The Bloody Citizen - #BLEEDWITHOUTFEAR

CONTENTS
Features
1
NOTES FOR MY
DAUGHTER
18-19
DATRI ORGANISATION
2-3 12-13
BLEED WITHOUT
FEAR
Breaking myths about
mesuration
4-5
ON BLOOD TRANSFU-
SIONS
“Tears of a mother can’t
save her child, but your
blood can”
“One idea can save the
world: DATRI organisation”
20-21
GIVING
Poem by Smriti Verma
24-25
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
ANEMIA
Know about the disease
6-7
ROLE OF MNC
In blood donation
8-9
14-15
THE DEVIL OF BLOODS-
VILLE
Leukemia
16-17
THE VOW
Story by Muskan Ahuja.
22-23
IN CONVERSATION
WITH
Deepthi Bopaiah, Mentor at
Khoon
“I think it is an incredible
idea. I think
people don’t have
enough facts and
numbers in terms
of how many people
actually donate
blood, if it is okay to
donate.”
BLOOD BANKS

EDITOR’S NOTE
Dear Reader
The tiny spark of a revolution that we ignited with the last issue of ‘The Bloody
Citizen’ has now transformed into something bigger and better which is capable of
taking the world by storm.
We, at Khoon, believe that partial knowledge is worse than no knowledge. ‘The
Bloody Citizen’ is an attempt towards helping people move towards the bright light
of knowledge and information while clearing the cob webs of myths and misconceptions.
Gandhi once said that we should be the change we want to see in the
world. Drawing inspiration from the same, we have decided to do our bit in spreading
awareness about the various issues regarding blood donation that plague our
society.
Hospitals have predicted that the need for blood will go up by 5% every year. If all
the eligible donors donate blood only ‘twice’ a year, there would be no shortage of
blood, ever! It is baffling how even though India has the required human resource
to meet its need of blood units, it isn’t able to meet even half of it. We, at Khoon,
took a pledge to do everything in our power to conquer obstacles and save lives
when we launched this magazine. We have put in all our energies and hardwork
into acting upon that pledge. Dear reader, have you acted upon your pledge yet?
Go, donate blood, Save a life and be a real life superhero!
Aashima Garg
Editor

ABOUT
KHOON
With a population of 1.2 billion, it is a shame that we are
falling short of the required 12 million blood units annually.
Lack of awareness and incorrect information or myths
around blood donation in India are cited as the main reasons
behind this shortfall.
It is this gap that a Bangalore-based organization called
Khoon is trying to bridge. True to the name, it is a life-saving
organization working towards arranging for blood when
blood banks and all other sources are not useful.
CONTACT: Kengeri, Bangalore, Karnataka, INDIA. Pin code-
560059
Ph. no: +91 9538244183
contact@khoonkhas.org
The picture in the
background is
from the recent
launch of Khoon’s
Guwahati chapter

1

2

Smriti Verma
3

4

Abhilasha Chhikara
5

6

Aditya Mishra
7

8

Akansha Jain
9

10

11

12

Anureet Kaur
13

14

15

THE
VOW
MUSKAN AHUJA
My phone had been vibrating for what
seemed like an eternity. I finally picked it
up and looked at the time.
3:10 a.m.
I wondered who might be calling me at
such an odd hour. With my eyes half open,
I clicked on the call log. 5 missed calls from
Mr. Sinha, my neighbour.
Fear struck me. I immediately knew something
must be wrong. I was aware that his
daughter, Radhika, had been diagnosed
with dengue a couple of days ago; but the
last time I had heard from them, things
had been fine. My hands started to shake
for no reason and panic started to creep in.
I dialled his number and waited
He picked up my call on the first ring. Even
though he had not spoken a single word, it
was evident that he had been crying.
“Mr. Sinha, is everything okay?”, I anxiously
asked.
“My daughter...my daughter...her condition
is critical”, he said in a broken voice.
“I will be there as soon as I can. Don’t worry!”,
I said, jumping out of my bed.My ten
year old son was sleeping with his father, t
peacefully, unaware of all that had occurred in
the past few hours.
I woke up my husband, Vedant, gently. I
quickly explained what all had happened
and I rushed to grab my purse while he
quickly snatched the car keys off the hook.
Luckily, the roads were empty at this odd
hour. We reached Fortis Hospital in about
twenty-five minutes.
“Room no. 23, Miss Radhika Sinha”, I inquired
at the reception and was guided to
the second floor.
I found Mrs. Sinha tensely pacing across the
hallway. She burst into tears the moment she
saw me.
“Radhika’s platelet count is just 14,000 now.
We need to transfuse platelets immediately”,
she informed me. “My husband has gone
in to do the needful. I hope everything gets
sorted out. May god have mercy on my only
child”, she added.
She cried uncontrollably. I gave her a reassuring
hug saying that things would be fine.
I made her sit and went to the hospital canteen
to get her a cup of coffee. The poor lady
had been crying all night.
. Standing behind the counter, as I placed my
order, I took out my cell phone and searched
about dengue and platelet donation. There
had been so many reports about it in the
newspapers lately, but I had still remained
ignorant somehow. The search results
shocked me and shook me to my core.
The internet was flooded with reports of
‘Dengue hits the capital’, ‘Blood Bank
16

