The mystery and the hustle.
Hello, and welcome. I am Merina, also called Ganga, from Damak in eastern Nepal. I am a young woman deeply curious about the wonders and mysteries of life, and that curiosity has carried me through some of the most intense seasons a person can face. I come from a lower middle class family, where we have always had to work, constantly, just to keep moving forward.
In 2023 my father was struck in a hit and run accident and fell into a coma. He has been bedridden ever since, needing constant care, feeding, cleaning, and nursing. My mother and I work around the clock to sustain him, while my younger brother works abroad to support our family. We carry loans and the daily grind, and yet, inside all of it, we still find peace, gratitude, and a quiet kind of beauty in the life we have right now.
I hope you do not read this as complaining, or as asking for sympathy. This is simply my truth. Within it, my family and I still find peace, happiness, and reasons to wake, to smile, and to look toward the future.
My father was the kindest man I have ever known, and life still handed him, and all of us, this struggle. It taught me that life does not keep score of who is good or bad. Life simply happens. Perhaps that is what Maya means. So rather than complain, I try to understand, and to stay kind, loving, and grateful through this brief and beautiful life.
Sometimes I feel late, watching friends marry, travel, and build careers while I sit by a bedside. But I tell life that it is okay. All any of us can do is work for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the future, share what we have in excess, ask for help when we need it, and keep finding the beauty in things. Some take struggle as a reason for anger. I try to take it as a reason to grow.
