The Light In Us

Tahir Faizal and Vani Malhotra are two teenagers who badly want to escape from their small Idukki town. Faizal is a popular boy who is secretly dealing with survivor's remorse, and Vani is a girl obsessed with death, labeled a freak by other students. Fate brought the two together when both climbed the bell tower at school at the same time, planning to jump off the ledge. Vani is surprised that Faizal is up there, because he is one of the most popular boys in the school. However, Faizal has been dealing with the death of his brother, Ali, who died 9 months previously in a car accident after Faizal suggested the route home. Faizal feels responsible and has not been in a car since. He quit the student council, then sports team and struggles with survivor's remorse and thinks he should have died instead of Ali. On the ledge, Vani talks Faizal down, and Faizal returns the favor, but everyone assumes it's Faizal who saved Vani.

As for Vani, she suffers from bipolar depression (inherited from her abusive father) and experiences near-constant thoughts of suicide during his so-called "Awake" periods. Vani's family does not understand his BPD, making him feel isolated. Morbidly, she writes out fun facts about other people's suicides in her computer as well as methods of suicide and the best way to go. She initiates a partnership between herself and Faizal for a school project in which they will explore their home state of Idukki together. Later, at home, Vani thinks about Faizal, looking him up on Facebook, reading about his brother’s accident (which she had forgotten) and chatting online with him.

For their project, Faizal and Vani travel around Idukki to see important or unusual sites. They see homemade roller coasters, the highest hill in Idukki, and more. The important thing doesn't seem to be the sites themselves, but what the wandering begins to mean for both of them—especially faizal. The two begin a romantic relationship and fall in love. Eventually, Vani pushes Faizal to get in the car and begin writing again, for the first time after his brother's accident nine months prior. She helps him begin to talk about his brother’s death, which his parents have not managed to do. As a result, Faizal begins to heal.

Vani, however, is getting worse. She suffers from an undiagnosed bipolar disorder and therefore, deals with very high highs and very low lows. Her behavior demonstrates the characteristic manic periods of impulsive excitability as well as the lethargic, pointless mindset during the depressive periods. She is also beaten by her father and bullied at school. She also refuses to be diagnosed because the labels make her feel trapped. The one shining spot in her life is his blossoming relationship with Faizal.

They wander around Idukki together some more; however, on one occasion they accidentally stay out until the next morning, angering Vani's parents and forbidding their daughter from seeing Faizal again.

This begins a downward spiral for Vani, who ends up getting expelled from school. Although she still sees Faizal on occasion, Vani is easily able to hide her worsening depression from him. Faizal doesn't realize the seriousness of the situation and wonders if Vani is losing interest in him.

One particularly bad night, Vani decides to end her life. She takes a handful of sleeping pills, but almost immediately regrets it. She goes to the emergency room and gets her stomach pumped. After this she tries to get help through a suicide support group in a nearby town. There, she runs into Anya, another girl she knows from school. She is concerned about Vani's suicide attempt and tells Faizal about it. Faizal is obviously worried and tries to help. Vani explodes, angry at his concern, so similar to everyone else even though he is supposed to understand her best, and the two get in a big fight.

Vani runs away from home, and Faizal seems to be the only one looking for her. She sends him mysterious texts while she visits the remaining locations for their unfinished project, although Faizal doesn't understand them until much later, thinking Vani was just being rudely cryptic.

A month after she has disappeared, Vani sends an email to every single person she knows, saying goodbye. Faizal, in a panic, figures out that she has drowned herself at the Blue Hole, one of their wandering sites. He goes there and discovers he is right, and he becomes distraught. Later, he manages to decode the texts Vani had sent him, and at the last location they were supposed to visit together, Vani wrote a song for her. This helps the healing process and convinces Faizal that Vani's suicide was not his fault. Faizal goes swimming by himself in the Blue Hole, where he went swimming with Vani, bringing him a sense of peace.