Happy Deepavali!

Hi readers, from 25th till the 30th of October I will be going to my native to celebrate Deepavali. It would be a Deepavali that I had stored for 2 years. Last Deepavali was in Australia, this one with my grandmother. I would like to use this opportunity to wish, Arvind, Anju, lemonade, Shalini and all who celebrate Deepavali, “A very happy Deepavali! May this Deepavali be the best Deepavali to all of you?”

I will be offline till 30th so I will not be around to read your blogs, but keep posting and I will read them when I am back.
This is the Deepavali light up in Singapore. I took this picture when I was in Singapore for 2 weeks. All the streets in Little India have been lit up for this grand festival for the Hindu’s in Singapore!

A Chance to be a hero is someone's life

first an formost i apolagise for the "wall-of -text", i urge you to carry on.

It is time for me to do a post as a responsible citizen of Singapore. Although I am not in Singapore at the moment I do keep myself updated with the news and happenings in Singapore. While reading a piece of news actually caught my attention. And I feel more people have to know about this and something as to be done.

It is about a leukemia patient Sebha Punnen, 34, who needs a bone marrow transplant. The chances of her getting a match are 1 in 8 trillion - that's 8 followed by 12 zeroes. From the local Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) and its international network, she found 3 matches, one from the US and one from Singapore itself and one from Germany. The ones from US and Singapore declined to donate. (We don’t know their reasons why so we shall not accuse them of anything). But luckily the match from Germany agreed to carry on with the transplant.

Madam Sebha, is also a senior staff nurse at KK Women's and Children's Hospital. For someone who dedicated her life to help others, she got her reward with the possible match.

The Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP) was started in 1993 in Singapore, from then till now he registry only has 43,000 people on its registry, that is less than 1 per cent of Singapore’s population.
Of which, less than 1 percent come from the minority ethnic groups. There are only 3,500 Malay and Indian registered potential donors.
Shocking? Right.

From now on I am not going to bother making monetary donations to charitable organizations; instead I’ll donate my marrow and blood.

This is a chance for a common man to become a hero, to make a change in someone’s life. Sebha was lucky she found a match in Germany, but not many people are as lucky as her. Just 1 present for a first world country is embarrassing. We are all educated to understand the need and what need to be done. I think it is the failure of the health board in raising awareness for this illness. Now lots of media coverage for the kidney foundation and for blood donation drives, why not bone marrow? If we get our self tested and make ourselves available and make up the numbers, somewhere in another corner of the world we will create hope. For some who are waiting for a suitable donor, hope is all that is left in them, so let’s do our part. I am going to help out in this by making myself available once I go back to Singapore.
This is not only for Singapore but for the whole world. My readers take up this chance to be a hero in someone’s life. Many of you might not be Singaporeans, but you could also make a difference by contacting the medical authorities in your region.

References:
http://tnp.sg/news/story/0,4136,179661,00.html
want to know more about bone marrow donation, procedures and side effects go here:
http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/When_You_re_Asked_to_Donate_fo/Donation_FAQs/index.html

Tag time again

I got this tag from Shalini’s blog.

What have you realized recently?
i became a sithapa! my cousin just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl!

Have you given your first kiss away?
Yeah I was Casanova from birth, I have kissed all the women in my family when I was just 1, and flew a few at you, if u haven caught one, I am willing to offer one with tongue , only if you are a female.

If you were to be stranded on a deserted island, who are the 11 blog buddies you would take?
I would bring:
Arvind – He will give me a lot of motivation and optimism
Bryan – Since I have experience being stranded in Thailand forest with him during my army days.
Shalini – she was the one who came up with this tag thingy, so she cannot be spared.
Lemonade- she is very creative and she could be of some help, for the escape plan.
Gunj- she is good with writing, so she can document my heroics.
Chinmayi- I want her to just sing for me.
Sansmerci - she seems to know a lot about food, so she is in for obvious reasons.

Since I have just 7 out of 11, I am allowing people at a first come first serve basis. And guys who are already in, NO you can’t sell your tickets.

With all these people I think I can govern and declare it my own country.

Where is the place you want to go the most?
Other states in India to fully know about my roots.
New Zealand – for my honeymoon
Australia – to dive the Great Barrier Reef

If you have one dream to come true, what would it be?
To be a Cisco Certified Voice Professional.


Do you believe in seeing the rainbow after the rain?
Yeah saw it often, and in rainbow beach in Australia, it is always there.

What are you afraid of losing the most now?
Quite frankly, the electricity, since Chennai and parts of Tamil Nadu is experiencing power cuts.

If you win $1 million, what would you do?
Setup my own VOIP solutions company.

If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
confess?
No I will not confess all my secrets yet, I would propose first, and then I will confess.

List out 3 good points about the person who tagged you
She is an interesting blogger.
She is very motivated towards achieving her goals.
She cares for the people around her.

What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
Since i am not handsome, i don't have a preference for her to be very beautiful.Someone whom I can have intellectual conversations with smart and a lot of respect for traditions. Someone who is good with money, I will give her my pay and let her manage the family finances; I don’t know how to save money.

What type of people do you hate the most?
Terrorist, who kill innocent lives.

What is the one thing you can’t live without?
My friends and family.

If you have faults, would you rather the people around you point out to you or would you rather they keep quiet?
Tell it straight to my face in whatever manner they like.

Are you a shopaholic or not?
Yes, very much.

Find a word to describe the person who tagged you
Inspired. (Monday morning inspirations)

If you have a chance, which part of your character you would like to change?
Procrastination

what’s the last shocking thing you’ve seen or heard?
150 People killed in a temple stampede in Rajasthan

Would you rather have love but no money or money but no love?
I want all the love in the world and no money. Money is the root of all evil.

I tag Arvind specifically and all others who read this post.

A child’s mind

My favorite hobby is to just watch kids. I have quite fair share of babysitting experiences . Although I found it quite a mouthful, I never complained. I have spent more money on kids when I am babysitting then on a lousy date. If you watch closely, kids aren’t afraid to try new things; generally they don’t bother what others might say when they attempt something. Through experimenting they learn the hardest skills at their level, walking, talking ect.
My favorite hobby is to just watch kids play, watch the innocence in their faces and how they played. Quite recently I went to city center (in Chennai) with my friends; the food court was situated just next to the children’s play area. I immediately grabbed a seat closed to the play area and as I sipped on my kiwi juice I was fully entertained by the kids. I find it more entertaining than “Kuruvi” movie. Kids there were learning how to take turns, share and to be considerate to others.
It was amazing how much children were learning each day, as we grow older we have to admit that we are learning lesser stuff. Or at least the pace of our learning has slowed down. Studies show that an average human being only utilizes 10% of his brain. And Albert Einstein use 50% of his. I am pretty sure much of the 10% was achieved in our early years when were kids.
Sadly we life in a society in which not all kids get the same amount of privileges. As I walked out of city centre I was greeted by sight of kids who were living in the slums nearby. Such difference from happy kids in the play ground to kids who had to work, beg for food. Just minutes ago I was entertained by kids in the play area, now I was saddened by the living conditions of these kids.
With so much years of civilization behind us, we are still not able to safely say that every human kid on earth will have food to eat and a decent education.