Blood donation

After coming to Bahrain, I got smitten by a few qualities, one of which being the "Blood Donation" bug. So far, in my two year stay in Bahrain, I've donated it 5 times. I know that it's not a big deal, but considering the fact that I've never donated blood during my stay in India, this is some achievement for me. A picture of mine, donating blood at a blood camp arranged in my office, came in an Arabic newspaper too.

However, the real reason behind this post is not to brag about me donating blood. I noticed that many healthy people around me(some close friends too) just brushed off the very thought of donating blood citing different reasons. Some said they are weak(one of them looks like a goon), some said they are under medication(I know well that the only medicine they take is alcohol) and some just because they are scared. I tried to encourage them(not bullying) and educate them, even though it's up to them to decide, in vain.

What else is a better medium these days than a blog to educate people? So I gathered some valuable information on net which might help you in knowing the importance and myths of blood donation.

Some interesting facts about blood and blood donation:

1. There is no substitute for human blood.
2. Much of today's medical care depends on a steady supply of blood from healthy donors.
3. Every two seconds someone needs blood.
4. Anyone who is in good health, is at least 17 years old, and weighs at least 110 pounds may donate blood every 56 days.
5. Only a maximum of 470ml of blood is taken at one session, which is just less than a pint.
6. Giving blood will not decrease your strength.
7. You cannot get AIDS or any other blood disease by donating blood.
8. After donating blood, you replace your red blood cells within three to four weeks. However, takes four to six weeks to restore the iron lost after donating.

The need for donating blood might be well understood by the fact that Statistics indicate that everybody will need blood(from a donor) in some way or the other. The approximate amount of blood needed in various incidents is as per below:

1. One cancer patient can use up to 8 units of blood each week.
2. One leukemia patient can use up to 2 units each day while waiting for a bone    marrow transplant
3. One sickle cell anemia patient can use up to 4 units each treatment.
4. One organ transplant can take up to 40 units of blood (a liver transplant can use up to 100 units!).
5. One heart bypass surgery can use up to 5 units of blood.
6. One bleeding ulcer can use up to 30 units of blood.
7. One hip replacement can use up to 5 units of blood.
8. One brain surgery can use up to 10 units of blood.
9. One auto accident or gunshot/stab wound victim can use up to 50 units of blood.

I get a happy n content smile on my face when I remember about my last blood donation. The reason behind that happiness is just because of the simple fact that I helped in saving someone's life. I'll be more happy if this post helps you to understand the need for donating blood.

The great EID weekend

I've been thinking of posting this one for the past two weeks, but due to lack of time n interest, I kept on postponing it. But, I realized later that the sooner this is posted, the better for me(so that I can't carry on all these details in my tiny brain). Well, let's start.

Many of you might have enjoyed the Ramadan holiday early this month. Being in a Muslim country, we got 5 days holidays during that time(3 days for the festival and 2 days for the weekend). It's rare to get holidays like this in this part of the world and hence, we decided to enjoy them to the core. We started to draft plans and finally, came up with none solid enough to satisfy our enthusiasm. All we can think of, at that moment, was a small island called Al Dar, which me n my batch left unexplored. So, here's a brief description about all the nasty things we did in those 5 days.

Day 1: As planned, we went to the Al Dar Island, with a small group of friends(usual batch). It was not a great place to hang out, but we had enough fun there(we believe in lighting up the roads we travel). As soon as we got down, we ran into the water and with a jerk, found out that everyone in the batch got their feet cut by the sharp rocks and by the time, we realized the pain, it was too late. We then played cricket(the West Indian one - in the sand), where I was the top scorer. The good thing is my team won and the bad thing is I sprained my shoulder while hitting a six. Then we played volley ball in the water(awesome) and had some drought beer(which was awesome too) and had a tasty buffet. We, then, got back into our usual photo sessions by giving some weird poses(i'll keep only li'l weird poses here). Because of all this, by the time we reached our respective houses, everyone was so tired that we canceled all the plans for the evening and called it a day.
We read in news papers after 4 days that the boat which was taking tourists to the Al Dar Island capsized and luckily a patrol boat rescued all the people.

