Going past my birthday ...

On the 3rd of this month, I "observed" my 54th birth anniversary. I do not write "celebrated", because celebrations are to be had with friends and colleagues, and this is something our local social structure does not really engender in Al Muwayh. Most doctors here are Arabs, and stay here with their families, so there is no chance for them to invite me over to their place for a mere birthday celebration; neither is it possible for me to call them over to my place without their family. I cannot invite my nurse friends to join me at any place for a celebration. Thus, I am practically alone when it comes to such situations. 

Earlier, I had planned to go to Ta'if on the third of March and splurge on food and desserts in the mall. However, I got delayed in the hospital and could not possibly leave at or after half past five to travel to Ta'if and then return to Al Muwayh the same night! The fact that I haven't received my salary for the last month also weighed in, and hence I decided to defer my visit and wait until my next visit to Ta'if at the end of the week. 

I did have an ice cream and a small piece of chocolate cake ... each of which cost me 1-2 Riyals. Also, I ate my lamb curry and Turkish nan for lunch. 

Lamb curry

 

 

 

 

 

Onion "kachumber" salad

This time, I made the lamb curry with some changes in the normal procedure. I added the Bohra curry masala and also some coconut milk; this has given it the bland colour that you see in the picture. It tasted lovely, especially as I ate it with kachumber - I had chopped some onions and prepared it - it is a sort of accompaniment that has onions, coriander leaves, chopped green chillis and salt with lemon. 

For dinner, I went to a local restaurant run by Afghanis and ordered and had a half tandoori chicken with rice, a meal that I have been eyeing since a long time. I really enjoyed it. Thus ended my birthday. 

I did talk with my family on Skype, and they cut a nice Mongini's roasted almond cake to celebrate my birthday! In addition, right from the evening of the 2nd, I started getting congratulatory messages on Facebook, Whatsapp, SMS service, phone calls and also in person from some of the nurses in the ER, where I had gone with a few pieces of cake to give to them. 

The next morning, it was back to normal. A few "belated" messages continued to trickle in. I think I received no less than 150 messages on Facebook, and at least 40-50 more through the other media. Through this blog, I wish to thank all my friends for remembering me! THANK YOU ALL.

Completing 4 months in Saudi Arabia

I am pleasantly shocked to note this as I write this nearly at midnight after the completion of Wednesday, 14th March 2012: I have crossed 4 months of stay in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! Whoopee, did I say? Well, no, and yes. No, because it certainly hasn't been a cakewalk; yes, because the money is flowing in regularly ... I am only 4 days away from the receipt of the salary for the month Rabi-ul-Awwal. Here, one gets salary according to the Hijri (Muslim) calendar - which, as most of you are aware - is based on the Lunar count; so that we get paid for 12 months in 354 days, and 11 days extra salary is paid by the Saudi Government in each Gregorian year.


My daughter Inas is officially 21 years old as I write this; she celebrates her birthday on the 15th March every year. I called her up at midnight India time and congratulated her. My family plans to cut a cake early in the morning, and I plan to join them by video chat and sing the song for my beloved daughter, Inshallah.


The other big news is that soon after the cake-cutting, I am going with a certain person on a Nature trip to a regional Wildlife Reserve. More about this later. 


The past two days, viz. Tuesday and Wednesday, have been uneventful. I did not cook anything, though, as I had balance food in the refrigerator; also, I ate outside for both the evenings - Tuesday, at the Kerala restaurant, and today, at the local Pakistani restaurant. The food I ate at the latter place won hands down. It consisted of a dry channa dal masala and a very delicious mixed vegetable, eaten with the local roti - the tameez. Moayyed, my friend from Pakistan sponsored the dinner, and Dr. Niyaz was also with us. Moayyed works for the National Wildlife Research Center of the Government of Saudi Arabia and is, in fact, the person who will take me to the trip within the next eight hours or so. He is also pursuing the M. Sc. degree in Environmental Science from a University in South Africa.

Day 109, Saturday, 3rd March, 2012

It was the most unusual birthday for me. While I had just returned from a mini-holiday at Jeddah, I had been unable to purchase anything significant for myself. I did splurge some money on dry-fruit and some other odds and ends, the details of which the reader can easily read on the entries previous to this one. However, as I was travelling with Dr. Narendra, I had to leave Ta'if with him, and this prevented me from visiting Panda stores to buy some treats for myself. 


