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29 August kids audio recordingsThe kids have to sing in front of an audience in their music class shortly. To select their song I had to record their voices and send them to their teacher. here is a copy of the same
23 August Lake Chelan TripWill add more details shortly. For now, here is a placeholder for photos from the trip
16 August India's 60th Independence DayThe buzz around India's 60th Independence started a day before this time. People exchanging emails on where they can hoist the flag, what celebrations there would be, fun stuff to watch.
This time, the state of Washington had proclaimed Aug 15 as India day !!! Amazing, goes to show the strength of the presence of the Indian immigrant community.
BBC news carried multiple articles in the main section (not just the one on South Asia) on India celebrating its Independence day. There was an interesting article on how India has demonstrated to the world that democracy isnt all that a crazy idea in a country of utmost diversity. (For more details refer to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6943598.stm)
There were also articles on partition. How can you talk about one without the other? Here is a very nicely produced interview about partition (warning: contains graphic images, view at your own discretion. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/6945591.stm )
There were folks at work exchaning emails on cool videos on the national anthem. The one that really made me walk down memory lane was the one embedded below. It doesnt have to do with the national anthem, but brings out the spirit of unity in diversity. Way too cute.
Jai Hind, as Manmohan Singh said in his address to the nation today, "the best is yet to come"
Stay tuned
 08 August South Asian Bone Marrow Registration DriveI participated as a volunteer in a drive at work. I realised I hadnt blogged in a while since there wasnt anything super exciting/useful stuff to write about.
There is a grassroots campaign going on in the US to increase awareness amongst the South Asian community to register to become bone marrow donors. For more information on the campaign visit: http://www.helpvinayandsameer.org/
The below is more a log of what has happened as part of the drive I participated in, at work.
I am amazed at how modern technology has helped people reach out in big numbers, in a very systematic and viral manner. A lot of dedication and hard work has gone behind this entire organization. A big hearfelt appreciation to the folks who began this campaign and help fan the fires for it to spread the way it currently has.
At work, people were sending email, in a short period of time we had a SharePoint website up, aliases created for volunteers, tasks lists created, folks signing up for a variety of tasks they were comfortable with, or good at. It felt like this thing was alive and had a calling of its own that it was moving along to.
There was a training that was offered by the folks from NMDP (http://www.marrow.org/). Too bad, there was a fire at work I needed to attend to and missed this one, however I was quickly ramped up thanks to a colleague of mine who attended the same.
In a couple of days the dry run for the campaign began. The plan was to have volunteers in each building on campus so that folks could find someone in the same building who could register them.
Each volunteer had to register themselves (if they hadnt done it before) and then register atleast 3 more people to get a feel for the overall process. This was a great idea. I definitely felt more comfortable knowing how to sequence the steps, check for the right kinds of information, feel confident about answering questions that folks had etc.
We were all ready, raring to go.
Monday came, we didnt have the kits delivered yet. We got the kits on Tuesday afternoon, so effectively the drive started on Wednesday.
In the volunteers alias we had some fun time coming up with ideas on how to market the campaign to gather more momentum. Folks started working on articles for the company newsletter, working on a videoshoot for an annual charity campaign that the company holds, booths at various local Indian restaurants, clubs etc. Definitely got our creative juices flowing.
On the lines of registration itself, the crowd was a thin line. Several folks would drop by one day, and days would go by when no-one did. We didnt want to continually spam people, so we kept a somewhat low profile the first week.
We realised at the end of the week that most people may have read the email, and meant to register, but that it slipped out of their minds during the course of their day-to-day activities.
Week 2, we took it a step further, we sent email again, we also sent mail to specific folks in each team who were of South Asian origin. That definitely increased the interest level, and we got some more folks registered in the first few days of week 2.
Friday of week 2 was the real push. We started walking the halls, talking to people, calling them up, and getting them to register. A record 40 people showed up at my office on Friday to register. Needless to say I got nothing else done on Friday, but it was definitely worth it.
In retrospect, I wish I had done this in the first week, so the folks who registered could have helped us spread the word. But hey, we all learnt something from it.
There was also some amount of discussion going on in the volunteers alias about how the drive was going, what kinds of questions we received etc. I definitely felt that I had made a new set of friends overnight on that alias.
On the side of the folks registering, here are some interesting observations:
I now check every once in a while on helpvinayandsameer.org to see their progress as well as how much more this campaign is growing. One day I would love to meet the person who first started this all (seems to be one of Vinay's best friends) and tell him/her what a fantastic undertaking this was. My prayers, best wishes and kudos go out to Vinay, Sameer and all the folks who are dealing with this, and yet living their lives in such dignity.
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