Live in others!!!

We have heard of "Live and let others live". I would like to modify this a bit as "Live in others and let them live". Yes, when we have a chance to live in others by donating blood when we are alive and other organs like eye, kidney etc after our death, the modified statement makes sense right?

I thought of sharing my experience I had last weekend as it was a very satisfying one for me as I was chosen by The Almighty to help a person in need . To be specific, the person, suffering from blood cancer, was in need of blood platelets.

I know many of you who read this would have donated blood atleast once or would be thinking of doing it in the future. I am not sure how many of you have heard of donating blood platelets, a component in our blood.

Last weekend, I got a call from some group, which assist in arranging blood for the people in need, to check if I am interested to donate platelets. They have traced me through the site www.indianblooddonors.com where I have registered very recently. I checked with our family doctor if it is safe to donate blood platelets and confirmed them I can donate.

Platelet separation process
This particular platelet donation takes 1 to 2 hrs of time based on the platelet count of the donor. Normally the range is 3 to 4.5 lakh platelets per cubic liter of blood (the person I donated had a count 8000 only). They have an instrument to separate the platelet from our blood. This is how the process goes.

Before the process starts, they check if the donor has good platelet count. Once it is fine, they ask us to get refreshed and come as we will have to lie down for a max of 2 hours without any disturbance. Once we are ready, they inject in our hand and pull blood to a container in that instrument. And when the blood is pulled out of our body, you will feel numb around your lips as the Calcium content gets dropped. The lab technician gives you a tablet to chew so to compensate that.

Once 400 ml of blood is collected, the platelet separation process starts. Don’t get panic on what will happen to the 400 ml of our blood. The blood is collected by the instrument into a container with a solution that keeps the blood safe from clotting. Once the platelet separation process is over, the blood with out the platelet will be injected back into our body.

This process of pulling out and injecting blood into our body happens 4 to 5 times. In this process platelet collected was around 210 ml and the platelet count will be around 2 lakh it seems. And they call the platelet donation "online" because the life span of the collected platelet is 2 days it seems. So ideally, once the platelet is collected from a donor, it should be immediately injected to the patient. Since it is the component alone that is injected, it is good than the whole blood being injected. Also, you can donate blood in the next 2 days :) Cool right!!!!

The patient's people called us the next morning to say that now the count has increased from 8000 to around 90000 and that he was a bit stable. What more one can ask than things like this in your life? My wife & I were very much satisfied.

I would like you all to visit the website "www.indianblooddonors.com" and have yourself registered as you can not only look for the needy people, you can also look for the people who donate. Also, the details may not be the exact one. Check with your doctor for more details or google to know more.

And get a chance to live in others to make them live!!!!

This content is published here: http://healthmad.com/medicine/live-in-others/

School Hunt

Come October and it is happening time for the schools and a nightmare for many parents who are on the look-out for schools for their kids from pre-kg or pre-nursery to any grade.

A short intro on where we are and for what we are hunting for schools. Right now we are in Bangalore and we planned to put our daughter in Pre-kg for the academic year 2010-11. Most of us, our peers, would have studied in some normal / government schools except a few. And as any normal parent we thought of looking out for a good school where our daughter could get some more exposure than we have got during our school days.

And I never thought checking out for a school would be such a big challenge/learning experience. Yes, in deed it was a great experience for us before we zeroed in on a school which, at least we felt would be better than the rest.

Initially, somewhere around August, we started googling for CBSE board schools in the city and prepared a list of schools and took a print out of the same with the address and numbers. Then, we enquired our colleagues about the schools they feel is good. October came and we started our hunt for schools. We went to an area and searched for schools in and around that area with the list we had. We called up the phone numbers and found most of them were outdated. And we got the numbers of few schools through the JustDial service.

This way we went to 3/4 different areas and enquired in schools about the details like - fees, donation, whether they have some extra-curricular activities apart from academics, teacher to student ratio, if the school has playground and things like that. And our daughter got admission in a school in the first week of November.

In this process, we came to know one thing - admission in schools is a very big business. The reason why I say this is, we came to know through some of our colleagues that there are brokers to get a seat for pre-kg (not for BE and MBBS as it was during our days) and the cost for that is few lakhs it seems.

I just wanted to quote an incident happened to us in one of the schools. When we enquired for the direction over phone, we were told that they don’t have Pre-kg and they admit kids from LKG only. But we just wanted to look at the school and asked for the direction again. The response was "Why do you want to come when we do not admit kids for pre-kg?" and they just hung the phone. The school is one of the so called "good" schools. I was totally taken aback by this and I just told to myself, is this the one or similar one my kid is going to study in? But I had no choice and I had to choose the best among the worst
available. And we got admission for our kid in a good school.

