30/06/2015

27/06/15; 23:39:

And, I’m now down to documenting my last week in Banglore; just like every other week that I spent in Banglore, this last one was beyond beautiful! Somewhere along the course of the last two months, I fell in love with Banglore- I could state the reasons out here, or as I go along; perhaps, I’ll do it at the end of the post!

15th i.e. Monday morning was spent working of getting all the data I had collected up to date on the website. Later in the day, I headed to pick up resource bags that’d be needed for the blood donation drives through the week. I spent the evening out with a couple of my batch-mates, mostly eating tandoori chicken.

On Tuesday, I walked down to Silk Board in the morning and we were soon at the Microchip office in Whitefield. Of all the companies I’d visited, through the summer, the security at this one was least shocked to see us- now, all security is informed in advance that there is a donation drive happening and a certain number of people and some material (heck, they have a detailed list of the names and an exact count down to the number of needles!) will be turning up. Yet, more often than not, we’re looked at like we’re definitely a new species and they’ve never heard of a blood donation camp. So, here, we were instantly recognized, it felt like they were expecting us and that was good!
The venue for the blood donation camp was a large conference hall, adjacent to the cafeteria, on the top floor. It was a fairly large area and about a third of it was left unused. There was a solid cement wall dividing the area roughly into half; pre-donation was arranged on the side closer to the door and post-donation was set-up on the other side of the wall. We must’ve crossed over from one side to the other, right over the wall, at least a dozen times through the day. The donation camp was good; however, the turnout was a tad bit lesser than we’d anticipated, based on our estimates drawn up from past camps at the same location. This was pinned down to less aggressive publicity and improper optimization when fixing the camp date.

On Wednesday, I was to head to the Wipro campus at Sarjapur. I’d just about gotten myself on a bus when Rashtrotthana Blood Bank’s ambulance pulled up in the adjacent lane at the red light. As I waved back at all the staff, I got off and essentially shifted from one bus to the other. We were at the Wipro gate a little after 9 a.m. We then spent a whole hour trying to past the security at the main gate- it took multiple calls to the company contact, the lady at the reception going over the list of names she had on e-mail and an escort walking down to the gate and standing around for a long time- finally, we made it to the venue, which was a Banquet Hall on the fourth floor of one of the many buildings in the rather large campus.. It was a good thing that Sir was around to deal with the much-higher-than-needed level of security- for even though I’d probably have managed to get things sorted, I’d have definitely credited only myself with the delay- when in fact it was nobody’s fault.Sir dealt with everything awesomely; further, it was a delight to watch him work- his level of passion is definitely unmatched! Despite having had to wait at the gate for nearly an hour, the blood bank team was up and ready by around 10:30 and soon, the camp was in full swing. There was a fairly decent donor flow which held up through the day- till camp closed close to 6 p.m. The second blood bank team was again held up at the gate and could set up camp only post 12 p.m. They’d arranged for tea & coffee dispensers- the tea had no sugar and the coffee had too much; and I was somehow supposed to buy that they were both made by the same person, at the same place (and the same time too!)! We’d been told to expect about 500 donors and accordingly, the 176 unit collection was a tad bit disappointing. Once we shut camp, it again took an hour for us to be able to safely leave the campus. I went back the same way that I’d come.

30/06/2015; 4:05:

