Despite a heart-breaking year, here's a different take on Christmas carols to put it all into perspective

Looking back at 2015 is rather heart-breaking; the world is a cruel place. The Syrian armed conflict involving various attacks on civilians became increasingly intense in 2015. Pictures of a little boy drowned on a seashore smashed our hearts into smithereens. The picture, however made people realise that conflicts are not just news, there are actual people — especially tiny humans — involved. At the heart of issues that plagued humanity such as the Islamic State militia — whatever political and territorial upheavals it caused, the largest impact it had was on individual lives. As people left their homes to swim across an entire sea in the hopes that they would have better chances on the other side shows us that the human life is indeed fragile and in the end that it is only human to human connection that survives, or so we hope.

For the many acts of violence, apathy and discrimination that transpired across continents, people across the world showed resilience and rose up to the occasion to show that all hope is not lost.

As Europe was struggling with the huge influx of refugees and asylum seekers; the right wing and ‘neo-nazi’ movement took a stronghold in many eastern European nations like Hungary and Serbia. Keeping them in check, UNHCR on 21 December urged Hungary to refrain from policies and practices that promote intolerance, fear, xenophobia against refugees and migrants. Groups like Migrant Solidarity (MigSzol) along with MigrationAid helped wherever they could. Small groups of volunteers cropped in most cities across Europe to help those in need. Hungarians offered water and toys to refugees on their long march to Austria. Germans welcomed them at railway stations . In Iceland, people opened their homes when the state announced that they could only house 50 refugees.

The Canadian Prime Minister (popularly known as the ‘PM of our hearts’ in some quarters_)_ personally welcomed an entire flight of Syrian refugees . “This is a wonderful night, where we get to show not just a planeload of new Canadians what Canada is all about, we get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult situations,” he said.

A five-year-old asked Santa to give his Christmas presents to a little boy from Syria who has nothing. According to Daily Mail , Finlay Niemand wrote a letter to ‘Father Christmas’ showing compassion and love for those who have lost everything. He is quoted in the paper as saying, “Please may I have a scooter and some surprises. Please could you give my presents to a little boy from Syria, who has nothing. Love, Finlay.”

In a s how of solidarity against all wires in Europe that stand in the way of human liberty, Slovenian and Croatian citizens ‘protested’ by playing a friendly game of volleyball over a razor-wire placed on the borders between the two countries.

Even after the Paris attacks, the collective strength of humanity is the sail against the wind of hatred. Gudo Bik, Communications specialist for a cable company asks that “The attacks are being carried out by people who believe they have the best of intentions, to what extent is this a cry for help? Shouldn’t we focus on offering help if we can?”

Closer home, the year has been about ‘intolerance’, a word perhaps every child in India can spell without errors. Denizens spoke up and against the abhorrent Dadri incident . Just recently, as rains lashed out in Chennai causing an unexpected deluge that claimed close to 300 lives, the city joined hands — without much concern for caste, creed or religion. It is a wonder, how tragedy can awake the individual unclad and unaffected by the communally charged colours of society.

While we can shrug, be disappointed in the evil world that does not seem to change, perhaps we should take some to introspect and wonder about what the purpose of the human race is about. Why are we here? What are we doing here and how are we doing it? Certainly, life is not about beef or pork; Christian/Muslim/Hindu/(insert any other religion here).

Life is about peaceful co-existence, with experiences that leave us all a little richer.

Introspect. Be good. Be better. And now, take one minute and 45 seconds out of your day to watch this moving video by Tata Sky that celebrates communities and shows a seamless exchange of good values — religion no bar.

This exquisite video features classical Muslim sufi and ghazal artists playing famous Christmas carols on the Sitar and Tabla. The renditions of ‘Silent Night’, ‘Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ are bound to give you goosebumps. And as the video says, “Don’t lose faith in humanity just yet.”