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!