On Thursday, there was a donation drive at Syngene, on Bommasandra-Jigani Link Road; we got there around 8:30, for the camp was to start at 9:30- this was to be the first donation camp at the location and we’d been told to expect a good turnout since a lot of effort had gone into the publicity. We were escorted to the camp location- the health centre on campus. The blood bank team managed to get lost on its way to the Syngene campus and at around 9:30, I along with a member from the HR team headed out to go find them, while my boss stayed and got the camp location sorted and ready. And, we did manage to find them alright, pulled over to the side of the link road, looking thoroughly confused (a certain right turn had to be taken to find the company gate and ascertaining exactly which right turn to take was not an easy task). We were eventually at the camp location and, there were greeted by about 50 donors already at the entrance to the place- registration had been set up outside, with the medical examination to be right by the door and the bleeding to happen in the inside room which had about 6 beds, post-donation was set-up right by the entrance to this inside room. By 11 a.m., over a 100 donors had showed up, filled in forms or better still, turned up with electronic forms that they’d filled up online- major part of my job that day was to successfully indulge in crow management. I gathered up the forms, letting people know that they could either wait, come back in a bit, or that we’d give them a call when beds were free- a lot of this of course could have been avoided if we had larger space and hence a larger number of beds to work with, but, environmental constraints are just part of the work-day. Post-lunch, we had to simply turn people away and promise an alternative- before the end of the camp on the 18th, another camp had been fixed for the 25th of June i.e. the following week! It certainly felt like a long day, a very happy one at that! On the way back, I joined the blood bank in their bus-turned ambulance; we stopped to pick up blood that had already been collected by Rashtrotthana’s other team at Deutsche Bank where another camp was in progress- on 18th June, all government blood banks had been required to set up camp at Vidhan Saudha and we’d had to rely solely on the other blood banks in tow. I was home in time for dinner and was dropped off right next to my place too! Dinner was rather interesting! After having been in Banglore for over a month, I finally headed out to the Khau Gali in V.V Puram with a local friend. Of course, I was promptly informed that it isn’t referred to as the Khau Gali around there, but that the correct term is ‘Food Street’. Thus, Thursday night was spent trying out a bunch of local food- akki rotti (which is well, rice roti – it tasted nothing like I’d imagined and I could not really find a past equivalent to peg it against!), curd kodbale (I’d like to think of those was larger, softer chakli), idlis and sweet stuff (I think I forget what it was called but, well, it was almost rabdi). Wow, I felt the need to explain the food in brackets- I’ll be honest, the food was awesome and it’s mainly for my own reference (to ensure successful allusion in the future that’ll ensure that I get the awesome food in the future too!)

Friday was technically my last day at work- and very honestly, I did not feel like leaving, not one bit. I headed out to JK Tech at Sarjapur; the camp was to begin at 2 p.m. in the cafeteria- it was a large area which was open on one side, to a small terrace; it was all right there, with the elements- we even had to shift the donation set-up after attempting to bleed the first donor for there was just too much wind to be working by! There was a good donor turnout (of course, everything is relative- compared to the number of donations we’d been told to expect; but then, an information session had been held at the company- all that effort had certainly not gone in vain). We got a lot of support from the company- the company contact was one of the first persons to donate blood; he was later back at the venue about half-way through the drive and took over the task of writing out certificates! We also got help with the pre-donation and some limited crowd management. Employees from another company in the same building also turned up to participate in the drive- it seemed to turn into a contest at some point too! The drive wrapped close to 6 p.m. and we’d collected 65 units of blood- we’d probably have hit a 100, but, for some unbeknownst reason, nearly 20 to-be donors were deferred due to high blood pressure! I very nearly managed to lose the cover to the standee that I’d eagerly carried; luckily, just when I’d given up looking for it, I did manage to chance upon it! I headed back home with the blood bank team in their bus-turned-ambulance. There was this point when there was a large amount of traffic on the road- the ambulance driver very conveniently pulled into the lane for oncoming traffic (which was rather deserted) and continued to drive as if nothing different had ever transpired- the conversation inside then shifted to the perks of getting around in an ambulance! Not soon after though, we did run out of luck- the ambulance (now back on the right side of the road) suddenly stopped dead in its tracks- eventually, it was figured out that it’d run out of petrol. Some encouragement and best wishes later, I was on my merry way, walking home while the team continued to wait for the now-discovered problem to be fixed! We had excellent food at the Coconut Grove- all authentic Kerala-style!

Early on Saturday morning i.e. the morning of 20th June i.e. the morning of my very last day in Banglore, I headed to the home-turned-office of the place I’d spent a brilliant 6 weeks with! We spent a decent amount of time discussing odds and ends; I was handed my evaluation form (which must be submitted to the IPM Office as soon as I get to campus), a Letter of Recommendation and a cheque (my stipend). At this point, my boss happened to wonder what had transpired with my last cheque, for I hadn’t encashed it then- I grinned sheepishly while muttering something about having lost the cheque- my boss graciously wrote me another- both continue to lie in my suitcase to this day- I should probably get them to the bank! As I turned to leave, on a rather positive note, I felt rather happy at having spent my six weeks well. A large part of me didn’t want to leave- both the NGO and Banglore city- all it took was a few days and I was in love with both, already planning my return before I’d even left!
The guy I’d been working with over the past 6 weeks turned up and we went out for lunch- the only time I saw him outside of work! Evening was spent meeting people and exchanging good-byes; the evening ended with me spending time with the lady I’d been sharing a room with, over dinner, at the very same place where we’d spent out first-ever night in Banglore!

