It has been reported that, “thanks to the excellent arrangements made by the railways, the IAC and the State Transport,” all the people who attended the Sardarnagar jamboree have been able to go back to their places on Monday itself. And why not? Our national transport undertakings can teach the private sector a thing or two whenever the machinery of the State or the party that runs the State is in motion. On such occasions they become the last word in efficiency. Who will forget the superb efficiency with which the railways were run during the recent Central Government employees’ strike? The day the strike was called off, the trains of course went back to their usual pace with supreme contempt for schedules and things. Similarly, now that the VIPs have been carried safely home, it will be in order for all the transport agencies serving Gujarat to take it real easy!
11 January, 1961
Blood donors, we are told, can have their donation returned to them after the plasma has been extracted. Of course we do not know if blood, sans plasma, is worth taking back even if blood banks are anxious to oblige. The point that needs stressing is that in India, the new discovery need not necessarily lead to more widespread and frequent blood donations. This is because donated blood is banked and in India nowadays there is no forecasting what may happen to a banked commodity. If the Reserve Bank or any equivalent authority takes it into its head to order the closure of a bank, what use will the donor have of the returnability of his blood? Even a moratorium can deny the citizen his life blood if it comes at a moment when some life blood can make all the difference between survival and ruin.
12 January, 1961
