Swati, 18, was a brilliant pupil but still she feared she had failed her school-leaving exams. She hanged herself hours before the results were released. She had in fact passed. Aruna, 17, killed herself by drinking pesticide after learning she had flunked.
Horrifying stories such as these are regularly published in the Indian media, while studies show more and more teenagers are suffering depression or contemplating suicide.
In New Delhi, an inquiry into 150 educational facilities by mental health group VIMHANS showed that 40 percent of pupils feel overwhelmed by exams.
A separate study by non-governmental organisation Sahyog showed that 57 percent of the 850 teenagers they questioned suffered from depression and nine percent attempted suicide last year.
The trend began about 10 years ago but has accelerated in the past five years, especially among the middle classes, according to Sandeep Vohra, psychiatrist at Delhi's Apollo Hospital.
"It's linked to the changes in society, liberalisation, mass consumerism, stress to achieve everything instantly," he said.
Parents, wishing for their children the kind of glamorous life depicted in the media that they themselves did not have, are putting pressure on their offspring, which is being reinforced by teachers. "From the age of two, children are (subjected to) competition. The child is estimated by his school marks: if he is good at school, he is a good child, if not he is the failure of the family," said Vohra.
The cause of the nightmares is the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the school-leaving certificate that can decide one's entire future career prospects.
Access to India's more prestigious universities and technikons -- which open doors to an easier life in the country of more than a billion people -- demands a pass rate of 90 to 100 percent.
Miss out on these and the future becomes far less certain.
"It is essential to have the best marks, the best rank, the best college. There is very tough competition, even with your best friend. If he gets more than you, you feel really bad," said Aakriti, a 16-year-old student of Lorento Convent in New Delhi, who like most students, receives extra tuition in certain subjects every day.
"The pressure comes from all sides -- parents, teachers, friends, newspapers. Those who fall behind can become depressed or suicidal," said her friend, 16-year-old Nidhi, who added that the solitude of continually studying alone exacerbated the situation.
In their school, a teenager who scraped through with a 50 percent aggregate committed suicide by drinking poison.
"She left a letter apologising to her parents because did not get good marks," said Nidhi, before citing yet another tragedy.
"A mother committed suicide before the results. She jumped from the third floor because she thought her daughter had not done well," she said.
The India Today daily recently highlighted the trend towards depression and suicide in a special report titled "Killer exams". Students responded by saying they were grateful that at least someone was concerned about the problem.
"Parental anxiety, peer pressure, extreme fear and constant tension have made our lives miserable. We have to face a lot of humiliation if we don't perform well," said 12th-grader Mythreyi.
But for parents dreaming of seeing their children becoming economists, lawyers, doctors or engineers, it's a question of climbing up the social ladder.
Andrea Raj, a 36-year-old masseuse, who is sweating blood trying to ensure she can pay for a tutor for her 15-year-old son, recognises that she may be pushing too hard.
She explains that because she stopped her studies at the end of primary school, she has never felt good enough in a society which lays particular stress on academic achievement.
"People treat me like nothing, they treat me like a servant," she said. "I want to push him, I want him to be an engineer. I don't want him to be ashamed the way I was ashamed."
Alarmed at the trend, Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh wishes to launch a national debate on the issue.
Just after schools resumed after their summer break earlier this month, he announced a number of measures to help make the CBSE "less stressful" -- including giving students more time in which to write the board exams.
CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly said efforts were being made to change the system so that projects and assignments completed during the year would also count towards the final result and the board exam would become less important.
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