World Blood Donor Day: Bhopal Donors Share How Saving Lives Matters More Than The Fate Of The Recipient

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb of Bhopal is not limited to its history, food, literature or architecture. It is woven into the very fabric of daily life.

Bhopalis know perfectly well that blood, the liquid of life, flows across community lines, completely ignoring the artificial boundaries of religion created by humans.

On the eve of World Blood Donor Day, themed, One Drop of Humanity. Give Blood. Save Lives, Free Press spoke to some donors who gave their blood to people from religious communities other than their own. Excerpts:

Nazma's husband was a cancer patient

Rohit Mehra, 37, who works in an Indore-based manufacturing company, was in Itarsi as part of his work when at 8 pm, he received a call from Nazma Begum. She needed blood for her husband who was suffering from blood cancer.

He reached the hospital in Bhopal by 11 am the next morning and donated blood. Over the past eight years, he has donated blood on 25 different occasions. "The religion of the recipient is of no importance to me. Only his or her need and my humanity are," he says.

95% of recipients non-Muslims

44-year-old Rahber Azam works for a tour and travel agency and has been donating blood for the past 15 years. Almost 95% of the people he has donated blood to were non-Muslims.

He recalls that after he donated blood for a young Hindu man admitted to Hamidia Hospital following a road accident, the man's father, an elderly farmer from Sehore, tried to touch his feet to express his gratitude.

"I told him that I was like his son and he should not embarrass me by touching my feet," he said.

Nothing like Hindu or Muslim blood

Shubham Shrivas, 31, has been donating blood on a regular basis for the past eight years. He works at the office of a Cabinet Minister in Bhopal. He remembers donating blood for a pregnant Muslim woman.

"It was about one-and-a-half years back. She was in labour pain and was to be operated upon the next morning. Doctors asked her family to arrange blood. But they could not find a donor.

I went to the hospital, along with a colleague of mine, and donated blood for her," he says. "There is nothing like Hindu blood and Muslim blood," he said.

Rizwan was acutely anaemic

Lucky Negi, 30, a computer operator and a social activist by passion, has been donating blood since 2017. He remembers having received a call at 11 am on May 30 this year when he was at his office.

He was told that Rizwan was acutely anaemic and admitted to Red Cross Hospital. He reached the hospital by 1.30 pm and donated blood. "Blood has no religion," he said.