scrape bottom of barrel’, etc.
I clicked on a link and started to read.
The article talked about how there was a
massive artificial scarcity of platelets with
blood banks because private hospitals
were prescribing transfusions even when
dengue patients did not need them.
To add to this grave problem, one unit of
blood platelets requires the blood of at
least four people and 6-8 such units were
needed at the time of a platelet transfusion.
This meant that Radhika required 24
donors at least, and that too immediately.
As expected, there was no stock with the
blood bank.
A number of other visitors in the hospital
were informed about the same, and many
of them willingly agreed. Vedant and I donated
our platelets too. A number of local
relatives were called up.
I heaved a sigh of relief that the daunting
task had finally been completed and
the treatment had finally started. I turned
around halfway and headed towards the
reception and asked for a blood donation
form from the receptionist. I filled in
my details and informed the nurse that I
would be available at any time, whenever
a patient needed blood. I had never donated
blood ever before. I had chosen to
be so ignorant, all this while. Never again,
I vowed to myself as I returned the form
with a smile.
Muskan Ahuja
Finally, after about two hours, the transfusion
process began. My heart ached to
see Radhika lying there, motionless, on
the hospital bed, dressed in that dull blue
gown. How stark a contrast it was when
compared to her usually flamboyant and
cheerful dresses!
I stood there, leaning against the wall. It
was 6 a.m. My phone started to ring again.
It was my son, Vibhu, calling. He must
have woken up early and our bed empty.
I went to a corner and talked to him in
whispers. I assured him that we were fine
and that we would be home soon.
As I walked back towards the operation
theatre where Radhika was being operated
on, a myriad of sights and scenes flashed
in front of my eyes. And here she lay now,
sick, with needles in her arms. I remembered
how difficult the last two hours had
been, and how gathering the donors had
been such a Herculean task.
17

18

19

GIVING
BY SMRITI VERMA
20

The needle stretches, punctures, a shade of
red
spilling out, darker than thought. The cuff
tightens,
the muscles taut underneath, reminding me
of some childhood memories. The tick-tock,
the warmth, and in minutes, its over. Once,
my father had told me giving feels good.
In the waiting room, I recline on the chairs,
staring at the roof, the tingling in my arm
seeping away.
21

IN CONVERSATION WITH
DEEPTHI BOPAIAH, MENTOR FOR KHOON
Have you ever donated blood? How old were
you when you first did it?
Yes. I think I was 19 or 20-years-old.
Was it a blood donation camp or an emergency?
It was a Blood donation camp in my college
when I first did it.
When did you first come across Khoon?
I was one of the judges at the Ashoka Programme.
That is when I heard about Chethan’s
project and it intrigued me. I was very inspired
to see someone so young doing so much, putting
so much efforts in his project. I just felt
like to try and help him whatever way possible.
What is your opinion about the idea
on which Khoon is functioning?
I think it is an incredible idea.
I think people don’t have
enough facts and numbers
in terms of how many people
actually donate blood,
if it is okay to donate. We
need more documents to
know who can give blood,
when can they give blood,
what are the details of it
etc. I just feel that there
is very little awareness
and if it is done as a
fun activity, I am
sure lots of people
will come forward
to donate.
Have you read our
magazine, “The
Bloody Citizen”?
Yes, I have.
What did you think about it? Did you
have any favourite article from that issue?
I think for a bunch of young people, it is
lovely and inspiring to see the kind of stuff
you all are putting out. It is really nice, very
good. From the professional aspect and
content, it is only going to get better and
better. I do not remember any one article
but it was really interesting magazine.
How do you see Khoon in future? How
do you think it would look like five or ten
years from now?
I think one of the first things that needs to
be done is to get registered, become an
official entity. Rather than the same
kind of people getting together,
I think, it is very important to
have a mix since you are dealing
with such an important
topic that not a lot of people
are aware about.
As Khoon is about health,
hygiene, and multiple things
related to blood donation, it
is very important to get registered
so that you can actually
go and raise funds for the
organisation. In the next one
year, I would like Khoon to
get officially registered, get
bank accounts in place and
process everything officially.
With the kind of influence
that the team
has, it can definitely
be one of the largest
organisations
22