One of the times in this last week, I also encountered my first sexist comment at work- as I stood working, at pre-donation, a gentleman politely informed me that the task I was doing was not something I could manage and that I should 'really call a guy to help'. Trying my best not to react to or give in to the comment - for I had no real prior experience dealing with any precedents- I managed to hold an unaltered face. I then masked the gentleman if he'd like to take over or help me with the task at hand, since he was, of course, a specimen of the male species. He broke eye contact and gently scuttled away, much to a couple of bystanders' amusement!

We were up early on 21st morning and were en route to the airport by 5 a.m. As I took in the buildings, the trees, the flyovers and the often undecipherable billboards going past, I knew that this trip was really at a close. It was a great feeling of getting on ahead to interesting and more amusing things! After nearly an hour spent shuffling around and leaving behind stuff at the check-in counter, we were finally on an aeroplane, on our way out!

25/06/2015

22/06/15; 02:23:

I really need to note down the two weeks gone by, before they are all but a hazy memory. I’ll have to admit that the last two weeks did indeed go by in a blur.

Monday morning, on the 8th of June began with a trip to the office of the NGO I’m working with; of course, the home of one of the volunteers doubles up as the office and it’s a rather warm place to be, but, that’s perhaps a story for another time. I picked up a bunch of posters that were to be dropped off at Wipro’s Koramangla campus- in keeping with the blood donation drive to be held there later in the week. I also returned the resource bag and camp paperwork that had been with me. A 40-page document detailing guidelines for assessing the suitability of donors for blood donation was to be handed over to the senior doctor at the blood bank at NIMHANS (National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences). Having picked up whatever was needed for the day, I prepared to head out when Ma’am added that something else was to be handed to me. I was then handed an envelope which I figured had a letter or further documents that I would need through the day- I was however promptly informed that this was my stipend for the month and proven terribly wrong. I hadn’t really realised that I would be receiving a stipend, much less expect to be suddenly handed a cheque halfway through my internship. En route to NIMHANS, I called up my parents, trying to figure out what was to be done with the cheque- eventually it made sense to just keep it around.
Once at NIMHANS, I managed to locate the blood bank after a lot of asking around and managed to meet the senior doctor after even more asking around. I was then given access to a large pile of donor forms arranged month-wise in giant files. I sat around sifting through them and completing all the missing data.
On my way out, I noticed the Brain Museum that I’d been earlier told about- I made a mental note to make sure I come back and visit- unfortunately, I never did get around to making that visit. I was soon on my way to the Wipro campus- once there, I spent an unreasonably large amount of time trying to get the security to accept the posters and/or get them to the concerned person in the Admin team. Eventually, fortunately, I managed to succeed and both the posters and I were on our own merry way.

I picked up cold coffee on my way home; on Tuesday i.e. 9th June there was a blood donation drive at the Wipro, Bellandur campus- we headed to Pritech Park in EcoSpace, which was also one of the first locations I’d ever been at, in Banglore- the feeling of having been around long enough to be going back over things, a second time! The security at the entrance decided that the banner that we were carrying looked suspicious enough to merit its own entry record. The venue for the donation drive was the Wipro cafeteria on the 9th floor. We got ourselves breakfast as we waited on the blood bank. The camp initially saw a less enthusiastic response than we’d anticipated; accordingly, we went around the cafeteria at lunch time, handing out pamphlets and information detailing the need for and the ease of blood donation- it takes only about 20 minutes and each unit of blood can go into saving upto 3 lives. The talk did probably help the turnout.

On Wednesday, I was to make my last blood bank visit for the purpose of completing the donor reaction data. I headed out to Bowring Hospital in Shivajinagar. The lady I’m staying with has been off from work, owing to a minor bike accident, sometime in the first week of June (on her birthday to be precise); she decided to accompany me. There was a lot of traffic and it took us quite a while to get there even though it was mostly a single straight road from home to Bowring. Once there, I got help with filling in the data and was done soon enough. Both Church Street & Brigade Road were close-by and we headed there- once there, it was like a Zomato page, right on the road- an array of great eating places, on both sides of the road; we eventually decided on one and had a nice evening. Right from there we headed to have good coffee this place called Coffee on Canvas, close to Sony signal; some coffee later, we were at Legends of Rock for they had a Karaoke Night running. A late night long drive later, we were fast asleep.

23/06/215; 14:44:

I was all set to get to Wipro’s Koramangla campus on Thursday. Once there, we had a little issue trying to get past the security at the gate; they recognized me very well from the posters I’d tried to deliver a few days earlier. Eventually, we got ourselves inside and the camp started a little earlier than scheduled. The camp was set up in the basement; we had a decent number of people show up to donate blood. The guy I work with had stuff to attend to and was gone after lunch-time. The camp was rather efficient, thanks to the enthusiastic blood bank team! The camp wrapped up close to 5 p.m. post which I was on my way home.