Day 2: This was a day of mixed emotions for all of us. Here, in Middle East, normally Hindi movies release one day prior to the Indian release. So, Drona was released here and we were excited a lot about the movie(one reason for me being so excited is this movie's directed by Goldie Behl, my dream girl Sonali's husband) and we all ran off to the first show itself. Believe me, I didn't see such a bad movie like Drona in recent times. It was dumbass, right from the word GO. The background score was the only thing which was good.
In the evening, we attended a felicitation function to Mr S P Balasubramanyam(one of my fav singers). He's such a down-to-earth person and the speech he gave that night was one of the best I've heard in my life.

Day 3: This day, we thought of doing something out of box and finally decided to go on a long drive into the desert. We took some parcels of Hyderabadi Biriyani and water with us and took off. As usual, we started with taking photos everywhere and then had our lunch as it was too late in the afternoon by the time we started. Then, the real fun started. We lost our way while coming back and we kept on going rounds n rounds in the desert. Of course, there are roads everywhere, but what's the use of them if there are no signboards(directions, to be precise). Just after an hour or so, we got into the highway, somehow. I was thankful for my roommate who made sure that the fuel tank was full, before starting.

That evening, we went to Bahrain City Center(you might've heard about Dubai city Center). It was opened quite recently and we had a good time bird-watching there.

Day 4: A Telugu couple invited us for lunch today, which we accepted with glee. They took the pain to cook lots n lots of dishes. We all ate so much that I had tough time walking back even to the car and postponed our evening plans. I had a sound sleep and then we went to Adhari Park. But it was so crowded that we can do is to walk through the park and come back making a note of what ride to get on, the next time we come here.

Day 5: I was alone today, as all of my friends had to go to work and so I decided to spend it for myself. Read a few magazines, prepared a few chapters for GMAT and then saw a couple of Black n White Telugu movies. They were fun to watch with all those sword-fights n weird dances of the hero.

So, this was how my loooooongggggg weekend went.

An important update: Please don't watch Max Payne. This was the most boring English movie of the recent times. It turned out to be "Max Pain" just like Ceedy Bhai predicted.

Twenty Questions Tag

Tagged by Ceedy.

RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2 Tag 6 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.

Note: 12 is the one I introduced.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Follow Aamir Khan's golden words from the movie, ISHQ. They are something like Ladki, Rail aur Bus ek hi jaisi hai. Ek gaya toh dusra jaroor aayegaa.
Frankly speaking, I never know what I'll do if some situation like this arises, as I never had any similar experience before. And it's too worst to imagine also.

2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
A backpacker's trip around the world.

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
Everyone, who made my life go this way. And believe me, I'll kick just like this:


4. Why do you blog?
Just to make my virtual life interesting, as my real life sucks sometimes.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Never ever. Can't imagine that situation. And also, most of the girls in my best n good friends list are married.

6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
People say that the latter option is the best. But I was loved by the person who was loved by me. So I never knew the difference.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?
Long enough, if I had the confidence that the person will return to me.

8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Nothing. Just because, it breaks many hearts n lives if I do anything.

9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Fight against corruption n poverty. I had some plans for the future about fight against corruption but poverty is something which's yet to be thought.

10. What takes you down the fastest?
A roller coaster, I suppose

11. What resurrects you the fastest?
Anything interesting

12. What’s your strength?
My frankness and sense of humor.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Arey yaar, mein apne bade bhaiya ke baare mein kaise batawoon. Woh toh Chintan Maharaj hain.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Being single and rich is a good idea as long as u get all the love you crave for in marriage.