elated to blood donation and can save multiple
lives.
If you were a part of Khoon, if you were working
for it, how would you like to contribute?
I am a part of Khoon. I have been mentoring
Chethan. I am already working for a foundation
called Go Sports and whatever I learn from
there, I try to share it with Chethan so that he
can implement it in Khoon. We generally take
ten years to grow but if he could apply all that,
then he will probably do it in three to five years.
Do you think Khoon has any glitch in its
constitution? If so, how would you suggest
overcoming the obstacle?
For someone working in the social impact
space, I think it is important to have transparency
and accountability. Before you take a
single rupee you need to get registered, and not
do anything until that. Just create awareness at
this stage. I think the biggest glitch is, because
he is not eighteen yet he cannot register the
NGO. And there are multiple other factors in
that sense. This is one big obstacle which, I
think, can be sorted out in the near future.
I actually talk about Chethan. He is very talented
and an inspiring youngster who is constantly
motivated by the death of his teacher. He
decided to be the change he wants to see in the
system.
Would you like to send a message to our team
at Khoon?
Continue what you guys are doing. Just focus
and try to meet the goals that are set out for
short, mid or long-term basis. Don’t do everything
at the same time. That is my feedback to
Chethan as well. Don’t put your hands in too
many places. Don’t do too many activities. If
Khoon is what you want to build then put your
time and effort into it. Don’t start doing ten different
things that divert your focus. Even if you
do it then do it in a way to link it back to Khoon.
If you organise a music thing, link it back to
raising awareness. But don’t start a separate entity
like different NGOs or other organisations.
Because you won’t be able to do justice to any of
them. You might be at this stage where you are
able to cope for ten managers but it is not about
the next big thing. It is about being a long term
organisation
How would you describe Khoon to your peer
groups?
The photo was
taken at a bood
camp organised
by Khoon in
Guwahati.
23

OUR CONTRIBUTORS
AASHIMA GARG
Writer. 19. A Hindi poetry
enthusiast, I love reading
books and binge watching
sitcoms. An Economics
major,
ANUBHA MISHRA
An expressive observer.
A free-spirited young
woman.
Articles written: Blood
Cancer
SMRITI VERMA
I enjoy reading fantasy
and Austen, period dramas,
and anything related
to Sylvia Plath.
Articles written:
Poems, Bleed Without
Fear
ANUREET KAUR
Someone for whom
silence is freedom and
writing is a neat spillage.
Somewhere in between
these both, I make sense.
Articles written:
Blood Transfusions
ADITYA MISHRA
Articles written: Role of
MNCs in blood donation
MUSKAN AHUJA
A 19 year old student of
English literature, I am a
proud owner of my home
bakery Risata.
Articles written: The Vow
ABHILASHA CHHIKARA
19. A psychology undergrad
and a bibliophile. I
am a dreamer and a die
hard lover of sitcoms.
Articles written: Anaemia
AKANSHA JAIN
20. A quirky introvert.
Articles written: Blood
Banks
24

VANSHIKA AGRAWAL
Painter, her artwork can
be seen on the back cover
of the magazine
SAMARDITA GHOSH
An introverted insomniac.
I literally drink energy
from romcoms and owe
my daydreaming to the
sci-fi genre.
Articles written: DATRI
organisation
SHRUTI SINGH
Graphic Designer
18, student of communication
design. I love
photography and drawing
comics.
SAMARTH GUPTA
Graphic Designer
Visual Designer and a
part time photographer.
23. A melomaniac. I love
playing drums and guitar.
ROSHNI RAMAKRISHNAN
Graphic Designer
20. Engineer and a passion
for designing.
25

Artwork by:
VanshikaAgrawal