The website provides a platform to locate voluntary blood donors for any given blood group in more than 2500 cities of India. The website aims to ease the process of searching for a blood donor in times of an emergency by providing a direct link to matching and interested donors across the country.

India faces an acute shortage of blood donors. As per an estimate the blood deficit is close to 62 lakh units in the country. This acute shortage can be overcome only if new people pledge and turn to actively donating blood. While 8% of population in U.S.A donates at least once a year, a meager 3% of Indian population donate blood. As per a WHO report, shortage of blood has resulted in India becoming the world leader in blood trafficking and transfusion of diluted or adulterated blood to patients. India has round 14 crore internet users. Out of this, 12 crore users are above 18 years of age, which is the age eligibility to donate blood. If this user base is motivated to donate even once a year, it can address the blood shortfall of India.

www.easyblood.info aims to target this user group to bridge the blood deficit.

Have a look at the website…and help them spread the word. It is an interesting idea – to say the least!

Somewhat Related Posts: Where do we begin? and MyNeta.info

“Jaago Re!” and ADR – Two Excellent Initiatives

“Don’t Vote. Select” – brought to you by Mumbaivotes.com

Empowering India and another small step towards change

Dr Elst is a savant – in the truest sense of the word..We discussed a huge range of topics – from Ayodhya and Hindutva  to martial traditions in Buddhism, caste, scriptures, “Vedic Hinduism”, Islam, Infiltration from Bangladesh and thoughts on a Hindu identity…

Several hours into the evening, even as we approached midnight, it still felt as if we had just begun…Amitabh did a video recording of some parts of the discussion which I hope we will be able to upload soon..In the meantime, I am looking forward to Dr Elst’s talk and discussion on Sunday and more importantly, his comments on my slides/points on Hindutva and Liberalism – which I will be sharing with the audience tomorrow afternoon.. Stay tuned.

Related Posts: Summary of the Historical Question – Ram Janmabhoomi and “Paki, Come Home“

Somewhat Related: On Chanakya, Gautam Buddha and Upanishad Ganga

|| Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti… ||

***

I would be grateful if any of you can help me with the translation of the entire shloka. Thanks.

Recalling those days in his autobiography, Dev Anand wrote:

“…the soul of the people was smouldering, their spirit stifled by an iron hand.They were dying to break the shackles, and the lava inside them was gathering momentum, soon to explode into a spluttering volcano.

It just needed a single matchstick to light up. And the matchstick was provided by Indira Gandhi herself.”

Eerily reminiscent of the situation we find ourselves in today…

Dev Sa’ab: Today, we remember you – and your lines: “Unko sabak sikhana hai“.

Unko Sabak Jarur Sikhayenge! Jai Hind, Jai Bharat! – Shantanu

Related Post: Was the Emergency for real?

“My wife walked out of the house last week. I’ve known her for seven years and we’ve been married for five years and now I feel our relationship is purely transactional. I’m consumed by my startup and think about it every waking minute. I am obsessed with it and want to make it a roaring success. My wife works in the financial services industry and she too works long hours. We moved to Bengaluru from Mumbai so that our quality of life would be better. She travels on work and so do I. I get back home late and she’s either in bed or on her laptop. I keep responding to emails and SMS messages as well when I’m home. I don’t want to lose out on any business opportunity. She wants children and I am not sure I’m ready to be a dad till my startup is done. Am depressed and lonely. But I cannot give up on my startup dream. What should I do?”

So said the 31-year-old CEO of a startup. And he wasn’t the first such person saying this to me. I have rather unfortunately been at the listening and counselling end of such laments increasingly over the past couple of years. It seems that the pressures of a startup (or political activism) are putting (can put) enormous strains on personal relationships…

A personal digression: In the month that my son was born and my mother passed away, I decided to quit and do a startup. The urge was uncontrollable and I took the decision without consulting my wife! I was in Silicon Valley and she was in India (we had decided to have our son in India). She was surprised and understandably upset but then was fully supportive. I travelled several times from the US to India during those initial days. Those were the days of emotional roller-coaster rides. After several months, my son and wife joined me in the US (visa issues delayed the family reunion!). The startup went through ups and downs—emotional and financial. It wasn’t easy but the support from my wife was always there though not always visible or expressed!

The point of this digression was that it is crucial to ensure the following:

That the partner or spouse understands how important the startup (or what you are doing) is for you and they support it wholeheartedly.

Openly talk about the trade-offs and sacrifices both have to make.

That you understand how important it is to have that support and therefore make efforts to show it.

Spend time with the family and don’t keep checking messages during this time. Consciously keep aside time. My time, your time and most importantly, OUR TIME. Be religious about this. You don’t have to respond to every message in the next nano-second. You will be surprised that the world still spins on its axis if you don’t!

Be open and discuss things. Take interest in the other person’s activities. Remember to take pleasure in the small things, e.g. just hang out together listening to music.

It is important therefore to remain grounded in one’s beliefs and values. With a rapidly growing consumerist mindset, there’s this pressure to enjoy the next great car, house, gadget and vacation. The startup (or political activism) doesn’t offer one the luxury to splurge on these..

Therefore before you jump into a startup (or political activism), think about why you are doing it and be clear about your motivations.

Paraphrasing Sanjay (in the context of activism), politics and political activism is not a cool thing to do or a get rich quick scheme. And as he says,

It is a vehicle to make your passion and dreams come true. And it is very critical that those who you want to share your life with understand this. As you should them.

Related Posts: This one is for my soul-mate… and Looking Back – Two Years of Living Dangerously and Changing India – One Step at a Time

P.S. The parallels between political activism and start-ups actually stretch much beyond the points mentioned above. I hope to explore these in a forthcoming post. In the meantime, comments and thoughts welcome, as always.