There was to be a camp on Friday i.e. 12th June which was cancelled at the last minute; I was to work on getting donor quotes (we encourage donors to share their experience/feedback post-donation, in a book maintained expressly for the purpose) up on the website; I tried but failed- the system doesn’t quite like me too much.

On Saturday, I continued working on entering the now nearly complete donor reaction data (courtesy the blood bank visits). In the evening, we headed out to meet a couple of our friends from IIT-Indore who’re also doing their internships in Banglore.

25/06/15; 12:27:

14th June aka Sunday- more importantly, World Blood Donors’ Day was spent at an event held at Victoria Hospital, to celebrate the gift of donated blood. There was an almost three-hour long function, where different personalities, including head doctors and the local director of NACO spoke about the progress and the pressing need to further blood donation. A lot of the function was conducted in Kannada and I had to make do with picking up on the tone of things. The NGO I work with was one of those that was felicitated at the function, for their work in the field of voluntary blood donation. I spent all of Sunday afternoon and evening out with a friend; ending with picking up apples and enjoying some street food in Banglore.

15/06/2015

12/06/15; 18:13:

Ah, I’ve missed writing! I’m just going to attempt to sum up two weeks, in two separate posts, of course, in keeping with what I last closed with.

It’s been 4 weeks- that’s a month, yes; very honestly, it does not feel nearly like a month, time just flew!

Let’s start right at the beginning of this month- 1st June i.e. Monday began with a long set of tasks to be completed- I actually remember thinking to myself about how Monday had, has and will continue to have only 24 hours, whether I like it or not! I’d previously tried my hand at updating the feedback for the two camps that I’d managed alone and had missed out on mentioning quite a few things- with help, I soon had that figured out and updated previous data accordingly, hopefully, satisfactorily. All donor reaction data was consolidated with plans for me to visit a couple of blood banks and procure the missing data, as the month progresses.

On Tuesday, I headed out to the Blood Bank at Victoria hospital. Once on the Victoria Hospital premises, it took a little while for me to find the Blood Bank- of course the signage helped. I then managed to find relevant persons who then helped me fill in all the missing data. It took about an hour and a half to get all the missing data filled in-donor forms needed to be pulled out for certain data that wasn’t down in the register; luckily, I had help from the nice lady at the blood bank. I then proceeded to walk back home, taking in a new part of the city as I went my merry way. I passed Lalbagh Botanical Garden on my way; I spent a large part of the journey he wondering where the fort was, for the road seemed to be called Lalbagh Fort road; I made a few enquiries later and did manage to figure out that I was indeed very close to the fort- a short detour from Victoria hospital would’ve landed me there!

Wednesday morning began with an early morning phone call from the guy I work with- explaining where I ought to meet him, instead of the usual Silk Board Junction, since we were heading to a different part of town. We were soon at the CGI campus in Marathalli. We took the Old Airport road to get there, passing HAL and the Aviation Museum on our way. I was very nicely told about the museum, but a detour to visit was refused. Once at the CGI campus, we spent over an hour waiting for the Blood Bank team to arrive- they were stuck in traffic and then managed to turn down the wrong road even though it was a fairly simple route to the CGI campus. The donation camp started an hour off schedule; we had a team of volunteers from CGI who helped out with the registration process and more- of course, there were certain points through the day when we had a large bunch of volunteers hovering around the registration area and no donors! The camp wrapped close to 7 p.m. but we ended up with far fewer units of donated blood than we’d been told to anticipate.

