Donate blood, save a life

Donate blood, save a life.

Few days back, I saw a video footage of the Berhampore New General Hospital aired on television which highlighted that the hospital did not have any stock for any of the blood groups, literally driving patients crazy. Any request for blood was refused bluntly with a statement on the lines of "Please bring a donor or arrange for the blood yourself."

Frankly I felt bad. Blood is such a fluid that cannot be manufactured, yet it is an essential ingredient of the life support system.

So, as soon as I received an opportunity, I said YES to blood donation. It was an initiative on the part of my organization to arrange for a voluntary blood donation camp here in Kolkata, in association with AMRI Hospitals. Not that it was my first time. In fact it was my 4th time. In college, I had donated blood on two occasions and once last year, when I did it for my dad. He was to undergo a surgery.

This time, believe me, it felt nice... really... felt as if I saved a life today!

I know there are many who are apprehensive about blood donation. Well here are a few facts which may just open your eyes. This is the eligibility criteria for voluntary donation.
Any person within the age group of 18 - 60 years with a body weight as minimum 45 kgs, and having hemoglobin content as minimum 12.5 gm% (reference) is eligible.
For more information, please visit the American Red Cross.

So, friends... what are you waiting for! Donate blood, save a life!




NOTE. Please be informed that the information listed here is for guidance purposes and during actual donation, certified medical practitioners would give final verdict on whether a person is eligible to donate blood.

Award and a tag

Hey people

Blame me for everything.
Come on. Throw all that you have. Tomatoes, potatoes, eggs, pebbles... everything!
And after you are done with all these, ask me: Why?

Simple, friends - I ignored my blog like anything... as a result, I did not write anything new. I hardly read what others wrote. My already under-nourished Google Pagerank went from a 1 to NA. The Alexa rank went from 1lakh-ish to 2,916,915!!!

Disgusting ! Ain't it?

And just when I was settling down to tear my hair apart, I received blogging awards from Preposterous Girl!



Now, now, guys and girls - no awards come cheap and this one isn't either. So I actually have to answer a few questions (properly!) before I really can accept them.

1. What is your current obsession?
Mafia Wars and Farmville on Facebook

2. What are you wearing today?
Bengali kurta and pajama..

3. What’s for dinner?
I usually have chappatis and vegetable curries and yes, boiled milk!

4. What’s the last thing you bought?
A rayban sunglass, that burnt a small hole in my pocket.

5. What are you listening to right now?
Bengali news in the next room...

6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?
A great blogging friend of mine! :)
Though I do not know her personally, there is an intellectual connect. She writes really well and expresses her individualistic nature freely. In true sense a free independent girl of 21st century India - one who would not buckle under pressure and would not give in to social prejudices! :D

7. Replaced Question : Do you believe in love?
Yes.. I used to..

8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?
A bermuda

9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
My bed next to me! I am not THAT energetic! (though there are occasional surges)

10. Which language do you want to learn?
Language of girls! I really find it difficult to decipher...

11. What’s your favourite quote?
"It is amazing how much you can achieve when it does not matter who gets the credit".
Incidentally, this one is appended to my official signature as well.

12. Who do you want to meet right now?
None

13. What is your favourite colour?
Blue

14. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet?
Sherwani

15. What is your dream job?
Rockstar

16. What’s your favourite magazine?
I don't read mags..

17. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?
Save it in a bank. I need cash - thick and fast.

18. What do you consider a fashion faux pas?
Sorry.. wrong question for me

19. Who are your style icons?
Again..I hardly care...

20. What kind of haircut do you prefer?
Short conventional male hair cut

21. What are you going to do after this?
Go for a bath and then, a sumptuous lunch.

22. What are your favorite movies?
Too many..

24. What are three cosmetic/makeup/perfume products that you can't live without?
I do not use.. except a deodorant.

23. What inspires you?
Quotes and life stories

24. Give us three styling tips that always work for you:
Only one tip (if you ever consider that as a tip)
Do not follow the trend blindly, stand out from the crowd, be different from others - in a decent manner.

25. What do you do when you “have nothing to wear” (even though your closet’s packed)?
I usually have 'something'

26. Coffee or tea?
Coffee

27. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?
I find out the root cause

28. What is the meaning of your name?
A man who lives after his death through his actions and deeds... [tough ask living upto my name]

29. Which other blogs you love visiting?
Too many to list here..

30. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?
Malai kulfi, misti doi, rabri, chocolate pastry, khir.............. list goes on..

31. Favorite Season ?
Winter

32. If I come to your house now, what would u cook for me?
Sorry madam, if there's none else around, you may have to do that yourself. I can't cook AT ALL! :(


Rules for those who are tagged:
Respond and rework – answer these questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own, and add one more question to the list. Then tag eight or ten other new set of people.

Ah... I can't tag many more, but this time, I would go with the 10, who I know are livid by now with my absence from their pages. Hopefully this would bring some smiles on their faces:

Vimmu
Oorja
Pawan
Indyeah
Varun
Piyu
Valerine
Alice
Ashwathy
Smita

People, congrats on your awards! :D

And yes, anyone who views this post is free to take this tag forward...

As of now...

Hello!

This was by far my longest vacation away from my favorite blog. Not that I had disappeared into oblivion, but there was nothing worthwhile to write, or perhaps, I was more engrossed in my own world and wished to keep things to myself - be secluded from the hustle and bustle of the blogworld. But then, a fish cannot stay out of water and I cannot stay out of my blog.

What did I do all these days! Well, I tried a lot of things, succeeded, took important decisions, kept myself and others entertained and even sorted out a few disputes. Now now, I can testify to each of these, so, please do not think, I am making stories.

Lets follow a LIFO structure (last in, first out). Few days back I saw the beautiful 3D movie - Sea Monsters at IMAX, Mani Square, Kolkata. Apart from the fact that the movie lasted only 45 minutes, I liked every bit of it. The narration, the technique, the story line... all kept us deeply glued to the screen. Time and again there were big prehistoric underwater animals (sorry I don't remember their long names) who would gobble us and it occurred to me more than once, that I had literally ducked under to spare myself from the agony! All in all, it was pure fun. Let me not go into any more details about this movie. Go and catch it in a 3D theater near you and come back and tell me, how you liked it.

Next there was this impatient soul of mine who wanted 'change' badly, so tried out my luck (and my profile) at an MNC and cracked the all important interview. However, although the overall offer was pretty good, I declined to join on an important ground. I don't know whether I would regret my decision later, but a decision taken is taken and I really did have a valid reason. I would wait to see how the future unfolds.

There were a few disputes as well and people misunderstood me. Thankfully, I hope, this has been sorted out.

So, you can understand, it was indeed an eventful month for me. The one thing that I did was to validate my potential - that was really vital.

Finally, I lost one of my ex-colleagues and a dear friend. I still feel lost seeing his active profile on social networking sites and as an offline contact in gtalk. The same guy, the same smile.... the only harsh fact is: He is no more!

Rest in peace, Saroj. We will miss you always. God bless you!