Here, by good school, what I mean is that, we felt the school was good. With that assumption, we have given our kid a channel to start her academic / career / life. And we could do nothing more as finally it is the kids who, with the parent’s guidance, in future will show us if we chose him/her really a good school.

So, my take is, do not worry much about which school to seek for. All are good and bad. We can just go by our knowledge about the schools and expect for good things to happen. I am sure, good things will happen to all of us - the parents whose job of hunting for schools have become a terrific task these days!!!!

This content is published here: http://socyberty.com/education/school-hunt/

30.Jul.2009: Irony - Dreaming Vs Expectation.

"Dream a lot so that it will get shape one day".
"Dreaming sincerely leads to the destination you wanted to reach"

You would have been told by your elders or friends or atleast heard things like that somewhere. The above sayings mean that Dreaming lets you attain whatever you wanted with sincere efforts towards that.

And now look at the below statements:
"Dont expect too much"
"Keep your expectations low"
"Its better not to develop expectations"

You would have heard these statements too by almost the similar lot of people who have told you about dreaming.

If you look at what exactly a dream means, you will find that dreaming is expecting something. What an irony!!

So now what would you have to do? Should you not dream or not have expectations? No way buddy and you can dream and have to have expectations for sure. As our beloved APJ Abdul Kalam says "Dream is something that you dont do while you sleep. It is something that does not make you sleep".

So, you can dream of whatever you want provided you work towards that to make it happen. More important, your dream should not depend on anyother individual other than you. The moment your dream is dependent on others you will seldom move towards what you had dreamt of.

Thus the secret lies in dreaming things that are there within your control only. So dream!! Be it small, big or medium and wishing you all the best to attain it - YOUR EXPECTED DREAM :)

This content is published here: http://authspot.com/thoughts/irony-dreaming-vs-expectation/

31.Dec.2008: Responsibility...

In today's world, check with anyone if they have anything or anyone to blame. Immedialtely you will get the answer - a big YES from everyone. Only thing is everyone will have issues or persons to blame according to their living standards forgetting their own responsibilities. Let me not get into the depth of each of the persons in each standards. I have given below the situation that made me think about this.

The other day, I was in the hospital for some checkup for one of my family member. We were waiting for the doctor and talking in general. That moment, a school girl in her uniform was assiting one more girl who was badly hurt into the hospital. Even the girl who brought the other girl was also hurt but not that bad compared to the other girl. Both the girls, should be in their 8th standard, kept their school bags near the entrance and walked into the hospital crying.

The other girl was hit on her forehead and was bleeding in addition to scratches on her legs and hands. The girl who assisted this girl was also having scratches in the hand and leg. But she seemed a bit courageous in coming to the hospital. I dont know what I would have done in that age :)

We overheard and came to know that the girls were returning from the school in the bike and fell down. We thought some guy had dashed them and went. But after sometime we came to know the actual reason. Nobody had done anything but themselved. Yes, the girl who assisted was riding the bike and got caught in the sand and lost the control it seems.

I was feeling really bad for the girls for sure. But when I thought who was responsible for this incident or rather accident. The first thing is how can the parents allow their children, who are not even 15, to take the bike to school? Dont they know that they should not ride without getting a licence at the age of 18? Since the parents did not tell anything, the girls took the bike and went to school. This is the first step where this accident could have been avoided.

This is the fault by the girls. But, given their age, they do love adventures and riding bike is one among them for sure. This is the next level where the accident could have been avoided. But more than all these things, what struck me was "How can the management, teachers allow their students to come in bike?". Dont they know that a 8th standard student will not have licence with them?

They should have called their parents and instructed them not to allow this. They do teach so many things but they fail in not following them. If at all they have called for the girls parents to take the bike once they have reached the school, this could have been avoided.

With the above incident, one thing is clear. Everyone has a role in each walk of our life. But then we just do not care about them and cry once something bad had occured. We do not do what we are supposed to, but we will start blaming others. So, on this New year time, lets stop the blame game and look into our responsibilities first.

Happy New Year 2009!!!

This content is published here: http://socyberty.com/holidays/responsibility/

20 Oct 2008: Sach(in) a great feat!!!!

Breaking a record in itself is a special one. And when Sachin does that it becomes very special, not for me alone but for the whole cricketing world. Yes, Sachin - the master blaster, little master, modern era Don, cricket's GOD, you can call him anything - has added another feather to his cap by becoming the highest run scorer in Test cricket.

He not only went past Brian Lara's record to become the highest run scorer but eventually crossed the 12000 mark. So again he is the first one to have scored 12000 plus runs in both the forms of cricket - One day and Test cricket. He achieved this on 17th Oct 2008, the first day of 2nd Test at Mohali against the Australians.

