A week completed in Al Muwayh

After my return from Zalm, I have settled down in Al Muwayh and over a week later, I think it is time to take stock of where I am going with what I am doing. Ramadan started 7 days ago, and with it, we also began to work in 2 shifts - the morning one being from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the night one from 9.30 p.m. to 12.30 p.m. There are hardly any patients in the morning shift as people are usually fast asleep after being awake the whole night. I saw either no patients or up to 2 patients each of the morning days during the entire last week. In the night shift, though, it is work as usual, and patients keep coming until the last few minutes of the duty. 

A lot of road traffic accident victims have been coming in daily. This is quite usual, as a lot of people drive to Makkah and Madina in Ramadan to gather blessings from Allah. Most of the times, the victims are non-Saudis. I witnessed the arrival in the ER of one Pakistani family with the death of an old man, his son's wife and his son's daughter on the highway itself. Only the son has survived the accident, in which he was also the driver of the car going toward Makkah. May Allah grant these poor victims of road accidents a place in Jannah. Ameen.

Four new doctors, all from Sudan, have joined our ER. They include the very smart Dr. Abdulla, an equally smart Dra. Maria, one Dr. Badreddin and one Dra. Wefag. Of these, I have had many patient-related interactions with Maria, who is a resident of KSA as her family is already based here in the Kingdom. Wefag is the newest, having joined just a few days ago, and is right now undergoing orientation. Dr. Abdulla speaks very good English, is well-informed, and appears to be as smart as our ex-Dr. Amr Hilal. Let us see how these doctors shape up in the months to come.

Apart from my work, I have been spending time downloading and watching stuff on the laptop, watching Arnab Goswami go at everyone with his rabid tongue on Times Now, and doing a bit of cooking here and there. In the past week, I made a chicken curry once, Turai and chana dal once, and today, a potato gravy. Yesterday, I made a new item from a new ingredient. This was Molokhia soup. I must say it was easy to make, and it turned out good as well. Molokhia is a type of leafy vegetable that is eaten widely in Egypt and northern Africa. It is basically from the jute plant. Belonging to the same family as the humble okra (lady fingers), it is a mucilaginous plant that is eaten best with mild spices. Usually, it is made with lamb or chicken, but I made it with just one cube of Maggi chicken flavour. I had one bowl of it yesterday for dinner, and would be eating more of it tonight, with rice. You can see a very nice video on cooking molokhia here.

That's it for now. Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this entry. You are welcome to browse previous entries and view photos from the links to other pages to the right of the blog. Feel free to comment below the entries, share my blog or specific entries with your friends on different social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus buttons are located below each entry).

May Day, May Day, May Day

The first of May this year fell on a Thursday. Dear readers, you must be wondering about the title of this entry. I will presently come to it. Let me first begin by thanking all of you who have been following me through almost two and a half years now on this blog. It is thanks to people like you that I am nearing 30000 views of my blog. I know of at least three or four other people aspiring to come to Saudi Arabia as doctors who have contacted me because of this blog and have sought advice from me. Compared to some stalwarts whose blogs have crossed a million views, I am still small fry, but I am happy I was able to help even a few people take the right decision about whether or not to come to KSA to practice their professions, and to make more money.

Also, some of you kind souls have been clicking on the various ads that are seen on my web-pages, and this helps me to slowly but surely reach the payment threshold for Adsense by Google, whose ads I publish on my blog. In the last seven odd years I have been on Blogger (my first blog was Seriously Joking), I have managed to earn about USD 55/=. I will receive my first payment only when the total crosses USD 100/= so I guess it will be after another 7 years, LOL. Whatever, if the ads look promising, why don't you just click on them and help me?

My kitchen saw a bit of activity during the last few days. I made a mean Alu Muttar on Thursday, and a nice 3-egg omelette today morning. However, for the most part, I have a full refrigerator and I am not cooking much. Yesterday, I made chapatis. Now, let me tell you that on 2 previous occasions, I tried to make chapatis with the chapati maker machine that I have brought from India ... but I cannot seem to get the hang of it. The chapatis turn out very hard. I am still experimenting with the proportions of the various ingredients.

On Thursday night, Dr. Magdi and I went out to buy shwarma from the local shop and then we sat in the garden to eat it. While I had one, he had three of them! After this, we split up as he was called to the hospital to go with a patient to Taif (he was on referral duty). I dropped him at the hospital, and returned to the garden to participate in the send-off function of Dr. Yasser Mahmoud Al Shibiny, my outgoing colleague. He was quite calm, and a bit withdrawn, or so I thought. 

Now he is really, officially gone. My panic will increase, and I just might radio in for help. Now, do you get the title? It is about the first of May, isn't it?

Here are some photos of the send-off party.

Back to an old topic: Food

If you, my dear reader, would go back to the home page of my blog, you would see a list of labels right at the top. The labels are sized according to the number of times that label appears in my blog. As you can see, Cooking features among the top three most used labels! The reason is not too far to seek. Firstly, I have always been interested in cooking. Secondly, cooking for just myself has needed a lot of ingenuity, presence of mind, inventiveness, perseverance, patience and ... on some occasions, frustration. I have had countless occasions when I forgot about the food that was cooking on the stove in the kitchen, and it got burnt as I stayed inside my living area, surfing the net, or watching TV. 

