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!