Yesterday (Sunday 9/23) we held a drive at the Swaminarayan temple in Downey (in the L.A. area) and registered about 23 potential donors. While this is a modest number, it is a decent percentage out of the gathering here which was relatively small, around 150 or so people by my estimate. In any case, if we manage to find the right donor, then the probability of a match miraculously changes to 1, or so I vaguely recall from something I tried on a math perio once. (As to whether the instructor bought it, I'll plead the dimming of memory with the passage of time).
Many thanks to the temple management for their support and encouragement. It was heartening to hear from a great many of the devout that they had already registered in previous drives. Some of the regular habitues helped us talk to nervous new prospects by detaling their own experiences as donors in chaste Gujarati. 'Kalaben''s Gujarati skills, and Suvasini's Hindi skills came in very handy in chatting with the worshippers. Even Mots and I dredged deep within to come up with some choice nodules of Hindi. Anything for the Phatak, was the slogan of the day.
Mots had the idea that we should get some drives going at the India end. In principle, the idea makes eminent sense to me, what with the slightly larger Indian population there and all that. Any thoughts on this? There are probably all sorts of hurdles, but hopefully nothing insurmountable.
Glad to see Prak doing his job by holding the line on the health front, keep it up.
Bapa Rao
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Manhattan Drive
Yesterday we had a successful drive here at Manhattan, Kansas. 193 people registered during the drive. Special thanks to the Manhattan community who came forward to register as "bone marrow donors" - without you people this could not have been possible. It felt good to be a part of the drive. One could feel the positive energy and high spirit all around the engineering building of Kansas State University, and everyone seemed to have the confidence that he or she will be a match for Dr. Prakash. In addition to helping by being a donor, everyone who was present at the drive including kids wanted to help in some way or the other.
I was deeply touched by all the hardwork and commitment by Mohan and his family, Bala and the ISA committee and all the volunteers in making this drive a great success. It was a well organized drive, with many volunteers with "MAY I HELP YOU" and "VOLUNTEER" badges to guide people through the entire procedure, and to attend to their questions. The idea of a "smiley-face sticker" for everyone who registered to be a donor was very sweet and thoughtful. Refreshments were served by ISA, the Krishnaswami family and "Daylight Donuts", and I would specially like to thank the staff of "Daylight Donuts" for their generosity and kindness. The streamlined organization and the efficiency and courtesy of the volunteers impressed all those who participated in the drive.
The highlight of the drive was the inspirational presence of the "Heart of America" volunteer Danielle who is a bone marrow transplant survivor and has been living a healthy life for the past three years. I would also like to thank Gail from the "Heart of America" for her efficient management of the drive, for providing information about the BMT process and patiently answerig all the questions. The video provided by the organization was very infomative and helped the donors to understand the process and get their doubts cleared.
Two young girls from Manhattan community between the agegroup 12-15 wanted to be donors for "Prakash uncle", but unfortunately due to the age requirements they could not. They were sad about it, and so was I, and their question "why can't they donate even if they are under 18" was a tough one to answer. That was a truly hearltfelt experince for me. It is very touching to see what a close-knit community we have here in Manhattan that has been working together as a family in finding a match for Dr. Prakash.
Dr. Prakash, all of us are with you in this battle and we are going to win this.
Shilpa
I was deeply touched by all the hardwork and commitment by Mohan and his family, Bala and the ISA committee and all the volunteers in making this drive a great success. It was a well organized drive, with many volunteers with "MAY I HELP YOU" and "VOLUNTEER" badges to guide people through the entire procedure, and to attend to their questions. The idea of a "smiley-face sticker" for everyone who registered to be a donor was very sweet and thoughtful. Refreshments were served by ISA, the Krishnaswami family and "Daylight Donuts", and I would specially like to thank the staff of "Daylight Donuts" for their generosity and kindness. The streamlined organization and the efficiency and courtesy of the volunteers impressed all those who participated in the drive.
The highlight of the drive was the inspirational presence of the "Heart of America" volunteer Danielle who is a bone marrow transplant survivor and has been living a healthy life for the past three years. I would also like to thank Gail from the "Heart of America" for her efficient management of the drive, for providing information about the BMT process and patiently answerig all the questions. The video provided by the organization was very infomative and helped the donors to understand the process and get their doubts cleared.