Then, there have been instances when the food turned out to be finger-licking good, and I have gone out and shared it with some of my friends, either doctors, or nurses, or both. Between these two extremes, there have been the hundreds of times I have churned out average to good food, and consumed it with relish and an immense sense of satiation and satisfaction. 

The few problems I have encountered here are as follows:

a) Ingredients - While most of the Indian ingredients are available in the Kingdom, some, clearly, are not. Or, at least, not available in Al Muwayh or Taif. This includes khus-khus powder, badi ilaichi, badiyan, star anise, some other exotic spices, cereals like beaten wheat (daliya), dals like the south-Asian masoor dal and the rounded tuvar dal, kheer ingredients, etc.

b) Utensils - The Indian style pressure cooker which gives off steam with a whistling sound is a blessing for a person like me who is not a chef but a student of cooking and needs to monitor the cooking time and process through visual and auditory cues. I had to bring this from India, though I later discovered that it WAS available in Riyadh in Lulu Hypermarket. Other typical Indian kitchen tools include Kulfi moulds, Idli moulds, chakli and gathiya moulds, etc. These are not routinely found in the Kingdom. 

c) Variety - or the lack thereof: So many of the vegetables and fruit that we routinely buy, use, cook and consume are not readily available in Al Muwayh, though I can procure 95% of these from Taif/ For example, one cannot find guvar-ki-sing or drumsticks in Al Muwayh. Nor can one find the wide variety of fruit here. We do get fruit from Yemen and Egypt, but, to be frank, I always miss the Alphonso mangoes of India, and some of the other fruits that we buy in Mumbai. In the non-vegetarian section, I have to get stuff like trotters (paya), bheja, etc. from Taif or Jeddah. Here, however, you do get quails, duck and so on, in addition to chicken. You cannot find Indian fish in Al Muwayh. I usually get bangda or surmai from Taif. 

What you do get here is FROZEN FOOD. You can get guava juice, totapuri mango juice, frozen bhindi (okra), frozen  mixed vegetables, frozen green peas, frozen strawberries, frozen ... you get it, right? You can also find a lot of frozen ready to cook or ready to fry food here ... e.g. mutton samosas, chicken burger patty, chicken nuggets, breaded fish fillets, seekh kabab, shish tawook, etc. You just need to fry these and eat them. 

You can, for the most part, get Indian spices and goods in Taif at specialised Indian grocery stores, run by Malayalis who have been here down the generations. There are restaurants in Taif, but especially in larger cities like Riyadh and Jeddah, where you can have a hearty south-Indian meal and top it off with a Calcutta pan!

d) Quantities - or the excess thereof: Most Saudi families are large, and they need large quantities of food, so the problem is of finding smaller quantities of packaged and fresh food. The average cauliflower here is over a kg in size! The grocer will not cut it into the size you want. Either you take the 1 kg, or forget about the cauliflower! In a similar vein, the sizes of biscuit packs is large; dry fruits are only sold in 1/2 kg packs or larger. Most food grains are sold with a minimum weight of 1 kg, though some grocers do keep open buckets of grains and allow you to buy smaller quantities. 

Utensil sizes are as large as the food sizes! I find it difficult to buy vessels to cook small meals that I, as a single person, need to make. 

As of now, I cannot think of more problems. The interesting thing is that I look at each problem as an opportunity to find a workable solution. The challenge keeps me motivated to find a way out of the unending difficulties. But, as a result, my larder is full of provisions, and my large refrigerator (400 liters +) is always full.

Do let me know your view-points on this write-up. I welcome your keen eye, sharp mind and valuable comments. Thank you.  

A fortnight later: some observations and other stuff, all my own work.

I have nearly completed six weeks of working alone in my post, and at least 3 more weeks remain before Dr. Yasser will make his appearance. Work hasn't been so hard, but staying like this without a single day off duty takes its toll on one's inner peace. Usually, the resident doctors who work in the E. R. manage the pediatric patients as usual, but occasionally, they do need me, and I go without a fuss. Last week, there were eight members of the same Yemeni family who were involved in a car crash (it seems that their car tyre burnt or something and their car took a few flips in the air and then fell some meters away from the highway; they got out of the overturned car just before it caught fire.)

The family included three children, ages between a few years to a girl who was thirteen. I was called to assist the surgical team which were the main people responsible for the treatment. It was a near-riot when I reached the E.R., and I could just about manage the kids. I also assisted the surgeon in filling up investigation forms, supervising the taking of radiological films and the ultrasound examination of the abdomen to rule out internal injuries, and so on. Once these basic tasks were completed, I took leave and went back home.

Since the last over 15 days, a few acquaintances of mine (who are also planning to appear for MRCPCH Clinical) and I have been practising communication skills over a group chat on Skype. The doctors are from India, Egypt and Sudan and include Drs. Sanjay Shah (Indian from Jaipur) and Imtiaz Beg (Indian working in Al Bahah, K.S.A.), Drs. Ola Salim (Egyptian from Cairo) and Nazeek (Sudanese working in K.S.A.) and Dr. Ahmed Sallam (Egyptian working in Medinah, K.S.A.). We meet at about 9-10 p.m. Saudi time and discuss a pre-decided topic for about 40-60 minutes. These discussions are what is going to improve everyone's communication skills going forward.

