In the last 14 months, Anil Srivatsa has crossed 38 countries and more than 50,000 kms on his SUV with a single mission to create awareness on organ donation. “I am happy if I am able to convince even one person to donate his organ,” says Srivatsa.
An organ donor himself, Srivatsa feels it is his responsibility to make people understand the value of gifting life to someone by organ donation, if not when they are alive at least after their death. “I am able to talk louder and be more aggressive about it because no one can point a finger at me and say “tune kya kiya?” he says.
Srivatsa was a workaholic and a control freak till three years ago when his elder brother, a neuro surgeon who was suffering from a renal failure, came to him asking for one of his kidneys to save his life. “I said yes. But I was afraid. I did a lot of things to prolong it. I went off to Antartica and then to Himalayas just to get my head straight. At no point of time I did ever think of not giving it to my brother but I was just contemplating how to deal with it. Finally, when he got into dialysis I decided to step in. And now I am here happy,” he says.
For a person who worked 15 hours a day, seven days a week, two months of full bed rest was unimaginable.
But Srivatsa took it in his stride and came out in good nick. “I had to stay at home for two months, no work and had my fingers crossed whether my company would run smoothly without me. But it ran without me and business grew without me. I felt liberated. My kidney donation made me understand that no one is indispensable.”
During his time at home, a friend reminded of the long-planned Bangalore-London trip and that's when he realised that travel needn’t be purely pleasurable but can also be purposeful. “I decided to carry the message of Gift of Life. We drove an SUV around the globe and that gave me enough confidence. Seeing the world between airports is common but seeing it between toll booths unveiled a different world to me,” he says.
Srivatsa along with his brother took a cycling expedition in Andalusia, Spain. They covered 270 km in a week on the mountains, after which he undertook a 74-day Bangalore-Scotland drive in his SUV and later Italy to Dubai. “Now I am doing a pan Indian drive of over 20000 kms in the next 100 days,” he says.
On his trip, he delivers speeches at local events and calls it a donor story. “It is my story and hopefully people are inspired to have conversations at home. I am not entirely altruistic or philanthropic to say I don’t get any benefit. I do gain from this trip. I have made friends and my network has increased manifold. It’s a win-win situation.”
He's doing the trip on a British military truck, Leyland DAF. “I was trying to buy an Indian military truck but it was not legal to sell the truck to civilians here.” Srivatsa bought it from a South African who had customised it to a caravan with four beds. Now, Srivatsa is trying to take the course of law to legalise the sale of organs. “A person selling kidney has enough troubles in life already otherwise why would he. Organ donation has to be regulated and managed better to a point that the donor is not exploited. I don’t see why there should be a moral issue because human wanting to live is an instinct. If it is right, it is worth a fight. You may win or lose but it is not for me to choose.”
Million Donor Project:
Srivatsa has created an android app GoL - Million Donor Project to encourage people to come forward as donors. Download the app, put in details of family members and register your intent for organ donation. The app will send SMS to your family members and initiate a conversation at home. “If your family does not know you are a donor it is pointless. Because they have legal say over the process,” he says. You can sign up on www.giftoflifeadventure.com/signup.
