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. :)

Way to cheer!!

This post is the continuation of the previous one.

The broadcast read somewhat like this:

Hi All,

The much awaited Sports Day is being held on 21st April 2007.

The venue remains the same, Nehru Stadium.

Venue: Nehru Stadium
Periyamedu
Behind Rippon building, adjacent to Chennai Central, Chennai - 600 003

There are certain changes to the schedule and timing of the sports day.

In order to compensate for the bandh on 31st March 2007, we will be working on Saturday, 21st April 2007, from 9 am to 1 pm.

In order to escape the heat and save you all from getting sun tanned, the sports day has been scheduled under flood lights. We will commence at 3.00 pm and will go on till 8.30 pm. Those of you who do not attend either work or the sports event will be marked off for the day.

In order to add to the Spirit of the Game, we cordially invite your spouse and children to join the first ever sports day of ( ).

Note: Parents/friends/siblings not allowed.

The house keeping staff will come around with a new list. Please sign against your names and also confirm the number of people accompanying you for this wonderful event.

The house keeping staff did come with a list and I obviously signed none in the column which asked for the number of people accompanying me. I felt that the whole sports day thing would end up like a flop show and didn’t really wish to get embarrassed by asking anyone to join me. One look at the mail and yes I had decided to go for the sports day. Of course I couldn’t take off and needed to save every leave of mine for obvious reasons which I will explain later in the forth coming posts. Actually I wouldn’t blame my company for making a rule that if an employee misses the sports day attendance, he/she will be marked absent for the whole day. After all the HR dept knows how much the ( ) ‘ties would like to escape and enjoy the afternoon after attending office in the morning. For instance, I would never even have thought of attending if not for that stupid clause.

The D day soon followed with me cribbing to my own glory about how much I hated the whole sports day idea and the fact that I have to attend it. Anyway, the morning passed after which I hoped out with my colleagues for lunch trying to ease our minds of the sports day function. I made sure we went to my favorite Chinese restaurant in the town. After all, I needed some incentive to feel ready for real sports. :P

We enjoyed the scrumptious lunch and drove to the so called stadium. Now when I first read about the stadium in the mail, I never realized how big it could be. I was wonderstruck when I entered the Nehru Stadium.

Thats the view from where I was sitting

I could see a lot of red tee shirt audience....

All preps for the 100 metres race!

Isn't that snacks he's carrying? Thats me wondering what could be inside the cartons. :P

Its getting dark, time for the flood lights!

The stadium looked rocking with the lights on...

All I could say is WOW!

Here are some videos to get a hold of the fun I had....



Women's Backwalking


Women's 100 metres-heats


Women's 100 metres-Final

There was this girl (K) sitting near me, who was very enthusiastic about 400 metres race. She went on talking about how she could have done well if that item also was included for the day. Finally when the time came for the 4x100 metres relay, one team was in shortage of a girl. Seeing the opportunity, D (another friend) and me persuaded K to participate and pushed her so hard onto getting into the track. Finally, when she told us that she was wearing floaters and she couldn’t run, I chuckled to myself. I really thought she was just making excuses. I soon offered her my running shoes saying that I will wear her floaters. After a while she agreed and she really did prove me wrong. Her team won the relay and whoever saw her running that day would have agreed to all her boasting. Just take a look.


Relay 1st Part


Relay Last Part

The winning relay team

So what if I did not participate I cheered for everybody. Also, didn’t K win wearing my shoes? :P

So all in all it wasn’t a bad sports day, don’t you think so?

After all it was the office sports day…..

Its been a while since I updated my blog, and blah blah and more blah. I can give 100 reasons for not having done it. Let me save my reader’s time from all that, since I firmly believe on the blog update being more important than the reasons. :D

So last Saturday was my office sports day. Now one month ago, when the HR sent this whole sports day broadcast, I got really irritated. I was getting stock information from Yahoo finance(Thanks to Yahoo for having such a informative website, I don’t know what I would have done without it.) for some Chinese company, when the mail reached my inbox. Finding information on a Chinese company is one difficult task to accomplish even with the help of Yahoo. I wish they had an option to translate the contents to English. Anyway, before the mail could reach me, I was busy translating with the help of Google translator. It is a very tedious process wherein I end up putting each and every word into the translator, to finally arrive at the company’s financials. I knew I was close to my goal when a dialogue box jumped onto my computer screen and announced that I have received a new mail. I don’t remember what I was thinking but I ended up clicking on the ‘open inbox’ option of the dialogue box. What follows is a summarized portion of the whole mail of course with the special effects it had. :))












“Hi Chennai ( ) ties,
On 31st March Saturday with clear skies and the warm sun the FIRST EVER







ANNUAL FIELD DAY/SPORTS DAY OF ( )CHENNAI
will be conducted.


As Sports Day is a day to promote sports, physical and mental health, we have a range of physical events ranging from traditional track-and-field events to more uncommon events which are listed below. Some volunteers have come forward to co-ordinate and conduct the games for us. We also welcome atleast 2 more members (please contact the co-ordinators directly) to join the co-ordinators in conducting the game.

Venue: Rajaratnam Stadium
Timing: 10-5 pm

Lunch and refreshments will be provided on the field. So gear up, wear on your caps, spikes, shorts and join us for a day of non-stop excitement and fun.

Note : This is an Outdoor Team Building Event for all employees of Chennai and therefore employees cannot shy away this activity by choosing to work in office.”

I laughed reading the mail, had a discussion with my teammates on the same funny mail and finally got back to the earlier yahoo finance webpage. The break in the flow of work totally made me forget the last line I had translated. Ultimately, I had to repeat (it only took 2 more hours) the whole page to get my work done. That moment itself, I hated the whole sports day idea.

