The novel Coronavirus pandemic has claimed several lakh lives since last March. We know the number of deceased through a government mechanism, but we hardly get to know the deaths that the disease has caused indirectly. One such case, a representative of the Covid-19’s ‘invisible’ onslaught has been reported from Pune’s Hadapsar, where a 24-year-old Swapnil Lonkar, who aspired to be a government officer, ended his life because the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) did not conduct interviews of him (and several hundred others) despite clearing the qualifying exams. Swapnil would have been alive today if the MPSC had completed the recruitment. His death is a harbinger of despair for the young generation and comes ahead of a formality-like, two-day Monsoon session of the legislature, that we don’t think will debate this with seriousness.

“If Corona wasn’t there, my life could have been different,” wrote Lonkar in his suicide note. “MPSC is mayajaal (a web of illusion). Don’t go for it. With every passing day you get older and pressure on you mounts. You start losing confidence and begin to doubt yourself. I had taken a huge debt in anticipation of securing an officer’s job, but I cannot service the loan doing a private job,” he said further, adding that he had passed the qualifying exams two years ago and “yet find myself doing nothing to fulfil the family’s expectations. I’m not scared but feel I’m lacking something. There is nothing that could help my life start afresh. I don’t blame anyone. If possible please pass this (message) on to others.”