Venue: Tata Memorial ACTREC institute, Kharghar
Date: 21st June 2014
June 21st is that time of the year again when all the Mumbai FOMers gather at the Tata Memorial ACTREC institute Kharghar Mumbai for the Mumbai Regional meet.
I arrived at the venue at 8.30 AM in the morning and completely enjoyed the drive to the venue. The reason being I had Ayeshah and Prasad for company, good conversation and scenic drive, what more can one ask for on Saturday morning.
While Ayeshah and team did not take any breather and got to work immediately to set up the registration desk, I got a chance to soak in the beautiful, lush green campus of ACRTEC.
By 9 AM the place had started buzzing with old FOMers like Pramod, Nirmesh, (oops did I say old 😉 and new FOMers. By 10.30 am, it seemed like we were a full house and so we started the meeting.
The meeting was kick started by Ayeshah as Amma was away attending ‘Chai for Cancer’ event at Upvan in Thane with a group of Bikers who were gathered there to celebrate World Motorcycle Day (how cool is that!) and was expected to arrive around lunch time.
After Ayeshah’s presentation on The Max Foundation, Nirmesh presented on the perspective of Friends of Max the patient volunteer program. He sure knows how to break ice with his fun analogies. The hall broke into laughter as he referred to new FOMers as nursery kids and ‘old timers’ like himself and me (What’s my old fixation about!) as professors.
Like always there is a surprise and a fun element in FOM meetings and this time was no different, so post Nirmesh’s session , we had a relaxing “Art of living session’. This immediately lightened and energized the group as we then had an intense patient doctor interaction with Dr. Hari Menon and Dr Navin Khattry of Tata Memorial Hospital.
It was a very engaging session as many patients cleared their doubts about the treatment and the doctors made great effort in explaining everything in detail.
Now, the reason for my ‘old fixation’ is that June 21st also happens to be Nirmesh’s birthday and so he turned a ‘year older’..Ahem. In true FOM style, we celebrated his birthday with loads of jokes and laughter.
The post lunch session was drama therapy, the themes was CML and its impact on our lives. The Drama therapy was a success as each group presented interesting perspectives on each situation. The hall filled with fun and laughter but most of all it resonated with Hope.
The meeting ended and we all said our goodbye’s with a promise to meet again and a resolve to ‘Maximize our lives’.
By-
Sukanya Lal, FOM Mumbai