Instant Karma 2017

On 13^th January 2017, I experienced Instant Karma. Not the music band, but Karma in its purest form, delivered instantly, unlike the traditionally slow pace it takes.

On that day, my mother and I visited Vishranti, an old age home for destitute women. Every year, my mother makes a donation on her mother’s death anniversary and this year, we opted to do it here. We had made a prior appointment and the Home asked us to come there around lunch. We did and after completing the donation formalities, they took us around the campus.

It was quite an experience to meet so many old ladies coming from myriad backgrounds, housed in a good and calm environment. They had a dorm like setup for the elders who could take care of themselves and we were told that there is a separate area for those who need full time attendance. We even met a sprightly 102-years old paatti, whose claim to fame was that she worked in Vaitheeshwaran Kovil, as a kolam artist, till she was 80!

We were then asked to wait till lunch was served. And once all the ladies assembled a common prayer was chanted and the list of donors for the day was read out. Then, we were asked to partake in the serving of food. Now this was a little unexpected and I felt very happy doing it. It was a feeling that doesn’t really come, when we simply write a cheque as a donation. Not that it has changed me into becoming a “volunteer” type of person, but I think I can understand why some genuine people do it.

Now, during this lunch time, we were joined by a family of 3 comprising of a vociferous husband (they do exist), a wife and their gawky pre-teen kid. They had brought a box of sweets and they served it along with us. Turned out that they were quite regular in visiting this place and that day was the husband’s birthday. 

Then the same lunch was served to all of us as well and we finally came back to the office to say goodbye. The husband, we learnt, was an advocate in the Madras High Court. In the office, the caretakers asked for some feedback and the advocate’s wife was filling out something and I was awaiting my turn. The staff-in-charge was talking about events that took place recently, like some known Carnatic singer performing there, the Home arranging for some of the pattees to be taken to a concert etc. 

They then mentioned that only a couple of days back, fans of Vijay had come there and sought the blessings of the elders for his movie Bhairava. The Staff had requested them to arrange for a screening and these guys sent tickets the next day. They had also arranged for transportation.

Now, me being the usual quiet guy (at least in public with strangers), thought this was a good moment to portray a different image and decided to crack a joke, on the commonly accepted comedy-piece called Vijay. “After all that these old ladies have experienced in life, why do you want to make them watch a Vijay movie? Don’t you have any other option?”. Well, at least that was the dialogue I had in my mind and quite literally opened my mouth to utter the first syllable.

That’s when the advocate took over (his nature suited his profession) and told them that his son had acted in the movie! A gamut of thoughts ran through my head ranging from WTF to Thank God I am not a loud mouth. The advocate went on to add that even he had starred in the move as part of the villain’s legal counsel.

Now imagine what level of embarrassment I would have caused if I had said the dialogue that I wanted to. It may have even lead to unnecessary heart-burn and ruined what was otherwise a very peaceful and satisfying experience. I feel that all the punyam I earned with the donation and more importantly, the serving of food to elders, definitely came back as Instant Karma to save me.

My first blood donation

Actually it is my second. But that first time (not this first time) was for the father of a colleague of mine, who was having a surgery and required blood. This happened in circa 1998.

This first time happened yesterday (26th May 2009). There was a camp organised at work on Monday and Tuesday. There have been quite a few camps that have taken place on campus and every time, I would think of donating. But I would end up not doing so, under some pretext or the other.

Yesterday, a friend of mine came to my desk and asked if we could go. I guess that was the real push I needed and so I agreed. We went there in the afternoon, but the organisers informed us that they were overbooked for the day. They made an appointment at 2:30 PM on Tuesday.

We went there today on time, but there was still a pretty long line of people. We filled out a form (my father calls such forms as "laedhu form", but that is a different story that I hope to narrate some other time) and waited our turn.

The technician on duty first performed the Specific Gravity test (a.k.a Copper Sulphate test) to determine whether my haemoglobin count was at an acceptable level. You can refer this link from one of WHO's websites for details.

I passed that test and then the Doctor checked my BP. This was also in the standard acceptable range and so I was permitted to donate blood. My turn came up in a few minutes after the Doctor's clearance.

I was asked to lie down on one of the "beds" and then the other technicians got down to business. They gave me a soft rubber ball and asked me to keep squeezing it. Blood was collected from my left hand. After 5 minutes or so, the collection was stopped and they asked me to lie down for a couple of minutes.

Then one person came along and asked me to sit down. After confirming that I was in a steady state, he took me to the recuperation table. I was given a Frooti, asked to help myself to few biscuits and also have a banana. My friend had completed his donation a minute before I did. So, after the official recuperation, we went to the juice shop on campus and helped ourselves to a Dates Milk Shake. Dates was selected since it is considered to be rich in Iron and hence good for blood.

To cut a long (and yet another needless) story short, I did my bit for the society by contributing blood. I have also done enough self-publicity with this post too! And I request you to do what I did - I meant the donation part, not the publicity part.

There are many sites that would give you the necessary information regarding blood donation. The bank to which I donated is this one.


P.S.: In my eagerness to publish this post yesterday, I inadvertently posted it on the InGiliPiece post. My apologies to my fellow-authors of that blog.