Where is the Ray of Hope?

6 Dec 09, First Sunday of December; it’s that time of the year which coincides with the Pune International Marathon. Well I am glad that I have been able to keep up with my 5 year long tradition to participate in the AIDS charity run (a 3.5 km run for amateurs like me) which is a part of the whole event organized to spread awareness about AIDS among the masses. Well a minority of the gladness blooms from the fact, that despite some important assignments at my hometown in the weekend, I made myself available for the event by completing the tasks in a mere 7 hr stay at my hometown and by completing 700 kms in a mere 24 hr trip (Started off @ 7 am Saturday; Back @ 5:30 am Sunday). But the remaining delight was built because this was the event where I was to jog (if not run!!) after 6/6 when I met with a mishap and fractured my thigh bone. I did jog after 6 long months and though not fully fit to catch a running bus or to chase a fleeing thief running away with a girl’s purse (too filmy na!!), I am happy that I was able to cope up with the majority of the participants who were panting their lungs out before they crossed the finish line. I felt that I had lost stamina because of the prolonged rest period (read idle), but I am sure that I would be able to pick up the same, once I hit the gym floor.

It was a usual setting for a Pune Marathon (just that they had shifted the starting point and sadly for us, they provided only caps for the registrants – no tee shirt this year – an excuse to buy a new one ;-). The buzz, excitement, enthusiasm was all the same as the previous years amongst both the young and the old, the fit and the unfit, the rich and the poor, the company sponsored and the unsponsored participants. This year, the flag-off guests were Shashi Tharoor, the External Affairs MOS (have to confess that ever since I have been following him on Twitter, he has surely impressed me with a picture of a silver lining amongst the grey clouds of politics), Neha Dupiya (the actress who was more famous for her quote than her acting “Only Sex and Shahrukh sells”), Rajat Kapur (the all rounder – the actor, director, the playwright – I like him for his talk show on Relationships), Saurabh Shukla (Gopi in the old teleclassic Tehkikaat or Kallu Mama in Satya) and a bunch of other celebrities along with Mr. Suresh Kalmadi (the omnipresent in this event year on year).

The theme as usual was AIDS awareness and therefore a lot of participants had burnt midnight oil and prepared slogans which made creative and intresting reads. The best I thought was from a 13 year old who had quoted “AIDS doesn’t spread by touching, but LOVE surely does”. While I was wheezing my breath during the jog, I was observing all the participants and when I saw this gentleman who seemed to be all healthy, suddenly started shaking and jerking his body as if he had lost the control (yes you guessed it right he had an seizure or an epileptic fits) – his eyes, I felt gestured that he needed help. I ran towards him, balanced him, and managed to make him lay on the road and held him tight with the help a group of helpful students – While many of us sought out for some medical help, we could hardly find anybody qualified. There I was holding this guy who was undergoing a seizure and I knew nothing of the disorder, nor its first aid (While I knew few people and instances who had suffered earlier, this was only the second time, I was seeing a person undergo it – first was my uncle way back when I was 8 or 9, and I can’t recall a bit of what all transpired thru’ the event then – Only thing I knew was the remedies that were shown in films and teleserials). I glanced at the rest of the people holding the person, while one called for water, other called in for iron keys and other told to smell him something. We quickly removed his shoes and smelt him his socks, handed over iron keys, one boy started rubbing his feet – 2 minutes passed by and this person started breathing heavily before slowing it down. We gave him water and by that time, the medical staff did arrive to help him. The doc suggested us that we leave him there under her guidance. We had managed to bring him under control with the various ways we tried – iron keys, smell, rubbing feet etc, but later goggle-ing about the disorder helped me understand that all these measures are misconceptions – actually none of them do help and the attack generally lasts for 2 to 4 minutes. This first hand experience exposed our and certainly mine, knowledge (read lack of) on the first-aid to be offered and the rest of the distance to the finish line, I wondered while we were spreading awareness about a deadly disease called AIDs by this jog, how and when would India be called a health-conscious country and how many such charity runs a year, would be required to spread the awareness about the disorders among us homo-sapiens. My thoughts were stopped when I heard a cheering section of the charity run participants in response to the hand shakes and waves from the 3 celebrities (Shashi Tharror, Neha and Kalmadi) to motivate them. As I end this blog, I hope there would be more attention to the health sector, from all of us and certainly the government.