[Blood of the enemy ... forcibly taken ... you will ... resurrect your foe!]
"Doctor! He needs blood!
urgently!"
I heard the nurse say
faintly,
fervently, as I lay
motionless on the bed;
only my stirring eyes
betrayed I wasn't dead.
I tried to cling onto every word,
I tried
not to cease to live,
but I was failing:
"And we have run out of stock
of O-negative."
"Well, then, his blood group, check
and give him what you can,
and Nurse, do make it quick!
for his life is in your hands."
"It's my responsibility,"
said the nurse,
"That this man here should live.
I checked his blood, but
Doctor it's..."
"It is?" "O-negative."
_
"O-negative - the noblest
of all bloods, the most
selfless, benevolent;
O-negative, yet
the universal donor,
is a poor recipient:
It gives à tout le monde
whether O, A, B
or AB, whether
rhesus positive or negative;
but O-negative is the blood
without which you cannot live.
For if you were to get knocked down,
if you were to bleed,
you can take the blood of only
someone from your breed."
_
Déjà vu
overwhelmed me,
took me to
the charity of my blood.
Déjà vu reminded me
of the rarity of my blood.
"How much does he need?" "About
half a litre, Doctor.
Else, we'll lose all touch
with him. Where, oh Doctor, where
are we to get that much?"
"Yes, this is a terrible time,
I'll call up Xavier's College.
I hardly think they'll have the blood
in this day and age,
when blood donors, they are a-dwindling,
they're becoming less and less."
And that was the last I heard before
losing consciousness.
_
I woke up, got off
off the train
and was walking along to work,
when I saw a bunch of students
gathered on the curb
outside Xavier's College-
encouraging,
urging people
to donate blood:
'SPARE FIFTEEN MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE,
AND SAVE ANOTHER LIFE.'
I looked at my watch.
Five-to-nine.
If I were a minute late,
I would in trouble land
with my boss, who did me hate.
I felt a paper in my hand:
Form to be filled
before blood-donating
held by a boy, who
before me stood waiting-
very young, he could have
barely been sixteen;
but most of all-
cherubic face
as I had never seen.
"Sir, would you please donate your blood?
I would have, but
I'm underage.
Sir, if you would just fill this page?"
"I'm sorry son,
I have to hurry;
To my office, have to scurry."
Saying this, I, on my way proceeded.
"That's alright, Sir, but Sir, someday,
someone close to you might need it."
The teenager went out of sight,
but he was still in mind;
his innocent voice pricked like conscience,
and made me look behind
to see the queue of would-be donors.
The hour-hand came to nine.
I could not see the angel face
as I stood in line.
_
Just a little pinprick;
Just five minutes and it was over,
they really made it quick.
The blood, it did come gushing in
it came
rushing through my veins;
it mixed with my own, my own
life-giver
like the pouring rain
that rises from the river, and
falls to it again.
_
The pouch
was nearly full, it held
how much it could hold;
The doctor pulled
the needle out
slowly as he told
me, "Do you know
how special you are?
How much it is an honour?
to be able to call yourself
the universal donor.
You happen to have
O-negative, the noblest
of all bloods, the most
selfless, benevolent-
You possess a power bestowed
on only seven percent
of the world's population,
who can donate to anyone
regardless of creed.
Your blood can be given
in an emergency
without paying heed
to- nor wasting time in checking
the blood group of those in need.
It is indeed a miracle
there exists such a blood,
the ultimate life-giver,
given to you by God."
My watch showed half past nine, when
towards my work, I walked;
'A doctor who believes in miracles!' my
agnostic laughter mocked.
_
26/11.
I was at CST
boarding the train back home
leaving in three
minutes, when I heard
the gunshots fired:
people running helter-skelter
people searching for some shelter.
I turned around. A bullet
hit me; I fell down to the ground
in an instant.
Everything was blacking out;
the last thing that I heard
was a distant shout-
a moan
seething with pain
I recognised as my own.
Until:
"Doctor! He needs blood!
urgently!"
The gunmen would have done better...
"About half a litre, Doctor."
...to kill me...
"...think they'll have the blood..."
...than to give me so much...
"...becoming less and less."
...pain, and here
I passed out yet again.
_
Life came rushing in,
it came gushing through my veins;
I felt as full of life as a
peacock in the rains.
Though I had been battling death
only yesterday,
now the suffering and the misery
seemed so far away!
I got up, thanked
the Doctor, Nurse
for keeping me alive;
The doctor told me I was very
lucky to survive:
"We called up Xavier's College,
they'd had
a blood donation drive.
It was a miracle,"
the doctor said,
"This would you believe?
Just a single person, yesterday
gave O-negative.
The half-litre they had collected
did only just suffice
for you, else we would have been
spectators to your demise!"
_
I walked through the door
and then I sprinted
across the corridor
past the green-tinted
windows of the hospital
wards, past nurses carrying vials, past
a man on a stretcher and a boy in a plaster;
I ran fast
but what ran faster
was the conversation, last,
I’d had with the nurse,
running through my mind;
and then I remembered the angel-face
and my thoughts began to grind..
"Donate your blood..," the boy had said,
"...someone close to you might need it."
"Donate your blood,"
said the voice in my head,
which somehow I had heeded.
"Only one person donated O-negative
yesterday..
Where are you going?”
"Nurse, I’m going to meet Him
and my gratitude pay."
"But how will you know who he
is? You do not know his name,
nor have you seen his face.
He could be anywhere in this city.
How do you plan to trace
such an entity?" said the nurse.
"We just look within, for He is
inside all of us."
The One who gives to everyone
regardless of creed.
The One who always helps you out
in your hour of need.
The One who is the noblest, the most
selfless, benevolent.
I ran, I ran, and then to an
open space I went.
I looked up, saw the sky, it was
a magnificent colour;
I closed my eyes in reverence to
the Universal Donor.
_
[The Universal Donor was published in the annual magazine of Grant Medical College, 2011]
