A much awaited wish comes true!

I actually had this earnest wish for 6 years now. To donate blood! And I finally did it. It was a joyous occasion for me. I was proud of myself. I will let you know why. :)

It all started when I was doing my MBA. There was a blood donation camp happening in Bangalore at that time. I read about it and was intrigued when I came to know that they were coming to our college. So the camp members had a session with our batch and after their speech I got really into it. Hearing about the number of people especially children, who die due to the scarcity of blood in the blood bank really pushed me. I called groups of students and motivated all of them to volunteer for blood donation. I made all of them sign up and stand in the long queue for the donation. In fact, the seniors also were there right next to our batchmates.

It was a satisfying experience until my turn came up. A nurse pricked my thumb for checking the haemoglobin level and she rejected me. I asked for the reason and was told that my haemoglobin level was below the normal level and that it is the basic criteria for eligibility. I could feel all the stares on me since I was the enthusiastic one who got them to sign up in the first place. I requested the nurse to anyway take my blood. She said that if I donate then I would have to be immediately given blood. :) So I left the queue sad and could hear some people laughing.

It is all history now as I successfully donated blood on Thursday and this time I had the required haemoglobin level. After all, the constant effort of eating healthy, especially increasing the iron content in my food paid off. I had seen the clinic on my way back home from office while walking towards the subway. I had just joined work on Tuesday. I was still getting to know the area. One look at the clinic and like a reflex action, I entered the clinic and signed up for donating blood on Thursday.

When the nurse was checking my haemoglobin levels, I was kind of nervous but that's because I was thinking about what happened the last time I tried donating blood. However, she approved my application and I was very happy. After that everything moved fast. All the formalities of form signing, interview on disease got over. The needle was kind of unusually big and the nurse did say that it is bigger than my vein. Ok let me word it better. The vein she found on my hand was small. :)

I was so ecstatic that I did not even feel any pain. After all, I was finally donating blood.

After about 12 minutes, she said its over. I never knew she literally meant it. It seems no more blood was coming since it was a small vein. The nurse said I had no reason to worry since they had collected enough blood for a child. Only enough for a kid? I felt sad and disappointed for just a moment after which I thought at least I did it.

It took me so long but I finally did it. :)

Dance party-Wow here I come!

I was away from town for Christmas and was not able to update the continuation of the last post. All those who waited for the second part, please bear with me for the delay. Even though there was only one comment, it doesn’t mean that I have very less readers. Most of my readers don’t believe in commenting. :D Here it goes.

This post is the continuation of the previous one.

Now when it comes to parties, what enthralls me most is the dancing part. I would literally be the first one to hit the dance floor and the last time one to come out. That shows my craze for dancing. In December every year my company hosts a party for all the employees, like a custom in one of the prestigious pubs in the city. This time it was on Friday, the 15th. Not that it was much awaited considering the fact that I already attended one of those ‘not so happening parties’ last year December time but I was just looking forward to some masti to cool down in the work front. C’mon who doesn’t like to get some time off and chill out? Be it unlimited beer for those who would like to drink or the scrumptious dinner for those people who would like a quiet evening. My intention was nothing but to go out there and dance till I could feel fresh enough to get back to the new project at work, which I will need to finish to go for the much awaited vacation in January end.

So, like I had mentioned in the last post, I was kind of looking forward to the evening, thinking about what I should be wearing, how to reach the venue etc etc, and the outward effect of which I was getting distracted in my work. I guess mostly all the girls do the same thing. I mean think a lot about what could be the most appropriate dress for the occasion, go through the entire wardrobe in the ‘mind’ trying to figure out how to look the best, at the same time decent enough for an office party. Anyway, I had kind of set my mind to something trendy and left it right there trying to get back my attention to work. My sister was to accompany me to the same party and that made it all the more exciting since she works with Accenture and sometimes it’s good to show off that you have siblings who work in reputed companies like that. :D

Time ran out pretty fast and before I knew I had to leave for home to pick up my sis as well as get ready for the party. We reached the pub by 8pm and were ushered inside by the stares of all the people in the hotel lounge as well as my office colleagues. It really felt good to be the center of attraction for all the right reasons. The crowd was huge and I could see numerous unfamiliar faces only to realize that there were quite a bit of new joinees and some others not from my office basically. Most of them were holding a bottle of beer with the actual poise of holding champagne or vodka or rum; stopping it right since I am not familiar with the names of the other hot drinks. We made ourselves comfortable in one of the tables and I turned to my sis to ask her something and realized that she was all blue. The neon lights had turned her white top shining blue like a total glow which could draw attention even from far area. One of my colleagues came near me and suddenly remarked, “Hey, you look so thin and beautiful today”. I was like “Oh really, thanks but I always look like that”. I introduced my sis to him and the next thing he asks me is my coupons. I never knew this was coming. Unlike all the annual parties, this time my company made it ‘one drink for each’ instead of the unlimited beer policy. So all that buttering was for the coupons we had.

After all the formal introductions of my sis to my teammates and other friends, I was just waiting to hit the dance floor. It was pretty much a small dance floor for 400 employees but I believe in the policy that you need to create your own space for dancing. So, I pulled my sis and entered the dance floor, with the song “hips don’t lie” playing in the background. We whirled and rocked the dance floor with the increasing beats of the song. Couples were enjoying their private moments right out there in the public since those poor people would not have realized that the dim lights in the dance floor were deceiving them big time. I wasn’t surprised to see some of the men totally out of control, drunk and all high ready to fall; some of them trying to take advantage of the closeness of girls in the dance floor. It happened last year too. You know what I mean. It was like you get a guy drunk and his character can easily be assessed. :) I saw this industry manager falling over a girl repeatedly, pretty much amusing sight. Anyways, if the girl doesn’t mind, who should bother? I am sure she must be one of the girls out there having very strict parents, who forbid nightclubs, boy friends and drinks. Devoid of freedom, when they get a little bit of it, they really are unaware on how to handle it. So, on the reason that it is an office party, the permission granting also becomes successful.

The music stopped all of a sudden as there was some problem with the system. So, we all walked back to the lobby. I mean I even ended up telling my sis that normally my office parties aren't so boring. My thoughts suddenly drifted to my MBA College dance parties. I guess there was something different in those parties. Check out the snaps below, those days were really something!

Dance dance!!

Dance time in the college farm house...

The Christmas cake cutting part!

All set to rock the New year party!

Now coming back to office party, I really am not able to comprehend on what was amiss. Maybe, it was just the ok type DJ’s music or the crowd or the fact that my close friends were missing on the dance floor. Nevertheless, I did have some fun moments in last year’s office party. Check out the snaps of the same one.

Everybody in tiny winy dance floor

hmmm...rocking first and

Rolling next...:)

Dinner time!

After an hour, the music was back but we were having our dinner. I relished the Gajar Ka Halwa with ice cream though I was too full. We walked back to the dance floor and danced for some more time till my sis was really exhausted. Then we left for home at 11pm in my colleague’s car, with me thinking about how long the day was. All in all it was tiring but at the same time enjoyable and somewhat refreshing.

Wishing you all a joyous new year with lots of happy happy surprises and of course may our dreams come true. Happy 2007.