I'm a member of a blood donors group, and since I have O neg, which is relatively rare, I get requests for donations once in a while. So I wasn't exactly surprised when I got a call requesting me to donate for the benefit of a 10 year old kid afflicted with leukemia, or blood cancer. I landed up at the blood bank without much fanfare, and apprehensive of the fact that I had binged on alcohol the night before, I proceeded to take a prick test. Three hours, later I was informed that my blood was "clean" and I was asked to proceed with the donation.
The technician grasped my hand, tied the band and told me to squeeze a cylinder. He says, in bengali; "aapnar bhen gulo besh bhalo" which means your veins are very prominent. I thought "yours would be too if you curled with 60 lb dumbbells thrice a week. Anyhow he guided a finger along my taught vein and stabbed in the needle. I closed my eyes, clenched my teeth and squeezed the cylinder tightly. A sharp pain, then a serene numbness. I couldn't really feel the elixir of my life flowing down to the sterile plastic bag, but a myriad of thoughts went though my mind. WhileI bled in a controlled fashion, I realised how we are all linked together at such a fundamental level. Heres a kid, who I have not met, probably will never meet, and here I am draining away 350 ml of my blood so that he could live. Leukemia is such a terrible illness. It entails multiple blood transfusions and even then theres no guarantee that the victim will survive the ordeal. I thought about the alcohol level in the red juice that collected beside me. Would it really matter, would it get his traumatised body high? would it comfort him?. Would he ever grow up to be a fine young man. Will his poor father's weathered look ever change from that of despair to that of hope and relief. Will he curse the almighty for putting him and his hapless son through this dark journey of uncertainty and despair. Will God stop using his family as a case study of human persistence of courage under fire? In his grim eyes, I saw the unconditional love of a father for his son. He probably knows that it will eventually end in tears, but that doesn't deter him from doing whatever it takes to keep his son alive, even though it's for a few more months or maybe days. If I'm not being blasphemous, I wondered can God really be this sick bastard, who spawns a life, only to take it back after 10 measly years? 10 years of this kid being the apple of his parents eyes, 10 years of the joys of parenthood, 10 years of uncorrupted innocence before this kid has a chance to claim his own ground. If so ...why? Was it bad genetics? was it destiny? I've stopped grappling for answers, as there are none.
At the end of it all...I told myself "and I thought I was going through a crisis!"
No comments:
Post a Comment