Four years ago, Rishikesh Batule, a 29 year-old farmer fromAkota, was diagnosed with kidney failure. With both kidneys failed, his life turned upside down, Batule struggled with the reality of medical check ups and dialysis as a part of his daily life. “I only had high blood pressure, and was a complete teetotaler,” Batule tells us over the phone from his village, where he grows soyabean and cotton on the two-acre plot of land that he owns.

Sixty five year-old Dharamchand Bandi, who opted for ABO Incompatible Kidney Transplant under Dr BV Gandhi in 2009, got his kidney from his 59 year-old wife Kumkum. Pic/Nimesh Dave