15/06/2015; 01:03:
On Thursday, I was to head out to JLL at UBCity- the office was on the 3rd floor of the Concorde building; the entrance was right through the mall which boasts an array of luxury brand stores. As I stood looking for the entrance, I happened to look around and up, at the United Breweries building- a tall, imposing glass building that just seemed to rise up and out of the earth below- watching, with a slight whiff of arrogance, over the traffic on the road going past; smiling, but not quite at the people that looked up in awe and but annoyed at the few who dared to swing past its vast doorway and step in. I made my way up to the office and subsequently to the drive venue which was a rather small conference room- of course, the organization was a small one and this would suffice- a small meeting room on the right of the farther door of the conference room served as the pre and post donation area. It was rather curious to note that each room in the office had a nameplate- and the theme was the areas of Banglore; so, getting to Whitefield from Koramangla doesn’t take all that much time! The blood bank team got to the venue almost an hour after their scheduled arrival and the camp accordingly started an hour late; they very nicely extended the camp for an hour on the other side, so, that kind of took care of itself. All donor pickings were done by or under the supervision of the senior technician of the team. There were two guys, both of whom experienced slight pain in their arms when donating- we had to discontinue donation for one of them; the other felt pain after donation which I suppose was more psychologically driven than anything else. We explained to them that donor reactions are a very real phenomenon- and occur in 3 to 5 % of the people who donate blood- and are not a cause for concern- also a reaction one time does not in any way imply a reaction in the future- it is perfectly safe for them to continue to donate blood in the future. Both persons were willing to donate blood again, immediately, from their other arm! A couple of donors even came down from JLL’s other campus at Embassy Golf Link. Somehow, we had only a solitary woman donor, through the drive.
During the course of the day, the whole team at one point helped themselves to coffee- I didn’t really feel too keen on the milk and on the HR manager (company contact)’s insistence got myself hot water with a citrus flavoured tea bag- this was the moment when I discovered that I don’t enjoy ‘Indian masala chai’ only for the sweet and the milk but for the actual flavour of the tea! And, that’s a pretty interesting revelation- perhaps I’ll get hold of tea-bags in Indore too!

On Friday, i.e. 5th June, I made my way to Rashtrotthana blood bank in Chamrajpet (not too far from Victoria hospital). Very warm greetings were exchanged, the moment I got there- I was soon rummaging through donor data from the end of 2014 to present. Rashtrotthana collects a very large number of units of blood a year and accordingly, their data ran into register after register- for data dating to before November 2014, we made our way to their storage area where most of the missing data was then found and filled in. They were to hold an organ donation mela, the next day and preparations were in full swing, in the auditorium on the 1st floor. The donor weights were missing for 7-8 donors- this would’ve required sifting through boxes upon boxes of donor forms- the people there are really nice and offered to send in the requisite data as soon as they get around to the task!

Saturday was spent at ESI hospital- I got to their campus pretty okay, taking a bus then sharing an auto to get there- it was once I was on the actual campus that I got lost. I must’ve asked at least 6-7 people before I was finally able to gather that the blood bank was down below, in the basement! Once there, I got the data and was done filling in all the requisite information in lesser time than it took me to find the blood bank! A person had strolled into the blood bank, to attempt to donate blood, while I sat filling in the data- of course, till the doctor got to him, I took it upon myself to ask him a set of questions that are necessary to ascertain that a fixed set of prerequisite conditions are met. I was soon out and on my merry way back. I decided to walk down till Majestic (which is the main bus depot here, right next to the inter-city railway station). A bus, on its way to Majestic passed me by, just as I strolled out of the hospital gate. As I walked along, I chanced upon a rather long, winding chain of traffic which I happily walked past. Soon, I was at Majestic, way ahead of the same bus!

Sunday was spent catching up with a friend from Indore who’s also in Banglore. All he wanted to do was eat pasta- yet, the place we ended up meeting at was one that makes a variety of food- everything other than pasta! And, that’s week 4 in Banglore at a close; I should document out week 5 before week 6 ends too!

03/06/2015

01/06/2015; 11:40:

It’s now the beginning of a fourth week here. And, there’s still a lot to look forward to!
To sum up my third week here- It began with a rather lazy Monday, which of course is in sharp contradiction to everything we’ve ever heard about working on Monday (Monday mornings even more specifically!) which I spent detailing out a report of the week gone by.

The rest of the week was spent at a series of blood donation drives- small and large.

On Tuesday, we headed out to Applied Materials at ITPL, Whitefield- it was at this point that I picked up a lot of information about their involvement with the organization I’m working with- right from blood donation camps to supporting our first Thalessemia care centre. We were there a little after 10, for a camp that was to begin at 11 a.m. The camp location was rather interesting- the corridor leading up to the offices from the reception was used to set up the registration desk and the medical examination tables; a perpendicular arm of the corridor was used to set up the beds- a couple of lights in the corridor weren’t working too well, so, that was due to be a slight problem. The post-donation area seemed like it’d been specially crafted to suit this very purpose- it had a couple of sofas for people to come and sit down on, tables to place the refreshments and our feedback book and dustbins too! The organization just looked like it was rather socially sensitive- what with segregated waste bins- colour-coded for plastics, paper, organic, e-waste and the like! The camp began to a good response and ended with one too! Their cafeteria had been strategically hidden somewhere deep within the caverns of the building- the man at the reception refused to tell me the way there and got someone to escort me instead, with the explanation that I’d definitely get lost- and, after the maze I waded through to get there, I agreed with him! We received some interesting feedback that day, including one donor who asked for TV screens to be made available at the donation area, since this would drive more people to come donate- he was given an alternative for the moment, he could talk to me whilst he was at donating to keep from getting bored- his idea didn’t seem like an entirely bad one; maybe we could air this, next time we’re talking to an organization about the details of the camp venue. The camp wrapped up close to 6 p.m. Before heading home, I headed up to Aegis Telecom, where we were to hold a camp the next day, to set up our banner at their reception.

