GIVE ME BLOOD AND I WILL GIVE YOU FREEDOM

Contrary to everyone's expectation on reading the heading, this write-up is about blood donation and not Netaji Subash Chandra Bose's renowned words. I chose this heading because after I donated blood the other day, I felt free, liberated from the guilty conscience that I have never done anything significant in life.

One of my colleague's sibling was to undergo a surgery and a word had spread in the office that voluntary blood donors were being sought. I was asked whether I was willing and I instantly replied with a "Yes".

On that particular day when I was to donate my blood, I went straight from the office to the Blood Bank in the hospital. There, I was met by a nurse who gave me a form to fill, which I did, religiously. Then there was the regular procedure of checking the weight, haemoglobin count etc. After making sure that I am, in fact, a healthy man, I was made to lie on a very comfortable seat and then the whole process commenced. They gave a sponge ball in my hand and asked me to keep pumping it and I could see the bag getting filled with my blood, which might be in someone else's body in a matter of time, probably giving him a new lease of life. Once the bag was filled, the entire set-up of the needle, tube, bag were removed systematically and I was offered a few biscuits and a cup of coffee.

My colleague embarassed me a little by offering me a 100 Rs. note for the conveyance but I refused decently because it was not for money or incentives that I had come till there. Though I felt a little uneasy for the later part of that day, I was definitely instilled with a sense of altruism and pride.