•Her job and family was simply perfect for Mumbai-based physician Dr Suhasini Roy. But once the kids became self-reliant, husband more occupied with work and she reached middle-age (45), Dr Roy found a crisis on her hands. The feeling of being “nowhere” struck her so hard, she went into depression.

• Shikha Kapoor, a 39-year-old bank employee in Pune, is facing odds in every direction. An unsatisfactory professional life, suffocated personal life and to top it all — another man. She had began the affair for some respite, but then got trapped. After a suicide attempt, she is now undergoing psychotherapy.

• Nishant Singh, is a 37-year-old Delhi-based engineer. Ever since his childhood, he was told that he had to crack the IIT — so much so that he had little time for anything else. And now that he is an IITian, Singh has started feeling stagnant. He cannot relate to his peers, who seem from a different world. Result? He is a loner with low confidence level.

The outward circumstances may be different and the names changed, but the people mentioned are all suffering from what is called a midlife crisis - a time for self-doubt and turmoil that mostly strikes in the 40s and 50s.

While the concept was forever familiar — and scoffed upon — in the West, in India it is slowly becoming recognised now, say psychologists. Earlier, though the symptoms were present, the cause was not identified and therefore, the treatment was not holistic. But lately, the sudden spurt in the number of divorces, extramarital affairs, suicides and homicides has brought home the issue.

... contd.