I do cook from time to time, especially when I feel like doing it. I still have a lot of ready-made food, though, and I continue to sometimes fetch ready-made food from the local restaurant. Until a few weeks ago, I used to take some of my cooked food and give it to some of the nurse-friends at the hospital, but I haven't done so recently. As a result, more food is still present in the refrigerator!

I am now doing three courses online on www.coursera.org, the amazing website where one can take free online courses on hundreds of different subjects. Learning is a passion with me, and why not take advantage of such a golden opportunity where courses are made available totally free and are from reputed international universities? Presently, I am doing a course each on "Animal Behaviour", "Vaccines" and "Global Health". These courses do take up a lot of my time, but the lectures, and more importantly, the discussion forums, are so interesting, that I happily give myself up to these things. At the end of the courses, I will, if I have obtained at least 70% marks in the different quizzes and assignments that we are required to attempt, get certificates of accomplishment. These may not really advance my career, but they are definitely something I will cherish in the years to come. And they might, just might, stimulate my own children to keep learning something when they grow older.

That's it for now.

Working alone ... my 4th week

My regular readers know that my colleague Dr. Yasser has gone on his annual vacation since the 25th of July 2013. I have, since then, been on call every single day, and although work has never been back-breaking, it is the sheer tension of being on call 24 x 7 that affects the solitary doctor who works without a replacement. 

My detractors would probably raise a flag and remind me that when I was in private individual practice in India, I was, even then, on call 24 x 7 every single day - at least as far as my patients were concerned. The difference is that when you are in your own homeland, you are with your family and the entire support system, whereas when you are working in a foreign land where the indigenous population is waiting to put you in the dock for perceived acts of omission or negligence. 

Even so, I have remained in good spirits generally. I have begun to have group discussions on Skype with a few doctors who are all going to appear for the final part of MRCPCH either later this year or the next year. This, "the final exam" as it is called, is a clinical exam where the Royal College judges the candidates on their clinical proficiency, their communication skills and their diagnostic and analytical abilities. As such, there are no standard online question sets or guidelines for passing this exam. One has to constantly practice clinical and interview skills with friends and try and smoothen one's difficult areas so that during the exams, one is able to confidently face the examiners. 

In other news, I discovered a Punjabi style Pakistani restaurant on the highway just a few hundred meters from the original North Pakistani Peshawari restaurant that I used to visit earlier (last year, that is). They actually make delicious food and also tandoori rotis the way I like them! I have begun to bring rotis, and occasionally some curries to eat with the rotis. 

On another level, I have begun to exchange food with some of the staff nurses in the hospital. They love my food, and in return, they bring something from their own kitchens! Thus, I am enjoying the experience. Last week, I made a mean spicy cashew chicken, and got some nice Chicken Adobo in return! (This is a spicy Filipino dish). 

One surprising thing that has happened in the last few weeks after Ramadan ended is the sudden spurt in deliveries. I think over 18 pregnant mothers came to the hospital in labour and have delivered their babies. This is a huge spurt, as usually, we have 3-4 deliveries every week, and about 15-20 deliveries in a month. Nowadays, there are 1-3 deliveries almost every day. This hasn't really taxed me as most deliveries are still NORMAL. However, it has added to my calls, as some of the deliveries are "high-risk" cases and some progress to a problem that needs a surgical delivery ( a Caeserean section or a C-section as it is called). 

I wish to end with a few asides. I watch Indian Idol Junior on Sony Entertainment Television, and the singing by the final 6 children has been fantastic. I was deeply impressed by all of them, but in particular by the 14-year old Debanjana and the 8-year old Sugandha who is truly prodigal. 

The other thing I wish to comment on is the abominable economic condition of my homeland. India is facing multiple problems, but the biggest one that is threatening to bring India on its knees is the explosive inflation, the rapidly depreciating Rupee vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar and the crashing stock markets. Already, credit agencies have downgraded India two or three times. the Industrial production index has plummeted to zero or even under this, and the Wholesale Price Index is at a hitherto unseen peak.

Three and a half weeks later, Friday, 18th January, 2013

Well, please don't crucify or hang me because I am no longer writing regularly. The reason is that I have been busy studying now. Actually, not just studying but also doing other stuff. My co-Pediatrician Dr. Yasser was called away to Zalm for a 14-day substitution duty since the last Saturday. Hence, I have been on call all these past six days. Earlier, an Indian anaesthetist joined us from Khurma. His name, Dr. Paresh Shah. He is working for the past six months at Khurma. He hails from Ahmedabad. I have thoroughly enjoyed his company, and he has been my guest a couple of times. He is a master at vegetarian cooking. together, we made baingan-ka-shaak (aubergines), and also a pav bhaji (mixed vegetables) in my home during his past visits. Here are pictures of him cooking the pav bhaji and the final outcome.

 In other news, I managed to complete all the formalities towards getting a car-driving licence (from Afeef), getting the car transferred to my name, and getting a new vehicle insurance in my name. This makes me an official car owner and driver in the Kingdom, but more, the licence allows me to drive a car in many other Gulf countries like the Emirates etc. 

