their depression they would rationalize themselves out of it. But the problem is that their depression is not rational. If it was, they would go though all the reasons for it and explain to themselves that there is no reason to be depressed. 

Their lives are just as full of happiness, success, love and achievement as any other child. Yet they are still depressed. This is a serious problem, sometimes leading to suicide. People who commit suicide are usually no more or less successful than other people; their perception is different to those of others and it is a heavy burden for them to bear. 

Manilal was not top of his class, but he was always in the top half. He wasn’t a star athlete or games player, but he played in the hockey team and was an adequate athlete; he was probably above average for boys of his age in his school. 

And yet, he was always depressed, so much so that his parents were terrified that he might commit suicide. 

I was appointed his full-time tutor/mentor for the whole of the summer holidays; it was a daunting undertaking and I had been forewarned of the seriousness of the task that I was taking on. 

Manilal was a delightful boy, well-mannered and a good student. He just had this heavy cloud of depression hanging above him all the time. 

I started off by playing squash with him every day; he was quite good at it, enjoyed it and was pretty competitive. I discovered that he lacked confidence; he did not think he was as good as he is. So I first of all tried to build up his pride in his squash games and his fitness. I managed to persuade him that he was in fact quite good at it – and made him believe that he could be very good at it if he just played a lot and really challenged himself. 

So we played a lot of squash and his game improved dramatically, until he was consistently beating me. His schoolwork, always good, got even better. Soon the magic happened – his depression went away. 

I am sure that the secret lay in the squash; he began to believe that if he could do something successfully, he could have the courage to try other things and believe they would turn out equally well. 

By the time I left India he was a changed boy and his parents were very grateful to me. LM