North Meets South or Vice Versa.......by Rajvinder K.Heyer Dhillon
July 12, 2021: When I was growing up in India I always heard East meets West. It meant India meets Britain or Europe to work together. In April when Corona cases started climbing in India, Dr. Kusum Atraya who specializes in sleep apnea disorders could not sit by and watch the unfolding catastrophe.
She heard last year that Scientists at Stanford and UC Berkeley started converting sleep apnea devices. These devices work as a non-invasive system to help patients breathe before they get to a critical stage. They said it was easy and cost $50 to adjust the machines to provide a safe alternative to Ventilators, which can be free to use for serious patients.
She wanted to send these NIV devices to Rural Parts of India and then eventually Nepal and Pakistan. She was so obsessed, could not sleep for days just thinking about the logistics, she even thought about going to Airport and begging people to take it with them, she needed a Non-Profit to raise funds to convert BiPAP machines to CPAP and volunteers to convert the Machines. San Jose Gurdwara Management Bob Dhillon, Simirit Kamboe, and Kirpal Singh Atwal agreed.
The Oxygen was prepared in Dr. Kusum Atraya’s Garage in Morgan Hill Ca for people in India, just like Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi India. North and South came together with Dr. Kusum Atraya from (Punjab) and Vijay Devadhar from (Karnataka) for the project, got Volunteers to assemble the machines. When the reporter asked 16 years old Vijay’s Son Chinmay he said “Helping people is fulfilling- that is something I learned.
It melted my heart hearing these words out the mouth of a babe. Vijay asked my son Ameet if he can help to raise funds, being a son of a Sikh and from (Punjab) he agreed. My son asked me for help, in Punjabi, there is a saying “Anaha key Bhaley Do Akhan,” What else a Blindman wants besides two eyes. I was a willing participant who wanted to give my two cents worth.
I was apprehensive, the first person I called said I would be happy to donate, I contacted my friends, friend’s friends, and family in East, West, North, and South of the United States 90% conglomerate of people Sikhs, Hindus, and their American Christian Spouses even a Japanese came through. That was a heartwarming experience.
All the loose ends got tied, Devices ready, funds raised, Joseph Talamo, owner of Talamo Foods of Morgan Hill gave them free boxes, Google shipped. Mission Accomplished. They have done two rounds, In the third round if you get a call or email from me, please donate, it does not matter how much, there are a saying “little droplets of rain fill the River” if it comes from your heart it will bear the fruit.
Vijay Davadhar got a message from Andhra where they have sent the Machines Sanjay Jupudi from a Company named Qentelli in Texas. He has offices here and in India. Through his network, he gave to some Hospitals in Andhra and he sent this Feedback. This is on my Whatsapp and I will send it to you.
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Rajvinder K.Heyer Dhillon, The writer is a retired teacher
raj@dhillonclan.com
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