The third thing of any consequence to happen was that I began to study a little more seriously for my upcoming exam for Part 2 of MRCPCH. After my purchase of the study package from the online site, I was being pretty sangfroid about it, but now, the pace has picked up. Our study group on FB is also now becoming more and more active and interactive. Hence, there is a positive cycle that is feeding my thirst for knowledge. We are ten members, of whom three are from India, one or two from Sudan, one from Azerbaijan and the rest from Egypt. Of the ten, at least nine are active and are contributing questions as well as answering the queries put up by the other members. In this kind of exam, the best way to study is to keep reading and trying to answer questions. 

The last thing I want to share is that I have once again begun to write on my writing.com website. This is a poem set to the image that is located inside the poem. It has been submitted to my writing team from India, and if selected, it will represent India at an international writing contest that is currently on at Writing,com.

I am so looking forward to visiting India next month ... will be there from mid-February for about 25-30 days. This time, Allah willing, my family will travel back with me to Saudi Arabia to perform the Umrah and to do a visit to Medina.

I have been driving my car down the highway of late. The first time, I drove about 18 km towards Ta'if and then returned to my home. This visit was with my ENT colleague Dr. Alaa Ashweh. The second time was yesterday in the company of Dr. Paresh, and we drove about 42 km, to the Um-Adoom bridge and back.

Nothing else of note to report. I will end here, and I promise I will blog again soon.

Thanks for reading..

A week-end Update

The year 2012 is on the verge of ending in a few days. 21st December, the date of apocalypse came and went without the end of the world as we know it, and everyone was, albeit secretly, relieved that the Mayan prophecy had not come true. I was watching the clock quite eagerly as the time in Saudi Arabia neared 4.46 p.m., the equivalent of 11.11 a.m. GMT (London), the time at which the final disaster was to annihilate planet Earth.

In the event, the big non-event proved to be a damp squid. After this, my spirits improved too. I have been enjoying myself greatly since then, and have either been trying to cook new stuff, or watching programs and news on the TV. Most evenings, I go for my walks, and sometimes, I even see serials and films on my laptop. 

Last week, I watched, with increasing anger, the story of the 23 year old Delhi-based physiotherapist who was gang raped in a bus as she was returning home from work. The spontaneous response of people of all ages, especially youth, was, by turns, gratifying, alarming, energising, disruptive, and finally, gratifying again. These reactions occurred, respectively, when the response began, when it swelled to huge numbers, when it began to unnerve the Delhi law makers and politicians, when it turned violent, and when it finally led to some solid actions by the administration. The drama unfolded hourly, with newer and fresher events; it was heart warming to see men and women marching on the streets of New Delhi, but not just there ---- also in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Lucknow, Jammu, Varanasi, and so on. When the Delhi police retaliated on the third day of the protests with repeated rounds of lathi-charge (caning), tear-gas shelling and firing of water cannons, I cried within. The response was totally uncalled for, although one can perhaps defend their action when one knows that a section of the protesters turned violent and started rampaging and throwing stones on the police, injuring many of them.

By the fourth morning, that is by Tuesday, the situation had improved, but even as I write this on Thursday, 27th December 2012, protesters are marching in New Delhi. Usually, I watch Times Now channel, but sometimes, I switch to Zee News to see what is happening, and the scenes in both the channels were nearly the same. However, Times Now is a much better channel, both visually and in content. Its executive editor is a very sharp, brazen but disciplined and articulate man (Abhinav). A recorded version of its evening telecasts is shown in Saudi Arabia after 2-3 hours (the actual time difference being approximately equal to the difference in the time zones, which is 2.5 hours. Among its varied programs, the late evening telecast in the form of "Newshour" is very interesting indeed. This is because the chief editor coordinates and chairs a panel discussion where several people relevant to the topic under discussion are invited and drilled till they speak the truth. 

What else is happening? Nothing much, as internet access has worsened in the last few months in Al Muwayh. I have been forced to wean myself from net-surfing, or to search for free Wi-fi hotspots wherever possible. Thus, I am seen less often on Facebook and elsewhere, and this has already provoked many comments from my friends. To all my readers, I ask to please bear with my situation. I am fine, thanks. If you wish, you may email me and I will definitely answer all your questions/doubts/queries.

A fortnight has passed

Since I wrote my last post, a fortnight has gone by. I got a substitute doctor to work in my place and therefore, I managed to escape from my hospital for about 4 - 5 days. You probably already read about  that in my previous post. During the last fortnight, I have been rather busy with my work at the hospital, or walking in the garden, or solving questions for my future exam in May 2013, or sleeping. I usually try to watch at least one episode of either "Castle" or "Grey's Anatomy" (I am watching old episodes from Season 2 of both the serials ... thanks to my daughter Inas, who has uploaded these to my laptop during my last vacation in May/June 2012). While "Castle" is an out and out crime detection serial, it provides useful life lessons on how to bring up a teenager, and provides unexpected but welcome comic relief when the two main actors (Rick Castle and Beckett) spar with each other as they go about solving murder cases. 

"Grey's Anatomy", on the other hand, appeals to me as it is about medicine ... surgery, actually, as the story revolves around Meredith Grey, a surgical intern at SGH (Seattle General Hospital), and her four colleagues. Christina (a Japanese American) plays the parallel lead role. Both of them are great actors, as are the other lead players, the surgical resident Bailey, the two visiting surgeons, Drs. Sheperd and Burk, and other supporting cast. 