Some of my colleagues did take the sports day seriously and I heard they had begun practicing for the BIG event. I was least bothered, not like I am against sports day or anything. It is just that I was too engrossed in work to think of anything else other than that. And, there was added excitement on the important due diligence consulting project I was engaged with, for a private equity firm (first time!) Anyway, my prayers were answered momentarily. 31st March ended up being a holiday for the whole of Chennai because of the so called Bandh which took place in protest of the Supreme courts stay order for the OBC quota. :D. The previous day, there was a HR broadcast which is again given below:

“Hi All,

On account of the bandh announced by the ruling party tomorrow 31st March 2007, our SPORTS DAY is being postponed, and the new date will be announced later.

Chennai office will remain closed and nobody will be allowed inside office tomorrow.”

At least, the above mail had the usual special effects missing. Maybe, they were just too disappointed. :D The two day weekend was a big relief to my hectic work schedule. Another week followed with mostly work happening. One fine day, there was another broadcast from the HR department.

To be continued…..

Bargaining-inevitable process here!

Disclaimer: No offense intended to the city of Chennai.

This post is a continuation of the previous one.

During my student days in Bangalore, I used to love the whole process of bargaining. For shopping, I had to manage with the monthly allowance, which was the pocket money given by my brother. Those days, the bargain shops in Commercial Street were a huge blessing to me. Just take that few hundred rupees, stuff it safely inside my handbag, the bag being the result of a bargain again and set off to the epitome of bargain shops in Bangalore. Back then, it was sheer enjoyment to go through the whole process. I enter a fashion wear shop, look around and in a minute I know my eyes are hooked onto few tops. Being very particular about trying out stuff, especially when it comes to clothes, I happily go through the ordeal of trying out both the sizes M and S for all those tops. Once the selection is done, I approach the salesman and there the process begins.

Me: Huh bolo Bhaiya, kitna hai? (Huh how much is it, brother?) :) I know a little bit of respect always works!

Salesman: Donom milke paanch sau rupiye dedijiye. (Give Rs 500 for both together).

Me: Woh bahut zyaada hai, bhaiya. Thoda tho kam karlo.(That is a lot too much. Reduce it a little bit).

Salesman: Teek hai, aap hi boliye, kitna desakthe hain? (Ok tell me how much are you willing to pay?) I guess he knows that I am good in bargaining…:D

Me: Hmmmm dosauchaalis rupiye hi kaafi hai uskeliye. ( Err..Rs 240 is more than enough for it).

Salesman: Huh!! lekin jitna mene kaha tha, uska aadha bhi nahin kaha aapne. Nahin, charsau rupiye se kam nahi hoga. (That is less than half of what I quoted. I can give it maximum for Rs 400).

Me: Nahin Bhaiya, Aap ko dena hai tho dohasauchaalis rupiye mai dhedijiye. Ek baat samach lijiye. Agar aap muche yeh kam daam par dengke, tho meri saari dost bhi is dukan mein hi shopping karenge. (If you want to sell it to me, give it for Rs 240. Understand one thing, if you give it in lower price, then all my friends will also come here for shopping).

Salesman: Lekin dohsauchaalis rupiye bahut kam hain. (But Rs 240 is too less).

Me: I reply back very innocently, Teek hai bhaiya, dohsaupachaas rupiye lelo. Ab tho aap khush honge, na? (Ok then here take Rs 250. Are you happy now?

Salesman: Huh!! He was totally bewildered. Poor chap.: D

Few seconds later, the salesman smiles, and writes the bill for Rs 250 and takes it to the counter. I pay the same amount and happily walk out of the shop. Don’t you think the whole process is worth the trouble? Adding onto that is the joy of seeing the salesman shocked and speechless. :D

Now when I have to go through the whole process of bargaining, I absolutely hate it. Or rather it is so much a part of my daily life that it is becomes inevitable. The last post ended with me relating the trouble finding an auto and completing the bargaining process as soon as I can, if I have to reach office in time. If I am not able to find an auto in the stand and will have to rely on an ajnabi auto, the whole conversation goes like this.

Me: Teynapet ponamge. Ange Karumuttu Centre irikille? (I need to go to Teynapet, near Karumuttu Centre). No point of adding words of respect. Believe me it will not work with auto drivers in Chennai.

Hmmm…This guy is for sure not going to work, I think to myself.

Autowala: Apollo Hospital Pakkama?(Near Apollo hospital?)

Me: Haan Atheithan. (yeah that’s the place). Oh speed up guy, you are losing my patience.

Autowala: Ange enge Ma? (Near Apollo where?) Now I feel really angry.

Me: Ninga hospital pakkam stop paninga. Evilom? (You stop near the hospital, please). How much? Here begins the tough part.

Autowala: 65 rupees aakuma. (It will be Rs 65). Believe me this guy is doing daylight robbery. My office is just 2.5 kms away. No surprise at his words anyways, since I am used to auto drivers over here.

Me: Rs 30 than koduthittu irriken. (I give only Rs 30 daily). Saying this, I start walking by.

No! He doesn’t bother calling me back. I knew it was going to be total time waste. Any where else, the walking away strategy works in bargaining, but over here it doesn’t work with most of the auto drivers. Hmph, I sigh to myself. Soon enough, I find another auto. The same conversation above follows: Whatever it is, finally end up getting an autowala who will take only Rs 30 but the whole bargain lasts more than 5-10 minutes.

All this trouble is saved, if I find an auto in the stand because all the drivers there know me and I can avoid the tedious bargaining process with them. Also, if I have time to spare, I can just wait near the stand because one or the other auto will be back there in few minutes as that is how their normal practice goes.

Phew! A timely sleep does save a lot of trouble!