Life, or something close to it.

Chandra Maya Magar is old. She is 58. She is poor. She suffers from end stage renal disease which is just another way of saying both her kidneys are virtually non-functional. Her kidneys cannot remove the toxin that build up in her body. Her kidneys cannot produce urine. The excess water that builds up in her body has no escape. It starts collecting in her lungs causing her shortness of breath. She requires dialysis at least three times a week. The government provides dialysis two times a week for free. So that’s all she gets. That’s all she can afford. Every third day she is left gasping for life. At least once every week she is pushed to the brink of death and up to now somehow someway her doctors have been able to pull her back. Someday, within a few months or less, they won’t be able to. This is not a grim view of the future or a wannabe writer trying to dramatize for added effect, it is the truth. Unfortunate, yes but inevitable. She will die. She needs a transplant. She cannot even dare to imagine that she can afford that. Her life will amount to nothing. She will not be remembered by friends or family. Her husband is a drunk. Her son is tired of all the hassles that come with a dying mother. All they wish is she be released from her suffering and they from theirs. What happened in the first part of her life is lost. The second part of her life has been nothing but a struggle for survival. She has to fight for every breath. She looks upon the next day not with hope but with fear. She might have to be rushed to the emergency room. She might need a haemodialysis session, one she cannot afford. She might die. A life that will amount to nothing. Born in poverty, abandoned by a family, destroyed by a disease. She is fighting a lost cause. A painful death awaits. The only question that remains is what will it be that kills her? The failing kidneys, an abandoned life or poverty?

People are horrible. The horror people are capable of goes beyond inhumanity. They rob, they rape and they murder. They hunt animals for trophies.  They seize the rights of others. They exploit others who have been ravaged by natural disasters. They exploit others who are trying to help people who have been devastated by natural disasters. Everyone is so easily offended. One can’t make a joke without offending one fraction of the population or the other. Someone works their whole life towards something great. He finally achieves what he had always hoped for having spent endless hours working towards that single goal. He wears an unfortunate shirt during an interview and people only focus on the shirt. His achievements disappear in the avalanche of unintentionally hurt pride. There are paedophiles. Why is it that there was a need to coin a word that describes a person that sexually exploits children? Why do words like necrophilia exist? Every day the news brings about newer examples of how ghastly we are.  People terrorize. They force their beliefs unto others and punish the unwilling. Everyone thinks their way of life is correct. The world has become too small for different ideas to coexist.

This was a logical conclusion. It was based on facts and evidence too difficult to ignore. I mean, I could see people were manipulative, destructive and downright rude. It was clear that people were vile, horrid and hateful and this realization was so powerful that I thought this was the ultimate truth. This was the path to follow, to look at everyone as the despicable and depraved creatures they were.

And then I had to go and watch this stupid video.

People are insufferable it’s true, and yet they are also capable of creating music. A few strings of a violin, a few beats of a drum and a few notes from a clarinet and people create something that makes one feel that the human race is not so bad. Music makes it seem that we are yet redeemable. A gentle melody that can put a smile on a child’s face and can amaze adults. It is possible that the people behind those instruments may themselves be racist and bigoted but in those five minutes or so when they construct such a crescendo of impeccable harmony, it doesn't matter. It shows they are capable of something better, something wonderful. It evokes goose bumps, it soothes the soul, it washes away sorrow. It brings about a smile. A species that is capable of creating music can’t be completely lost in hate and loathing, because music is in itself evidence to the contrary.

Mankind exists in a spectrum that is on one end blackened by misery, hate and sorrow but on the other brightened by joy, generosity and love. People can do incredible things. The kindness people are capable off is astonishing. And these are those times when one can’t help but realize that, people are amazing.

Inspired by the greatest video ever made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaHPND2QJg