In other news, I keep trying new food items, but I have yet to finish with the stuff I brought back from Ta'if - included among these are the delectable Mutton Biryani, a rather non-spicy Chicken Chilli, and Mutton masala. Also, I am going through my own cooked dishes like the dal, the lady fingers, the kheema and the now cooked black-eyed beans (chola). I can say that I am really enjoying myself. On the anvil in the next few days is a salad that I am planning to make with yellow, red and green peppers, lettuce and tomatoes, a noodle dish with real spring onions, and perhaps a fish curry.

TV watching has been taking up some of my time. Over the last few days, it's been an overdose of Times Now channel, with its round the clock reporting of the gang-rape case that occurred in New Delhi last week. All six men have been arrested. The victim is a physiotherapy intern, now battling for life in Safdarjung Hospital. She has undergone a near total intestinal resection on account of extensive gangrene and has a gastrostomy and a duodenostomy in place. Her only chance of return to normal life will be with an intestinal transplant, something that may have to be done abroad. Supporting her are thousands of normal Indian citizens, mostly women, who have come out on the roads with morchas, candle-marches, storming of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the C|M's residence, the hospital, and so on. Protest marches are being held in more than 20 cities all over India, including Jammu, Bangalore, Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna, etc. There is a demand to mete out the strictest possible punishment to the perpetrators ... viz. the death sentence. News is mostly confined to this story. The only other story that held the nation's attention was the assembly election in Gujarat. Narendra Modi has been re-elected for the fifth consecutive term, and is now eyeing the seat of PM-designate of the BJP for the forthcoming elections in 2014. Let us see what happens there.

On the family front, Hannah has some huge plans for the coming months. She wants to join some UK-university courses, wants to be a worker for some huge project for the United Nations, wants to be an intern at some company, and what not. Inas continues, albeit a little dissatisfied, at the Juice Salon. Nishrin is, as usual, a harried person, what with the house, the children and her work. It appears that my absence from the house has taken the most out of her, and although she is managing, she sure isn't happy that she has to bear so much burden, and is clearly tired of it all.

Mom continues to be confined to the house, and will remain to be there till mid-February, after which she can leave the house and be among the others in society. She is putting up a brave front indeed, and is sure to feel worse as the days pass and the feeling of being alone sinks in. 

That's about it for now ... 

P.S. My colleague is due to return by the end of next week ... what a relief! 

How the last month has passed

My visit to India was rather short, and followed immediately after my exams at Jeddah. I stayed in Mumbai for just over a week, and was back in Al Muwayh just 4 days before my departure for Hajj, i. e. around the 21st October. After the completion of Hajj, my co-Pediatrician Dr. Yasser immediately proceeded on leave ... and eventually went to Egypt on his annual holiday. Since then, therefore, I have been totally alone. As I write this, I have been working alone for over 4 weeks, and managing both, the out-patient department as well as the calls and emergencies. It's never been hectic, but the OPD has seen a constant flow of patients with cough and cold ... almost 15-20 patients daily. This can perhaps be attributed to the change in climate: winter has set in, and how. Just three days ago, it rained torrentially, and following this, the next few days were marked by strong winds and extremely low temperatures. It was only today that the temperatures became a little more comfortable and allowed me to go on my evening walk. 

The last month saw me experimenting, purchasing, and generally enjoying myself. As my first year in the Kingdom neared completion, I began to spend some money on my own comforts: of course, my Indian colleague Dr. Narendra exited last month, and I ended up buying his car (a 1993 model Toyota Corolla, white), his mixer-grinder (Maharaja), his vacuum cleaner and his double blanket. I also received a few freebies from him, including some utensils, a bed with a cot (that needed a little welding) and so on. I also bought a micro-wave oven (Samsung), and recently, a carpet for my study room. With these purchases, my life is a lot easier, especially w.r.t. the purchase of the car, because of which my commuting within the village has become so comfortable. Not just that, I am now able to go to the garden more easily to do my walking. 

The experimentation mostly occurred with my cooking: in the past month, I made several new dishes and items, such as Adai dosa (a Tamilian recipe) with the accompanying potato bhaji, chutney and sambar; veg. hakka noodles; a dry chicken dish that turned out absolutely delicious; potato wada; cauliflower bhajiya; strawberry milk shake; chutney/boiled egg/chicken/kheema sandwiches; etc. The unique thing about my experimentation occurred when a Chennai-based anesthetist doctor joined me for dinner. He (Dr. Bala, from Mizan) was in Al Muwayh on substitution duty. He helped me make the dosa, and also rated my cooking thus: 8 for the dosa, 6 for the sambar, 0 for the chutney and  7 for the potato bhaji. The ratings have emboldened me further, and I plan to continue experimenting with my cooking. 

In addition to the above, I also purchased a new 21" television set. I am now able to watch over 350 channels on Nilesat; unfortunately, over 330 of these channels are in Arabic and I cannot understand them! I am therefore limited to watching the English language news channels (BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera International and France 24), Zee Aflam (the Hindi movies channel), English movies on MBC 2 and MBC Action, and a few others. In any case, this has been a welcome change from my continuous net surfing and watching of English serials and movies on my laptop. My net surfing has also reduced as a result of the TV viewing.

Yesterday, with the start of December, I have also started studying for the next phase of my exams - I am planning to appear for Part 2 of MRCPCH in May 2013, Inshallah. I even purchased an online examination resource package from Pastest, one of the best learning websites. I have already begun to solve questions from this site.