15. Whats the purpose of such Tags?
Piling up posts in blogs.

16. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
Gharwali - Baharwali nahin dhekha kyaa?
Anyways, this is some weird situation which'll never happen in my life. After all, if you love someone, you should love him/her in such a way that there's no more love left in you to share with some other person too.

17. Would you give all in a relationship?
Giving up every relation for one relation is not a good idea, right?

18. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
Forgave many people like this. After all, what'll we get by holding a grudge against him/her?

19. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
I prefer to be in a relationship, just as Ceedy wrote Grass's always greener on the other side.

20. Tag 6 people.
Phew, toughest question of all. Ok, here goes the list:
Keerthi, KK, Anvita a.k.a Princess Mia, Broca's area, Sree and Swathi.

A feel-good movie and a sad good-bye

Yesterday evening, I was too lazy to do anything and started doing my favorite time pass - watching TV. As usual, I was flipping through channels(believe me, remote control tops my list of wonderful gadgets). After a couple of rounds through all that exhausting list, I stopped at Star Movies on seeing Russell Crowe's face. He was one of my list of good actors, thanks to Gladiator.

I saw 5 minutes of the movie and slowly started liking it. I didn't switch the channel till the movie finished(which's quite surprising for me) and for the first time in my life, I saw even the whole ending credits of the movie. It was just because, I don't know the name of the movie. And at last, there it was - A GOOD YEAR. You can find the plot and details about it in this site.

The movie is a feel-good one with simple storyline and awesome screenplay. I liked it maybe because it's been quite sometime since I saw something without violence.

A small update: There was this dialog in the movie which I liked but I can't agree with it and even the protagonist(who says it) disagrees with it at the end. It goes something like this - "Money isn't everything. It's the only thing".


Coming to the second part of this post's title, it's about the retirement news of Saurav Ganguly. I somehow felt very bad to hear the news of his abrupt retirement even though he was never in my good books. This issue of the Fab Four's retirement just shows the monopoly of BCCI. Whatever it might be, all the best for the days ahead, Saurav.

F1 - Singapore Grand Prix

I knew it. And now, most of you also might have noticed it. For those who didn't notice it, let me tell you what it is. It is the truth that I've been so lazy in Bloggerville these days. I promise you that I'll be back to normal soon. Now, soon means very soon. Anyways, let me get back to my crap.

It was around 9 years back, when I was first introduced to the world of F1. I was mesmerized by all those mean machines at the first look itself. Right from that moment, I was an ardent fan of Ferrari, thanks to Michael Schumacher(aka. Schumi). It was my dream to watch a race on the track and this year, it was fulfilled at the Bahrain GP.

I try my best to not to miss a race, if at all I don’t have office during the race. But I never bunked office for F1(except for the Bahrain GP). But last week, I left office early to catch the Singapore GP. It was because of the fact that this race is the first night race in the history of F1. There were lot of expectations from the track.

As usual, being a bit lazy, I missed the first couple of minutes of the race. The track promised a lot, as overtaking was a bit tough on this one. I fell in love with the track, until the safety car intervened. My fav for the title contender, Felipe Massa of the Ferrari team, became a zero from hero within a few seconds. He was leading the race when the safety car intervened and had to join at the end of the pack of the cars. His(and my) hopes further crashed when he got off to a horrendous start at the pits with the fuel pipe still attached to the car, thanks to the green light. He was awarded a 10 second penalty and had to fall back further.

By now, I lost interest in the race but continued to watch for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. But Kimi smashed everyone’s hopes by crashing in the final laps. And Fernando Alonso had won the race, despite starting the race from 15th position.

Overall, the race was a good one with a few great moments, like Hamilton overtaking
David Coulthard. But, sincerely, I felt that the safety car rules should be modified after witnessing what happened to the race leader, Felipe Massa. There are still 3 more races left in the season and there’s a 7 point difference between the championship leader, Lewis Hamilton and the second placed Massa which means that Massa has to win at least one race with a big margin. Let’s wish all the best for the red team.

Image Courtesy: The Official site for Formula One