The Sunday Guardian

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Duo on a lifeline drive along India’s borders
SATARUPA PAUL  8th Jul

Harsha and Prabha Koda in Leh
any of us may remember this from a geography lesson that India has a land frontier of over 15,000 km and shares its borders with six nations. While some of us will simply discard it as just another trivia that can be Googled when required, a few would be adventurous enough to venture out and check the authenticity of this fact. But that is not what the husband-wife team of Harsha and Prabha Koda from Chennai had in mind when they set forth to drive along the entire borderline of India in 2011.
In this age of exponential spending powers and with the best of muscle cars gleaming in their garages, India's youth is taking the meaning of travel to an entirely different level. Flights, trains and buses are giving way to self-driven road trips, and guided tours are being replaced by self-navigation with the help of GPS, Google Maps and directions from local auto-wallahs. And while most of these trips are undertaken for the sheer thrill of it, some, like the Kodas, manage to affix a whole new dimension to it, one blanketed in social responsibility that can reap benefits for the society at large as well.
For this duo, the cause of spreading awareness on public stem cell banking was the driving force behind their ambitious drive. The couple embarked on 'The Borderline Drive', as they call it and quite appropriately so, to generate an interest in the concept of preserving blood from the umbilical cord after childbirth. Cord blood is known to contain stem cells which have the potential to divide, grow and specialise into any of the other cells of the body, and can thereby be used to treat hematopoietic and genetic disorders later in life.
"Most 'cures' for cancers today are so toxic that if the cancer does not kill you, the chemotherapy will," says Harsha. "This is a truth we have experienced over the last decade when we have lost numerous family members and friends to different cancers. We believe that the only hope of a cure that can change the odds in favour of the patient is the use of stem cells." Thus, they set off from Mumbai in September 2011 with the aim of creating awareness on India's first public stem cell bank at Jeevan Blood Bank in Chennai.
However, after covering about 17,000 km on some of the toughest roads of the Himalayas, some of the most notorious stretches of the Northeast and escaping a few bandits in Central India, they met with a life-threatening accident in Orissa, which rendered them incapable of travelling for the next seven months. But their never-say-die spirits led them to re-start the drive from the exact point where the accident had occurred, and earlier last month they set off on the second leg of the journey.
Now, with the completion of 'The Borderline Drive' and having driven over 22,000 km, these avid travellers have become one-of-their-kinds to have charted the entire borderline of India by road. But more importantly, they have not only managed to make people sit up and take notice of stem cell banking, they now themselves stand wiser on similar traditional practices already prevalent in the rural hinterlands of India.
"While we were in Gujarat, we had the opportunity to talk about stem cells to the local women there. The interesting part, though, was what they told us — that they already preserve the umbilical cord of the newborns in the family, keep it tied to the cradle and when the baby falls ill, they tie the cord to the baby's leg or hand which heals the child!" says Harsha. "So when we explained the significance of stem cell banking to these women, they understood it as an extension of what they have been doing all along."

Article in Deccan Chronicle

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

As originally published at http://www.deccanchronicle.com/tabloid/others/driving-finish-728


Driving to the finish

Driving to the finish
With 17,000 km completed and only another 7,000 to go, for Harsha and Prabha Koda it looked like the Borderline Drive was en route to completion.
But that was not to be. After conquering the highest passes of the Himalayas and cruising along the notorious roads of the Northeast, not to mention escaping militants and bandits in Kashmir and Bihar, Harsha and Prabha’s adventure took a cruel turn when they entered the four-lane highway on the Orissa coast.
“We were entering the last leg of the Borderline Drive, when on the highway I had to swerve to avoid a motorised rickshaw full of people who suddenly moved towards us.
Photo: Deccan Chronicle, 12 June 2012While we saved those five people from colliding into us, our Xylo toppled over several times and landed in a paddy field some 30 feet from the highway,” says Harsha.
Miraculously, Harsha escaped with a few bruises but Prabha was not so lucky. “Prabha was badly injured and she was half outside the car with her face in the mud.
She was a horrific sight with her face black from injuries and swollen to twice its size and her eyes open just as slits. Bruises covered her left side and she was in pain from a broken rib,” says Harsha recollecting it all.
With the goodness of strangers to rely on, Prabha was admitted in hospital and was said to be in no immediate danger.
“On the third day after the accident, as Prabha lay on the hospital bed in Cuttack with IV tubes in both hands and barely able to open her eyes, she said, ‘Call me stupid, or mad or whatever... but can we finish the borderline drive as soon as I can travel’.” In a week’s time when Prabha was deemed fit to travel, the couple flew out to Chennai only to prepare for the revival of the drive.
Harsha and Prabha started the Borderline drive mid last year in an effort to spread awareness on stem cell replacement and give lease to the wanderlust in them. “Prabha and I have been ‘on the road’ since we bought our first car in 2000.
We drove everywhere and eventually driving became a passion. It is an extension of our lifestyles — we work on our own and make our own schedules. So why would our travel be any different?” he smiles.
The Borderline drive was preceded by the couple’s Kerala Drive (2002), Karnataka (2003), Valley of Flowers and Himalayas (2008) and Homestays Drive (2010).
“The unique aspect of the Borderline drive was that the route would pass through almost every Indian state. It also contained areas that were un-reachable and sensitive because of militancy or political unrest. But we decided that it had to be done and that if anyone could do it… we certainly can!” smiles Harsha.
With Prabha as the ‘official’ navigator and Harsha behind the wheel, their vaahan – as Harsha likes to put it —Haliaetus, has travelled through some amazing sights. “Living in the protected bliss of India’s southern metropolis, most of us fail to understand the pressures and prejudices that accompany the ‘existential lives’ of those in these troubled areas,” says Harsha.
Now, after seven months of rest and recoup, Harsha and Prabha embarked on their drive on June 8, beginning at the exact spot where they left-off — 21.77N & 87.2E.
“We will be driving down the east coast up to Kanyakumari and up the west coast to Mumbai — to finish the loop where we started - The Gateway of India. Without the support of our friends at Mahindra & Mahindra, we wouldn’t be re-starting The Borderline Drive.
We thank Bharat Petroleum too for extending their support. Our thanks to Michellin, Red Bull and Hammock Holidays too,” says Harsha.