Hum-durd : He who shares my pain.

 A heart-wrenching week just went by. Two young lives were lost to epic battles with deadly diseases. 

The first, an eighteen-year-young boy. I dare call him a man. He had fought valiantly with years of drug addiction in a hideous locality known for petty crime. When he was finally admitted to the rehab center, he caught the ominous tuberculosis. When I met him, the disease had spread across his lungs and into his brain. My last-moment diagnosis and advice to rush him to the hospital was help too little and too late!

The second, a young man, just in his late twenties. A software engineer, with a plump job. A very eligible bachelor. Handsome, tall, fair, and full of life. Till colon cancer got him and drained every bit of life slowly and wickedly from him. The last unit of my blood did little to save him, as I witnessed his final breaths and last heartbeats on the monitor.

The families were heartbroken. The mothers were incessant in their cries, unable and unwilling to comprehend their tragedies. The fathers: stoic, nonchalant, but with eyes welled with unshed tears. 

Around the same time, I encountered this impossible song "Hum-dard". 

It is difficult to find an English equivalent for this word. We have co-workers, lovers, friends, best friends, couples, and even life partners, yet this word is beyond all of these. Roughly speaking, it means someone who shares and is one with my pain. Every deep indescribable heart-wrenching pain and loss. 

The Hindi-Urdu-Hindustani language has a very deep meaning to the word "hum". It is "we" in English, and in Hindi it signifies a deep sense of togetherness. "Hum" can be connected with other words such as "hum-safar": those that travel together; "hum-shakal": those that look exactly the same; "hum-rahi" a companion-for-life. And then there is this word "Hum-dard". 

Yet this song takes the word to another level. Sung melodiously by Shaldon Bhangera and his Jaago Music team, the lyrics touch the deepest painful chords of those in deep pain. The song comes as a soothing balm to ease the gnawing bites of deep-seated pain.

The composers and lyricists write "If you have ever felt your world collapse under the weight of the pain, whether it was the loss of a loved one during covid, a moment of betrayal, separation anxiety from a relationship breakdown or divorce - when you felt that the world couldn't understand your babbling. Have you ever wanted to cry but the night was so silent and you didn't want to wake anyone up and so after soaking and flipping the pillow several rounds, you moaned and wept bitterly with your face into the pillow? Did you call on Jesus in that time and did He show up in your room letting you know that a crucified Saviour would know exactly how you feel? If that is or was you, this song is for you. If you know someone broken beyond repair, this song is for them. Please share it."

So here I am..sharing the song with you: