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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Days 23 and 24, Thursday, 8th and Friday, 9th December, 2011

A friend of mine had predicted a few weeks ago that after some weeks, life will set into a routine, and I may not find subjects or enough new things to write on this blog. Perhaps he was right, but I still think I have several new things to discuss, and I think that for at least another few months, there will be no dearth of topics to write about. 

My honeymoon period will be over from Saturday as I will begin my on-call week. I am a bit apprehensive, but also, there is an undercurrent of excitement, as I will, for the first time since coming to this place, nay, this country, be available to handle emergency calls. The apprehension is natural, because, a) I live almost 20-25 minutes away from the hospital (by walking, I mean), and since I have no car, I will have to do this whenever I am called to attend an emergency patient. I have decided to speak to the authorities about this and see if they can provide me with some form of transport to take me to and bring me from the hospital.  b) I have learnt a little about the way things operate here, but I am still a novice and am worried that I might make a mistake that may prove to be costly. c) I do not have my indemnity insurance ... and this will happen only after I get my Iqama, which, sadly, hasn't come yet. d) I will have a serious problem if there are more than a few calls, and especially if they are at night. Not only will my sleep be disrupted, I will also get tired and be unable to perform at peak efficiency the next morning. However, this last point worries me the least, as I have been used to late night calls even in India.

I was completely off for the weekend, and got down to serious cooking. I made, over the course of the first of the two off days, dal-gosht,  dry potatoes, and chicken masala; I also reconstituted a Knorr soup (hot and sour vegetable). I had already told Dr. Narendra that I would invite him for dinner, but I forgot to give him a confirmatory call today. As a result, he thought that the invite was off, and had his dinner in his own room. I apologised for my gaffe, and confirmed the invitation for Friday. He came on time, and we had a good time eating all the stuff, with fresh khubs and salad. He was fairly appreciative of my cooking and, at the end, agreed that we would try and make it to each others' place at least once a week for dinner. 

Apart from this, the two days proved to be quite unremarkable. At the time of writing this, my first on-call day is almost over, but I will get back to it when I enter the details for Saturday. 

That's it for now.

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