The family and friends of the NYU student who committed suicide in his dorm gathered for his funeral yesterday and mourned the loss of the once-promising intellectual who “wanted to change the world.”
“It all happened so fast,” said his devastated father, Prasad Angara, a psychiatrist. “Why did this happen?”
Pranay Angara, who was cremated after a funeral service in his hometown of Hopewell Junction in upstate Dutchess County, was the second NYU student to take his life this semester.
One former friend said he lost interest in many social activities sometime in the middle of high school and continued his isolation at NYU.
“I don’t know why, he just stopped talking to everyone else,” said Angara’s ex-friend, who requested anonymity.
Ann Haas, a research director at the American Foundation for Suicide, said about 90 percent of students who die by suicide are suffering from some type of mental illness.
“Depression is a major cause of suicide and depression is treatable,” she said.