A few other things also happened: in addition to Dr. Narendra, our Egyptian radiologist, who had just completed a year in Al Muwayh also went back to Egypt; our Pakistani resident Dr. Sadiya (whom I have mentioned earlier in my Hajj posts) has also decided to leave after just one year; two new residents from Sudan and a new Orthopedic surgeon from Tunisia have joined - the last one being Dr. Mohammed Hattab, with whom I have become quite friendly; there have been some exits and some new entrants among nurses as well; in fact, four Indian nurses left in the last three or four months, in addition to a few Filipinos; Al Muwayh keeps growing, with new buildings coming up in several places; I have applied for the renewal of my Iqama (the residence permit that all non-Saudis have to keep with them); we are planning to come out with a monthly newsletter for the staff of the Hospital, and I have been appointed as its executive editor; since the Hajj pilgrimage, I have become absolutely punctual in praying all the namaaz (except the morning one, where I keep defaulting as I cannot wake up at 5 a.m.); I have begun writing my child-care book again, with the intention of completing the second edition as soon as possible; my website http://drtaherforkids.com has now gone public and my child-care book is now available for sale through the site; and finally, I have started learning pencil-shading in my drawing books.

I have been in regular touch with my family and my mom; all are fine; my mom is still in iddat, and will remain so till mid-February; Inas continues to work in Juice; Hannah is enjoying herself even as I write this; Nishrin is busy with her work at the salon, in much the same way as before; shortly, my Mumbai home will start undergoing some needed renovation work; and, my family is considering buying a car for local commuting and I have suggested that they buy a second-hand car from Maruti True Value at Phoenix Mills (Sai Service Ltd.).

That's about it for now. 

The past ten days since my last entry

My readers might be eager to learn what has been transpiring in my life since I last made an entry in this blog near the end of August. I had described my stint in Zalm, with one more day to go. Well, the last and final day also went off peacefully. I finally left Zalm on Saturday morning, going with a team of Maintenance crew (Al Ewan Medical Company) which was proceeding to T'aif. They very kindly gave me a drop outside my house. I left my luggage and then went to the Hospital to attend to my duties.

The entire week saw me gradually increasing my study hours as the day for my examination for Part 1 of the MRCPCH nears. I am scheduled to appear from Jeddah on the 9th of October this year. Hence, as I write this, there is less than a month to go for the exam. Overall, I am not too satisfied with my studies; I guess it's been over 25 years since I read Pediatrics in a concerted manner. However, I have certainly improved quite a lot this year. Initially, I read quite a lot for the Saudi Council exams; thereafter, I took a break of a few months. From mid-June, I began reading again, what with the books I brought back with me from India (kindly provided by Dr. Faizan Bhoira, the pediatrician who looked after my clinic for the first few months after I left India last year). I subscribed to a paid revision account with www.onexamination.com, a venture that has enabled me to revise over 1600 questions. The account was for 3 months, and expired today. I am planning to renew it for one more month, if they will enable me to do so. This might be a little difficult as things stand today. Although I got a confirmation that they WOULD be able to renew the account subscription, I have not yet heard from them so that I can fulfill my obligation.

If I am unable to renew, it won't be much of a loss, as I do have quite a few Multiple-Choice-Questions books to read. In fact, I have so many books that I don't think I will be able to finish all of them in the limited time available.

I have been cooking quite a bit these last 8-10 days after returning from Zalm. I have made, so far, dal, channa masala, kheema, cauliflower-potato bhaji, mutton curry, fish curry, scrambled eggs, noodles, palak bhaji and chicken masala. The last two items have just been made and I think they have turned out quite good. Let's see what they actually taste like. 

I have been gradually adding friends from the hospital to my Facebook friends' list. This week, I added Dr. Measser, the Syrian resident doctor. Going via his profile, I am now friends with more than 6 other doctors of the hospital, including Dr. Amr Hilal (Surgical resident, now also Quality Assurance in charge), Dr. Majid Shaib (Surgical Specialist), Dr, Moataz (Anesthesiologist), and a few more. This has been a nice thing, as I am now able to peek inside the world of Arab doctors from Egypt, Syria, Sudan, etc. The best posts, however, are in Arabic, and I have to then approach these friends off-line, that is, in the hospital, to understand what the post was about. 

That's all for now. My father continues to be in poor health in India. My mother is okay, I guess, but tired of it all. They have appointed a full-time man-servant to attend to Dad's needs and to feed him by the feeding tube as needed. 

My wife and kids are fine, as are my brothers, their wives and their children. Amen.

Eid ... my first away from home

Yes, Eid came and has gone! This is the first time I can think of that I wasn't with my family on this occasion. Well, over the past year, I have come to accept that there will be several such events that I will not be with the family in. I tried to re-create some of the Eid magic by preparing the traditional sheer-khuma. Most of the ingredients of this milk drink are available in Al Muwayh, although I had some difficulty in procuring dry dates (what is known here as Tamr Nashif). Eventually, I got this item from the Yemeni supermarket here. The two ingredients that I could not get were saffron (which is normally added at the end to flavour and fragrantise the milk) and charoli ... the small, pulse-sized dry fruit that we get easily in India. Even so, the result was acceptable.

