A chink of humanity..

 I open the door of my house and step into the  garden, feel the fresh air on my skin.. and savor the dawn.. the call of the koel, the rustling of the leaves, the pink tinged sky, the whispering silence..feels like magic.. I  unfurl the news paper .. and the dream shatters!  deceit, cheating, violence, jealousy, never ending greed.. the vilest of human emotions jump out from the letters and threaten to drown me.. to shake my belief in the human race.. in the goodness of people..the beauty in them, the gentleness of their souls, their immense capability to love.. their kindness.. But every once in a while, I come across something that reaffirms my faith in the human race.. like today.. an article in the local daily showed a sorry picture of a young woman.. a new bride, married this May, lying on a dirty hospital bed.. with an inset of her young husband's snap.. The title says, she has succumbed to her 90% burns , another victim of domestic violence..3 months pregnant..A cold hand grips my heart, I am tempted to put aside the piece and read something lighter.. but it beckons.. the 23 year old had a story to tell.. the least i can do is listen... her story is not much different from the hundreds I have read before.. An innocent bride, couldn't satisfy her  in laws greed and is set to fire, the door closed so though her screams reach out , she can't.. distraught parents rush her to the hospital, where she first loses her three month fetus and then grapples for her own survival! And here's the twist.. the difference , the chink of humanity in the grim tale.. After three days of battling for her life, when her husband finally comes to see her..Does she complain?Does she ask what she had done to deserve this fate? Does she turn away her face? or even cry? Instead, she calls her father and tells him that whether she lives or dies her husband should not be implicated, she loved him and doesn't want him to suffer.. she simply forgives.. just like that .. and then lets out a sigh and dies.. as if this was all she was waiting for.. To forgive, to release, to safeguard - the man -  who had promised to safeguard her, to protect her, to take care of her and cherish her..So what if he failed her.. She won't!
That's the beauty of humanity  Within the vilest of human tragedies .. hides also its most compassionate soul.. long live the human race