Power of Volunteering to Tame the Second Wave

"Need oxygen cylinder for my mother urgently!"

Three hours later, "We lost her thirty minutes ago as we couldn't get a cylinder!"

"Urgent need of an ICU bed, patient critical".

We have seen such fervent and desperate appeal for help coming from all across India. The second wave of pandemic has been deadly and super fast in spreading. Sparing no city, no region or no cast. Taming the second wave has been a challenge. Given the population density in the cities, the health infrastructure could not tame the tide. But collective spirit and efforts of the people of India did it!

This story brings out the collective power of volunteering in taking the monstrous second wave head on. There are numerous volunteer groups and organisations doing a tremendous job. Documenting their effort may take time. But this short story is restricted to the efforts by BITS Pilani alumni who rose to the occasion and took the bull by the horn. The battle is continuing but the volunteers remain spirited.

Whether it is to search for life-saving resources in real time or providing oxygen concentrators or setting up ICU beds in rural areas, BITSAA (BITS Alumni Association) volunteers are doing it all. Many students of BITS Pilani have also come forward and contributing their time and energy. We are overwhelmed with their support.

In the words of Navkaran Singh who leads a team of more than 800 BITSAA volunteers for providing real-time response to SOS requests for life saving resources, "We started the Covid relief initiative with five volunteers to help fellow BITSians with requests related to hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, medicines, Plasma donations, etc. In the last 12 days, we have resolved 1000+ requests from a variety of sources. What started as an alumni initiative has turned into a war against Covid."

"There are daily planning and review meetings going on every night from 10-12. The kind of enthusiasm of the team is infectious. If you feel that you have seen the most enthusiastic team in your life, please join our WhatsApp group for a day and see the passion of the volunteers to resolve each and every request. It seems like everyone's life depends on that request. We have seen more deaths in the last 12 days than what we have seen in our lifetime. What remains the same every day is the enthusiasm to save another life. Thank you to all the volunteers and all the Alumni who have supported us in whatever way possible. Your small contribution has saved a lot of lives in the last two weeks." 

Go Navkaran go! He is not alone. Alumni across all batches and geographies have come forward to do their bit. Following table summarises some of the initiatives by BITSAA volunteers. The list includes links to respective websites where you can browse further details and contribute if you feel like. We would love to augment the list based on readers' inputs. Please feel free to reach out to us on hbindia@gmail.com .

Initiative	Purpose	BITSian Volunteers in Action
BITSAA Covid Relief Imitative	To help fellow BITSians/families find pan-India resources for hospital beds/ICUs, oxygen cylinders and concentrators, ambulances and medicines in real time	Akash, Saksham, Kalyan, Chandrakala, Sneha, Rahul, Arkapriya, Kathesh, Palak Oswal, Subham, Kunal, Srikar, Ankit, Mayank Anchilia, Navkaran and team of 120+ active volunteers including students working 24x7
HelpUPBreathe	To provide oxygen concentrators and cylinders to the needy in Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow and other towns in UP	Siddharth Seth, Pratyush Rawal, Rishabh Mehrotra, Astha Dhayal and team
Breathe-India.org	To supply oxygen concentrators to the needy across India	Sharat Chaudhary, Anu Khendry, Pankaj Vaish, Arun Chatterjee, Vinita and team
Nirmaan.org	To provide 200 oxygen concentrators and 150 ICU beds in 15 villages in Telangana	Mayur Patnala and team
MOFA Medical Oxygen for all.	To support the medical oxygen needs of tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns across India	Anish Sinha, Anchal Goel, and a team of eight volunteers.
OxygenForIndia.org	To deploy 40,000 reusable oxygen cylinders and 20,000 oxygen concentrators in 20 urban and rural centers across India.	Diwakar Pingle, Ramanan and team
Pilani Atmanirbhar Resource Centre (PARC)	During Covid, to provide oxygen concentrators and allied equipment to the needy in Pilani, Rajasthan. PARC otherwise works for community development around Pilani.	Sunil Nanda and team
Donate Plasma (Postscript 18 May: Since discontinued as per ICMR's announcement)	To mobilise plasma donors and connect with the needy. Being done in association with Dhoondh.org and NSS, BITS Pilani.	A team of BITSAA Volunteers and students
Oxygen Concentrators for BITSians and families	To provide oxygen concentrators for BITSians, families and the needy in Jaipur and Hyderabad.	Kailash Gupta (Jaipur) and Ashok Agarwal and Sanjay Khendry (Hyderabad) and teams
HyderabadNeedsOxygen	To provide oxygen supply to the needy in Hyderabad in association with Nirmaan.	Praneeth, Sai Rama, Anshool, Venky, Avinash Reddy and team
Oxygen Plant for Pilani	To set up a dedicated oxygen plant for Birla Sarvajanik Hospital in Pilani	Hanuman Bengani, Rakesh Sharma, Sanjay Guha Arun Kumar, Jayant Sogani and team

Am sure similar stories by alumni of other institutes and friends coming together are aplenty. Collectively we can tame the second wave successfully. We will.

Postscript: 18 May: Plasma drive has since been discontinued based on ICMR's recent announcement. Thanks K Srikanth for pointing it out.

Postscript 20th May: The work of BITSAA volunteers has been covered by the media. See the picture below from Amar Ujala, a Hindi daily in UP.

BBC Radio has also featured the efforts of our Volunteers' Relief Support Initiative. 