Wednesday i.e. 27th May began with a series of phone calls- the idea was to follow up with all (or most of) the companies I’d visited the previous week. Most of these follow-up phone calls ended in nothing- with negatives ranging from the phone being disconnected to the fact that everyone there was busy. The most positive response I received was an offer to get back in touch with us, sometime in the near future. At one of the companies, the HR Manager I’d been meaning to meet was on leave when I’d walked in, on the 20th; surprisingly, this time around, I was told that he was on leave, again! This prompted me to check whether he’d managed to quit his job and be gone for good- that wasn’t it; I’ll probably attempt getting in touch with some of these people again, sometime today.
I got on a bus to Whitefield and was at Gate3 around 3 p.m. The donation camp was to start at 4 p.m. - the venue was to be the company cafeteria which continued to function around the donation camp or we continued to run our donation camp around the cafeteria’s working! The first two hours there were spent mostly listening to the guy I work with- stories and bad jokes! A little after 5:30 p.m., the donor traffic picked up. We had to send away a considerable number of people for they’d been smoking (there ought to be a two-hour gap between smoking and blood donation) and, pleasantly, most of them did come back towards the latter part of the camp and donate. The camp ended by 9; but of course since Whitefield is so far away from everything, I got home only by 11!
03/06/2015; 00:29:

I was up early on Thursday morning, visibly excited by the fact that my travel time was almost zero. There was a blood donation camp at the Bosch campus which is just about across the road from where I’m staying. I was at the venue a little before 10; the camp started by around 11 a.m. The new boss was at the camp venue for the most time, helping me, since I was attempting to handle a camp by myself for the very first time. The camp was rather efficiently conducted- a large contributing factor was the efficient doctor and team from the blood bank, the support extended by the company as well as the auto-regulated flow of donors! The camp closed around 6 p.m. post which I skipped my way home.

On Friday, the 29th, I was to be at a camp at Softtek at Bommanhalli which isn’t too far away. I got there a little too early and spent my time reading the Banglore Mirror where I found a rather interesting meme about the Banglore rains! It rains here, about 4 times a week- and somehow, it’s always when you’re least expecting it! The blood bank team was at the venue a little before 3 and the camp began soon after. The level of involvement from the company’s side was very encouraging- their HR managers were there the whole time, motivating people and clicking pictures! The camp venue was the cafeteria; here, we accessed the opportunity to go out into bays and give a short floor-talk about blood donation. The registration area was a workstation right outside the cafeteria with the rest of the set-up inside. The blood bank team was small but great as was everyone from Softtek- their cafeteria people kept trying to make us more food! A couple of people who claimed to be terrified of needles came forward to donate blood, their first time! There was even one guy who clenched my hand really hard even while his haemoglobin was being checked; and yes, he did donate blood!

Saturday was off and was hence mostly spent sleeping; we head out in the evening to get ourselves some pizza though.

Sunday began with an early morning walk to Silk Board; I didn’t catch any breakfast since I figured the guy I work with would be waiting on me- he didn’t get any breakfast for he figured that I’d be waiting on him! So much for miscommunication! We were at Concorde Manhattan Apartments at around 9 a.m. The blood bank team was there shortly after and the camp began as planned- we had a rather large party hall on the second floor of the community clubhouse as our venue. The camp began with a trickle of donors which was soon a steady flow and then an almost non-existent dribble; the camp closed right after a sudden deluge- the surge had been brought on by door-to-door campaigning by a team of dedicated volunteers! The camp ended close to 4 p.m. by which time it had begun raining. I got myself on the first bus I saw; as luck would have it, it was going right to where I needed to be! I got home close to 6 p.m.

I’m tempted to fill in Monday and Tuesday, right here, but, I ought to keep the weekly roster system undisturbed and as it is!