Though there are some still murmuring that he should have done this long back or compare him with his comtemporaries or something else, this is no mean feat which the ordinary people can even think of. He is sach a person that he need not think of any sach things but he is destined and well deserved to hold sach records in his career lasting for around 20 years. This span of 20 years itself is a great thing which many can dare to visualize.

At times, even I have made some remarks or criticized about his performances, which everyone will agree that it has come below his standards in the recent times. But that did not stop me in congratulating this great feat. So my, I would rather say our, hearty wishes for sach a person called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar on achieving sach a great feat.

Oops...I was totally lost and mesmerized by this guy that I was using "sach" for "such". So, for sach...mmm...such a person, let us wish him to scale more in the days to come.

This content is published here: http://sportales.com/cricket/sachin-a-great-feat/

It depends...

Certain people does something but that something would be totally unacceptable for someone. Why is it so? I feel this is because the people involved are fine with what they do. So it depends on the individual's perspective towards the act they do. You cannot write anything off by saying that is wrong or right. It depends on that particular person at that particular moment on that particular act they are doing.

If you look at the terrorists or the guys who does something which might involve huge loss of human lives, they never know what they are doing or for them that is the right thing to do. As far as the person/group of people is concerned, it is correct. We can say that their mind is corrupted but very little could be done to stop the people who do that - corrupting others minds and influencing them. Though we can argue that weak minds or person in need are targeted, the targeted persons also feel for that moment that what they are doing is correct.

Why to look at such a broader scale? Just check within your circle of friends, family members, colleagues, daily acquaintances and you will find that "It depends on each one of them for the act they do". Let us look at our friends circle. For some, cigarette smoking or drinking is not a big thing but for some those would come under bad habits. In spite of knowing that both are not good, they do it because for them it is not that bad.
Even in looking at girls/boys or passing comments on them or touching them at every opportunity, the border line drawn by each individual is differnt. Some would stop at looking, but some would go further to pass comments and some make the fullest of every opportunity to touch. If you ask them why they do it, each one would say there is nothing wrong in what they do. So you cannot say any particular thing as right or wrong at any given moment.

But when you live in a society among others, and if certain things are wrong and accepted by most % of people, we have to avoid doing that. Some still do even those things even if there is a law governing that act and is punishable. This is where the words terrorism, loss of human lives and such unwanted sad things are heard. One nice saying is there, even for a culprit to become good, he must be willing to become good. Otherwise, even if all of us say you cannot / should not do this or that, it will go unnoticed. Good thing is that some try to point out the wrong things so as to minimise the bad things atleast. But again, for all these to be in place, IT DEPENDS ... on how we take it.

This content is published here: http://authspot.com/thoughts/it-depends/

B +VE !!!!

B +VE !!!!

No, I am not a medical guy and am not going to talk about the blood groups here, but about thinking and being positive always. One fine day, I masticated on why I was not that good at my studies when I was doing my B.Tech, though I was more than an average student during my B.Sc days. I could think of many things but one thing which struck me was the thought that was doing a trip in my mind. When I pressed more on that I realized that it was not just a thought but it had influenced me negatively even without my knowing.

For the moment, let me rewind and want you all to be with me to have a look at my B.Sc days. First of all, welcome buddies :). I was not the person with any "cups" during those days. Oh, if anyone is lost on what a "cup" is, I have got only one thing to say - you are really the so called good guy/gal during your college days :). When you fail in a subject, then you are having a "cup" in that subject. So "cup" is a nick name for fail. Dont search for this meaning in any dictionary. Sorry for having digressed in defining "cup".

Let’s get back to what I was telling. I did not have any "cups" during my B.Sc days. Some poor chaps and friends of mine were having "cups" in not only one subject. I felt bad for them and tried to help them in reducing the "cups" they had as much as I could by assisting them in the subjects. Somehow I was thinking "How these guys would feel when they have a "cup" in a subject?". I really don't know why such a thought came to me.

If you closely analyze my thought, you can discover one thing. Only way to know their feelings is to be like them, meaning you have to get a "cup" in a subject. What did that mean? Am I wanting to get a "cup" in a subject just for the sake of knowing how those guys felt? Now, I can say how foolish it was to think like that. This thought did not affect me immediately but I strongly feel that thought, a negative thought to be precise, had its effect during my next level of education - my B.Tech days. The result is that I was not that good at studies and scored enough to get out of the college :)

Basically, what I wanted to tell is, instead of me thinking to be like the guys who got a "cup", I could have thought the other way. Like, I could have thought of them being without any "cups" and could have helped them in not getting anymore "cups". This is a positive approach I beleive you all would accept. From the moment I realized this, I avoid being negative at any point of time but remain like that of my blood group which is B +VE :). So, even if your blood group is not B +VE, always think and be positive!!

This content is published here: http://authspot.com/journals/b-plus-ve/