Postscript 29th Dec 22:

"During the Covid pandemic when numerous people lost their lives, Ram Nagina Tripathi was responsible for ensuring that the departed were provided a respectable final journey including cremation. There were long stretches of time during the peak period when he stationed himself at the crematorium to ensure that human beings got a respectable send off. Ram Nagina Tripathi is from the 1978-83 batch of BITS Pilani. He recently retired as Chief Engineer from the Uttar Pradesh Government. "

We salute the spirit of volunteering during Covid by Tripathi.

We close with a quotation by Mahatma Gandhi who said that "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others". 

Once again hat tip to each of the volunteer-led initiatives featured above and to countless others who are not featured in our story.

Together we will. Jai Hind.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Secunderabad/ 17th May 2021

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Beating the Covid-year with a Hike

Ten months without a hike!

Not only Ghumakkad but many more friends felt handcuffed and chained to their homes. So when Gen Naozar Patel informed me of an upcoming hike to the rocks in Ghar-E-Mubarak area in Hyderabad, I jumped in. 35 members, spouses and children of RSI, Secunderabad joined in. Rajendra Sinhji Institute (RSI) is the name of Defence officers' clubs across India- RSI Secunderabad, RSI Bangalore, RSI Pune and so on. RSI has been renamed as RSAOMI. Hikes help us keep the balance in our lives.

This story gives a snapshot of our collective effort at beating the nasty Covid with a hike. After early morning assembly at RSI, we all drove in eight cars to Ghar-e-mubarak Stairway, heading 30 kms south west. See the video clip and the map below.

Covid protocols were followed and that's why we went in independent cars and no buses. Taramati Baradari was our halt enroute for a bio break considering the fact that we had hikers in the age group 7 to 70!

Ghumakkad had done another story on RSI Secunderabad. It chronicled the RSI Golf Tournament conducted in Jan-2016 by us- four golfer-members of the RSI. You can browse the complete picture story here. See the peacock on the golf course in the picture below.

A word about the Palmette Bicycling Club which organises such events. Although it started with bicycle rides for children, spouses and serving officers and veterans, but it soon expanded to include other outdoor activities too. In a short span of a year, Palmette has organised 18 events in Secunderabad. In 2020 alone, it organised more than 25 events!

Sudden lockdown in March-2020 did slow down the pace but not the spirit of the members. Credit for entire planning and organisation goes to Gen Naozar B Patel. He is better known as the Moustache Man. See the picture below.

Arrival at the parking site before sunrise was as planned. Watching the sunrise from rocky outcrop was an ethereal experience. We also observed many wild bushes and plants. Credit for its identification goes to another Nature lover Dr Chitra Shanker. Thanks Chitra. 

Let the pictures.

Get a feel of the thorny trail in this short 30 seconds video.

We have created PQs- picturesque quotes- using some of the pictures taken that morning.  First PQ follows:

 

Like any mil operation, members of PBC had done a recee a day earlier and marked the trail.

Hyderabad has plenty of rocks and boulders. Another PQ follows.

Here is a short video clip showing the silhouette of the rocks all around.

We encountered thorny bushes all through. Robert Frost's famous line fitted so well with the picture below.

Lot of rocky patches have been destroyed by illegal quarrying over the years. However, one doesn't see quarrying in such sites now. Thankfully so! One such abandoned quarry in the picture below.

We have lots to learn from the rocks. Like Jefferson's words on standing firm on our principles. Another PQ follows.

Travel teaches us many things. Here is one.

How was it? See what the hikers in our group had to say!

Once on top, the distant concrete towers of Hyderabad skyline came into view. A 10-seconds video clip captures the sight.

While the elder hikers were catching a breath, the teenagers had all the energy jumping across the boulders! A 10-seconds video clip captures it for you.

Hiking trail offers variety like huge cobwebs. A Chinese proverb goes with this picture.

Ghar-E-Mubarak

Google took us to an adventure tour operator's site. It described the place thus, "Khoe Qayyam, Ghar E Mubarak, Bairaiguda is a place near Taramati Baradari in Hyderabad. 15 mins from Gachibowli. It is an ideal place for a short morning hike.  This place has many boulders and is a great place to try some climbing." We found the description quite apt. See our pictures of the climb below.

Feel the climb through a short video below:

Hyderabad's cosmopolitan fabric was evident when three children from nearby basti came to meet us. All three belonged to three different regions of India. Mera Bharat mahan.

Hikers posing for a group shot before starting the return journey.

On return leg, we halted at an Army unit for a quick breakfast.

What is life without some adventure? Our hikers aged 7 to 70- had a fair share of it!

We got back to RSI safe and sound. The smiles on my car pool hikers say it all:

As we end the Covid-dominated year, we hope you too have found your ways of beating the nasty Covid! Take precautions but don't let the pandemic lower your spirits. Life must go on. Below are the links to some of the lockdown stories which spread positivity and kept up the morale of our readers globally. Just click on any title to browse the story.

I Got A New Life - A Corona Survivor's Tale from New York

Breaking Free In Lockdown

Bouncing Back In Lockdown

Every Day Is A Sunday

Stay Home Stay Safe

Lockdown Is ... Happiness

Corona The Global Threat

You can't Deter a Teacher

Take the Virus Head on - Another Corona Survivor's Tale

Life is all about balance. Balance between work and life, between stress and relaxation, between wealth and health! Even Gautam Buddha said so.

Thanks for browsing.

Stay safe, stay connected and stay healthy.

Happy New Year 2021!

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with inputs from Gen Naozar Patel/ 30th Dec 2020

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