In the event, I had a normal work day; I received over 120 messages in my Facebook profile, and calls from the family as well as Murtuza (my younger brother) and his family. I had no other celebrations, as Al Muweh has no restaurants, cake-shops, food outlets of a good standard, party-halls or any other facilities. I consoled myself with the purchase of a bar and a cup of ice cream, available in one of the shops on the highway behind the town.


Thus, it was a quiet and unusual birthday.

Day 77, Tuesday, 31st January, 2012: On to a brief outing

Today, on the last day of January, which, incidentally, is also Nishrin's birthday (her first one when I am not with her in person), I set off on a 3 1/2 day outing. I had already applied for a day's leave for Wednesday, 1st February 2012, but I had to put a fresh paper before the medical director for the early departure today. Dr. Niaz had arranged for a car to take us both to Ta'if, where he had to visit the Muderiya to collect his passport (he is flying to Pakistan within the next 36 hours), while I wanted to return the monies I had borrowed from a few doctors working at the Children's Hospital here, and also, to transfer some money to my NRI account from my balance in the Al Rajhi bank. Thus, after Niaz had completed his work at the Muderiya, the car driver took us to Shubra street, where I did the money transfer and went to the Children's Hospital to hand over the money to two doctors I had taken the money from. After this, I was also supposed to go to the Al Ahlia Insurance company to submit an application for my medical malpractice insurance, but I could not do this as Dr. Niaz suddenly dropped a bombshell: he had to drop his idea of going today for the Umrah and rush to Jeddah as his flight was for today evening from Jeddah.

He wanted to leave immediately, and I had no option but to go with him, as, otherwise, he would leave in the car and I would have to make independent arrangements to travel to Mecca etc. Thus, we left within a few minutes and he dropped me at the Mikaat (the place where I would tie my Ehram, pray at the mosque and go onward to Mecca to perform the Umrah). From here, I was on my own.

After the prayers and other formalities were done, I took a paid lift from a cab that was also going to Mecca and arrived at the Haram sharif around half past three in the afternoon. I left my luggage (the bag and a small handbag with my shoes) inside a paid locker (SR 10 for two hours) and then entered the Haram sharif. I performed the Umrah with true devotion, and did Tawwafs in my own name, as well as one each for Dad, Mom, Marhoom Mother, Nishrin, Inas, Hannah, Kaizar and his family, Murtuza and his family, all my neighbours from all the three places of my life-time (Bharmal House, Tankiwala Bldg and Meena Apartment), all the people who are my friends, all my patients, all my extended family, all my subordinates (people who have worked at my home, in my clinic, in Nishrin's parlour, my own and my children's teachers  in school and college, and an unnamed tawwaf for all the others who I missed naming in the previous tawwafs. I got immense satisfaction doing all these tawwafs. I cried many times as I remembered my entire life and the people who have moulded me in different ways through my life. After this, I began the walk of the Safa-Marwa, did the Maghrib prayers, and left the Haram at about 6:45 p.m. I picked up my luggage from the locker.

I went down the road past the Bin Dawood mall and, with the help of a Bangladeshi, searched for and moved into a small, non-nondescript hotel room for the night, paying SR 60 for the same. After a bath, I went down and walked back to the Haram to join the congregation for the Ishaa prayers. Thereafter, I went inside the bin-Dawood mall. It is a huge mall with four storeys. There are several eateries and ice-cream outlets, two full storeys of clothes shops, and several other shops too. I had a vegetarian fresh, hand-made pizza and tea (SR 15 + 2). When I left the mall, I saw something interesting: a lot of dark skinned women had laid out their wares outside the mall. They appeared to be Sudanese, and they were selling purses, trinkets, peanuts, pillow cases, and several other things. As I moved down the road, I encountered many more similar women going to join their other compatriots, with loads of stuff slung on their backs. It reminded me of the hawkers who descend on Mohammad Ali Road after 7:30 p.m. every single day in Mumbai. The thing is that all of them, every single one of them were black women ... not a single man was seen.

I returned to the hotel room by 10:00 p.m., sat watching a movie on Zee Aflam (Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon) and wrote this blog entry as well as the previous one, browsed my mails and surfed Facebook before deciding to go to bed by midnight.

P.S. I did remember to call Nishrin to wish her a Happy Birthday. The family was planning to go to Gaylord Restaurant (at Churchgate) for dinner.