To prepare sheer-khuma, you first need to blanch, deskin and then chop almonds and pistachio nuts (and charoli too, if available, though it is too small to be chopped). You also need to dice cashew nuts (without blanching them),  and dry dates. To start with, you need to place a big-enough vessel on the fire. Add a small quantity of oil or ghee, then add broken vermicelli, saute till brown, then all the chopped dry fruit (and the dates). Saute till they are slightly brown. Then, add milk and sugar, and cook over slow fire for up to 40-60 minutes, or till about 1/3rd of the milk has reduced. During the boiling process, stand by the stove to keep an eye on the vessel, or the milk will boil over and create a mess in the kitchen. Add some dried raisins to the mix and let them boil with the rest of the mix. The raisins will swell and become round globs which add fantastic texture to the drink. Towards the end, take a little milk in a small bowl, add some saffron twigs to it, stir and add to the milk and take the milk off the stove. Stand for a short while, adjusting the taste of sugar by adding more sugar if needed. 

Your sheer-khuma is ready. Remember to have it hot, or you won't enjoy the flavours. 

I am told that the south Indian payasam is similar to this preparation, but will await confirmation from some authentic source. To me, the sheer-khuma is the embodiment of what Eid is all about ... and I really enjoy eating it (yes, eating is a better word, since it has thick consistency ... which improves each time you store the remnant in the refrigerator, and take it out the next time and re-heat it ... plus, it has so many solids in it!).

I took about 750 ml of the drink in a can to the hospital and shared it with some of the doctors and nurses here, including the pharmacy guy Mr. Mohammad, Dr. Shehab, Dr. Ahmed Ouf, Dr. Moataz, and sisters Maui, Melody and a few more people. They all seemed to like it. 

I am afraid that unlike all my previous cooking experiences, I have no photos of my attempt or the finished drink this time ... so please bear with me.

Thank you for reading, and have a glorious Eid, all of you. Also, my best wishes for the coming festive season to all my Hindu brethren.

Updates on Dad's health, and other stuff

As I write this on the evening of the 6th of August 2012, I am feeling a little depressed that I am not with my parents and family these days. It isn't that I was expressive about my love for dad and mom; I wasn't, and that is the honest truth. However, I did, and I do, love them. My dad is passing through his worst ever life year, and I am not there to help him or mom, who must be having to struggle with him a lot. Dad remains in hospital. Nishrin, together with Iqbalbhai Bhinderwala (our neighbour in Mazgaon), has helped clean up Dad's house as best as possible so that it is in a presentable condition when Dad is discharged from the hospital and brought back home. Not only did she orchestrate the selling of the old bed and mattresses, but also got the house disinfested with a professional pest control service, got a basic painting job done, and will, by tomorrow, replace the floor carpet etc., thus changing the topography of the house for good. In addition, dad's old newspapers, which had grown in bulk to take over large portions of the house, were all thrown away or sold off, so that a real change will have occurred. I plan to get photos of the new setting through the agency of my ever-willing daughter Hannah, and if possible, share them here with you so that you get an idea of what I am talking about.

My work here is going on as usual. There are hardly any challenges, and when they do come, most of the time, we refer the patient to T'aif. I plan to take a day's leave on Wednesday to go to T'aif and complete some pending bank work. In addition, I may stay overnight to be able to visit the Mall there and get some goodies back for later consumption.

I have been trying my hand at a few new dishes, as well as making old ones with a fresh infusion of instructions from a friend who has been inspiring me to experiment. I made rasam without using rasam powder for the first time last week. 

Rasam

Pasta and beans

Then, yesterday, I procured fish curry gravy from the south Indian restaurant on the highway and added cut pieces of thelapia fish to make it into a proper fish curry. Today, I made Penne pasta and added a can of fava beans and some minced meat to it to compose my lunch. In this manner, I am finding things to do in an otherwise boring way of life.

I would be erring if I said I don't miss my family. I do miss them terribly, especially in Ramadan - and I nearly cried when Nishrin told me on the phone that they are missing my energetic input of spirituality and of getting different foods from Bhendi Bazaar for the iftaar. I suppose I can live with their absence, and they, with mine, but it is a sad thing to happen, and it won't be a day too early when I finally exit from here and go back to my home in India.

In the end, I may as well add that when my blog goes back into the public mode, this post and several others before it may make less sense than when they were read in live mode, but I indulge my readers to read them with the same love and care they have bestowed on me before I went private a  month ago. 

Thank you all.

A Week later ...

Readers will discover this post when I go back into public mode. The last six or seven days when I have been off-public and in private mode for certain reasons have been routine for the most part. I continued to be on-call this week, and have had a fair share of calls in the evenings and nights. In the day-time, though, I have been free to read and do other stuff on the internet. This week was bad from the point of view of studies: I scored low in many multiple-choice-questions that I tried to answer, and this has firmed my resolve to read more.


Dr. Mohammed Abdel Jawad, one of my resident doctor friends from Egypt, brought my Mastercourse books with DVD when he returned from his holiday in Cairo, and I will be indebted to him for getting this book at a much lower price than its mandated price. So, I have begun reading this with earnest.


