A small gesture towards happiness

How often do we donate blood and then take the pain of assuring whether our blood has been used or not? Or how often do we get a call from the recipient and are thanked by them? I had heard people say that one should donate blood once in life; it gives your mind a sense of contentment. So here I was, all set to donate blood for the first time. My mind was full of anxiety and enthusiasm.
Moments before donating blood, I had a feeling as to how would everyone react when they would get to know my blood group. (It is a rare group after all). Leaving aside my anxious mood I stepped into the room where blood donation camp had been put up. As expected, once the normal registration and check up began, I was told that I cannot give blood because it was of a rare group and it might not be of any use keeping in the blood bank. I was disappointed but after sometime the doctor came up to me and said that I can donate blood since there was a patient in Sambalpur who was in need of it. I was glad that my blood could be of use to someone and prayed to god for early recovery of that person.
A week later, I got a call from the recipient’s father after he received the blood samples from the council. He was thankful to me, for his daughter was in need of the blood since she is a thalasemia patient. I was obliged by the courtesy shown by him more so because I had no idea that I donated blood for a child.
What surprised me all the more was when he mentioned that he had not seen many “girls” coming out and donating blood at such a young age. Till date he has received 200 blood samples for his child but only 8 have been of girls. Since the blood group to which his child belongs is also the rarest, it is of great difficulty for him to find a donor. Therefore whenever he receives a blood sample from the blood council, he calls the donor and expresses his gratitude.
I have seen my mother donate blood number of times but never had she been thanked and received a call in return. And here was I, thanked by someone unknown to me, for whom I was just the one on whose blood his daughter was living. For that one moment, I felt proud that I could do something to save the life of a young girl who should have been enjoying her childhood days had she not been diagnosed with such a disease.
When I woke up the morning I was about to donate blood, I had an extraordinary feeling enveloping my mind. I knew I was going to do something that I had never done before and that could have either been an experience worth etching or forgetting. This incident taught me one thing that it does not matter who, what or where you are, one small gesture from you can bring happiness to many. Donating blood is one such gesture which binds people together irrespective of them being known or unknown.