Two young girls from Manhattan community between the agegroup 12-15 wanted to be donors for "Prakash uncle", but unfortunately due to the age requirements they could not. They were sad about it, and so was I, and their question "why can't they donate even if they are under 18" was a tough one to answer. That was a truly hearltfelt experince for me. It is very touching to see what a close-knit community we have here in Manhattan that has been working together as a family in finding a match for Dr. Prakash.
Dr. Prakash, all of us are with you in this battle and we are going to win this.
Shilpa
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Malibu Drive
We had a very successful drive at the Malibu Temple yesterday. Sarayu's sister Kala and my wife Suvasini were the prime movers behind the drive. As late as Wednesday we weren't sure things would come together in time for Saturday, but something told us that we should not miss the opportunity of Ganesh Chathurthi. Kala had made arrangements with the temple authorities. We got the NMDP cheek swab kits and training on Thursday and coordinated with our batchmates and other volunteers on Friday.
Besides our batch mates, Bala, Bapa Rao, Mots and Sammy, we had Kala and her mother, Suvasini, Dr. Lakshmi Dhanvantari and her twin daughter Anita and Sonya, Yatin Mody (IITM '82?), Shantha Kumar (wife of Dr. Ravi Kumar of USC, IITM '74 Jamuna Hostel), and Elise Latewic (friend of Suvasini and Shantha from Pasadena).
We had Ted Nguyen from A3M (Asians for Miracle Marrow Match (http://www.asianmarrow.org/) join us. This helped us set up two separate tables to ensure a more leak-proof way to catch the traffic.
Bapa Rao's daughter Dana, Mots's daughter Priya, Dr. Dhanvatari's daughters Anita and Sonya, and my daughter Sheila gave all of us hope for the next generation by really rising to the occasion. In the beginning they were a little shy, but soon they got into the swing of it, and towards the end of the day, they had devised several process improvements and had no hesitation in offering persuasive arguments to convince unsure would be donors. Great lessons in learning wonderful life skills for all the youngsters.
Suvasini, Kala and her mother made sure that all the volunteers were fed lunch and Dr. Lakshmi Dhanvatari was kind enough to do a Starbucks run.
Many of us got to talk to Prak and Sujju over the phone in the middle of the drive. Prak was in fine mid season form as far as his joking went. His counts have come up nicely from the time he got hospitalized at the start of the week and he was feeling better.
Between A3M and us, we collected over 320 samples. Let us hope one of those is a match.Clearly we can not rest. More drives are being planned and many of us also intend to join other drives like the big drive planned by A3M for October 14 in Cerritos.
Situ
Besides our batch mates, Bala, Bapa Rao, Mots and Sammy, we had Kala and her mother, Suvasini, Dr. Lakshmi Dhanvantari and her twin daughter Anita and Sonya, Yatin Mody (IITM '82?), Shantha Kumar (wife of Dr. Ravi Kumar of USC, IITM '74 Jamuna Hostel), and Elise Latewic (friend of Suvasini and Shantha from Pasadena).
We had Ted Nguyen from A3M (Asians for Miracle Marrow Match (http://www.asianmarrow.org/) join us. This helped us set up two separate tables to ensure a more leak-proof way to catch the traffic.
Bapa Rao's daughter Dana, Mots's daughter Priya, Dr. Dhanvatari's daughters Anita and Sonya, and my daughter Sheila gave all of us hope for the next generation by really rising to the occasion. In the beginning they were a little shy, but soon they got into the swing of it, and towards the end of the day, they had devised several process improvements and had no hesitation in offering persuasive arguments to convince unsure would be donors. Great lessons in learning wonderful life skills for all the youngsters.
Suvasini, Kala and her mother made sure that all the volunteers were fed lunch and Dr. Lakshmi Dhanvatari was kind enough to do a Starbucks run.
Many of us got to talk to Prak and Sujju over the phone in the middle of the drive. Prak was in fine mid season form as far as his joking went. His counts have come up nicely from the time he got hospitalized at the start of the week and he was feeling better.
Between A3M and us, we collected over 320 samples. Let us hope one of those is a match.Clearly we can not rest. More drives are being planned and many of us also intend to join other drives like the big drive planned by A3M for October 14 in Cerritos.
Situ
Friday, September 14, 2007
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