Volunteer Experiences - 1

I have always been associated with humble and good volunteer causes. Volunteering my time to help with something good. I noticed that I have volunteered all through out my life starting as early as 6 (or maybe even earlier but unlike a few of my friends I do not remember anything earlier than that). I may later for reading pleasure mention those earlier ones but currently I would just pen down here the recent ones.

My latest contribution was helping out a local medical outreach by the Weill Cornell center in our community. I was volunteering from the community side (and not in any official capacity by Weill Cornell). A checkup for Diabetes and Cholesterol was organized. They were to do an instant checkup for these and give out results as well as talk to participants about what those results mean and how they can take precautions for them. I love these preventive health programs and believe every one should participate , especially if they cost so less and such a reputed organization is involved. So my interest in participating turned in to one with helping them to make it successful.

What I helped with was the initial setup - Setting up multiple tables, chairs, cleanup (before and after), getting refreshments arranged ,etc. Also I stayed for the whole length of the program to help with other logistical needs or anything else that came up.

I was impressed with the professional approach of the group, so many nurses, students and doctors arrived before 8 am on a sunday morning(that  means they may have started their day around 6am or before). They helped with the setup as well and treated every one so nicely and warmly. Even though they were the ones who were giving and the community was taking. They had the humbleness of a taker and co-operated immensely. I have seen some medics before who are not so much open to patiently answering questions even when we pay them so much money. These folks were amazing. I commend them for their efforts.

I see so many causes around me that I would like to give my time and knowledge. Its a little challenging with the fast pace of New York city. I do believe that if one has intense thirst for these, they will come to you. So I will try and make the most of the opportunities I find. Meanwhile, I feel satisfied by the happy faces of the families that have benefited and hopefully have better and long lives.

Proud of my Father

So,
finally my parents left the country after visiting me. I had been anticipating their visit for a while and now it has passed as well. I had been thinking about the places I want to show them, the life I want to experience with them, the restaurants we want to enjoy together and many more things. It all turned out better, amazing and more awesome than I had thought. Although, I do feel that I should have been more informed about New York and places to take them to but we bonded well and it was a fascinating experience.
Folks who know me also know how much I am inspired by my mom. She is an amazing lady with a very strong character and a fighting spirit. She is definitely a great example of an extraordinary woman who can make any thing possible and that has led in me the spirit to respect other women.
This time though I want to write about my Dad. He is a humble person. Very down to earth and flexible as well. Very simple living and high thinking kind of person. Always blends in with other people, adjusts amazingly in new surroundings , has a great network and huge learning appetite.
Dad coming from a Gujrati medium background never took liking to learning much about computers. He was always shy of it. Even though both his sons are software engineers we failed in inspiring him to learn more about computers.
Quite nicely though there was a computer classes for elders started in the community here. They were teaching twice a week, simple and advanced. Considering that it was his first learnings about computers, I thought he would only go to the simple class but he joined both the simple and advanced.
He is above 50 years old so it was so nice to see him being a dedicated student. He would always take notes, try not to miss a single class, practice thoroughly the next day whatever he was taught and also ask me questions about what he learned. He just took the training to heart and followed it.
I was impressed by how quickly he learned stuff and was also ready to learn on his own. He would now read his daily newspaper online (partially because they do not sell those gujrati newspapers on the stands here), learned to Google online, would listen to songs and devotional music. He literally made amazing progress.
Most people in his age would not want to learn anything new lest alone be so quick at learning it. So I am very proud of him. Next steps, he wants his own facebook account, OMG!!!

Amazing Experiences on the Subway -1

Hey,

Its nice to be here in New York and finally I decide to write blogs. Reason being, New York is a city one would like to write about Also there has been some amazing experiences in the past few weeks and blogging is a good way for me to let people know about what is happening with my life especially since now I have friends in so many different locations (and time zones) Again, so many times I have ran in to people’s blogs and many a times they have been very helpful (that’s usually a case of a technical blog). So being the kind of guy I am, I am hoping these blogs would some day help some one and that would be my Karma Kitchen (Google it to find more about it).

Before I share my NYC (New York City) Subway experiences let me mention that I am a veteran at travelling by local trains, subways etc. I have used trains for around 13-14 yrs every day and a few years occasionally so I am an expert at travelling by trains and any thing different than normal cannot miss my eye. I would share 3 particular out of body experiences I had while on the Subway.

During my 1^st week of using the Subway, I ran in to a situation where an old lady entered and stood in front of me. The sheer pressure I felt from inside me to give her my seat was immense. It was only calmed when I got that big smile from her after she was comfortable in what was now her seat (and later some one else’s). It gave me a lot of peace and definitely raised my spirits since I was, missing all my friends and dear ones.

Next situation, a week later, I was standing while on my way back on the ‘R; train (Yes, I travel a lot by R and there are many advantages of it but that goes in a different blog), a Gentleman asked me directions on a stop he wanted to go to. Although I am new and had no clue, I quickly looked that up on my NFT- Not For Tourists guide for New York city’s Subway map, which has definitely been handy. Its an amazing book. So I was able to help him and then we had a short conversation about what we were doing in this city since we both came from somewhere else (This I find common with a lot of people since lot of them have moved to New York from other places and very few actually lived and grew up here) He mentioned that he works in fashion, originally from Florida and is living here because his wife wants to live with her family which is in New York. This I have continuously seen repeating for a few weeks now. I think guys have become very accommodating for their WAGS and are actually moving to different locations (in some cases, continents) and leaving their lives behind just to be with that special someone. It was nice to chat with him and felt good to travel.

A few more but I think this blog is already done for its space and other cases I will cover in a later blog.

Hopefully in 8090 AD some extraterrestrial may find my blog on some cached version on a hard disk (read Google’s search cache) and may research it for historical purposes. Even if that does not happen its totally worth penning down these amazing times.