I also did a fair amount of cooking this week, making a vegetable mix of bottle-gourd with carrots, a boiled potato bhaji, mutton masala, and sprouted Bengal gram. Also made rice and other stuff off and on. Breakfast wasn't very formal but I did make poha (a dry snack made from beaten puffed rice) one of the days and it turned out to be quite nice. It missed a dash of sweetness which is what I like to get into it when I have it in Mumbai. The chapatis I brought from India have served me well, and I am now worried about what will happen once the stock runs out! Thus, I economise on their consumption, varying them with rice, bread or other stuff.


Ramadan started on Thursday here, and I was looking forward to the new OPD schedule that went into place from today, i.e. Saturday. From today till the end of the Holy month, we will be attending a split duty from 10-1 in the morning and then 9-12 in the evening. This enables us to be in the home the entire afternoon and evening, a sort of blessing since it is so hot anyway. As I write this, I am preparing for my first ever evening shift which is to start in an hour.


In other news, I must update that as Dad's blood levels suggested a fair control of his kidney functions after his 7-8 sessions of dialysis, he has been advised rest for a week or two. He had developed some catheter infection (he had a intravenous line in one of his neck veins for his repeated dialysis), and this line was removed on this Friday. Inas is doing fine at her job, and Hannah has settled into a good routine at her Management studies. Nish is good as ever, but a little overwhelmed each morning because of the hectic start. Mom is keeping well, but getting exhausted after looking after her own self and her husband, my dad. However, the good news is that they now have a helper, a 17-year old boy, who stays with them from 8 a.m. in the morning till 7 p.m. in the evening. This should make Mom's condition a little better. 


I continue to live alone in the large house I "inherited" from Dr. Shahid after his departure from here, and to tell you honestly, it is a good thing, because I have a free run of the house and can "do as I please", with none to share my physical and emotional space with. The downside is the fact that I have to bear the entire rent and also that I am all alone and sometimes feel the lack of company.


That's all for now. 

Day 240, Wednesday, 11th July, 2012: Starting all over again

Moving back into my old house felt like starting all over again, except that this time, I had a house with about 75% stuff already bought by me for my own use from Dr. Shahid. The remaining 25% I would have to buy over the next few days or weeks or months. For the last three days, I have been going over the things I needed desperately and I began stocking my house with those first. Thus, I purchased a stainless steel 3-burner stove, but it was not up to the mark, and I had to return it and get a cheaper but more reliable iron 2-burner stove. I had to go out and buy a water jug, salt, turmeric, vegetables, some dals, some plates, some spoons, an onion receptacle (plastic), chicken (machine-cut into pieces), lamb-mince (kheema), salt and pepper cellars, milk, curd, cheese slices, etc. etc. Finally, I finished the tasks today afternoon, and then prepared dal to eat for dinner. I also retrieved three chappatis from the freezer and re-heated them and kept them aside for the night.


I have yet to arrange my books ... but that is going to be easier than it looks. After all, I have to just remove them from the carton and stack them side by side in the glass cupboard. Do you think that might be tough? Let's see.


In other news, nothing really. I am planning to resume serious walking in a day or so ... I am really neglecting that one for now. Yesterday, I managed only 3 km. The day before, nothing. Today, so far, it looks like nothing much will be possible as I am still in the house and it is past 7.30 p.m.


Of late, I have been reading and interacting a lot on the Times of India website; they have made the site interesting with rewards in the form of badges etc to those who comment, forward and share their articles and so on. Sort of like a mini-social networking ... do check it out here.

Days 114 and 115, Thursday and Friday, 8th and 9th March, 2012

A new weekend, but this time, there is nothing exciting to report from the work-place as, although I was on call, there were not many calls or admissions to attend to. I had an easy time, which I spent mostly in walking/roaming around, reading a book (The Last Mughal, by William Dalrymple), cooking stuff (I made a potato preparation, some chapatis and mutton masala ... but the last named item gave me a lot of trouble as my first consignment got burned, and I had to make a fresh one; the entire process took me the better part of the day!).


My walks to the garden are becoming more interesting now, as I often go with my Canon DSLR and am able to shoot interesting birds. This week, a new type of bird visited the garden - there were about 5-6 of these birds that went krreeeee, krreeeee and flew with stretched wings above me; their colour was an iridescent bluish green, and methinks they were bee-eaters or some form of parakeets, but I am not sure, as on those two days, unfortunately, I wasn't carrying my camera. 


In addition to this exotic traveller, my last week was spent, while walking or jogging, in viewing the regular birds that are present in the garden; to wit, the Barn Swift, the female Common Bushchat, the Northern Wheatear,  the more recent visitor, the Black-capped Yellow wagtail,  the White Wagtail,  the Namaqua dove and the Tawny Pipit. Here are pictures of each of these birds:

Aside from these, I have also captured the Male common bushchat, the Paddyfield Pipit, and a few more birds .... but let's leave some of these for a later date, shall we?

That's all for now. Thank you for reading.

Day 95, Saturday, 18th February 2012

Today, I received a very early morning SMS on my mobile. The time was forty-five minutes past 3 a.m. The sender was my bank, and the not-too-disturbing SMS was "An amount of _________ credited to your account". 


It was my salary. Imagine the nerve of the Saudians! They deposit amount in your account in the deep of the night! :-) This, then, was my first direct account-credited salary, and I gave a silent whoop of joy before returning to sleep. The rest of the day pales before such exciting news in comparison, but, to be honest, I had a very silent first day of the ER duty. There was one admission, but that's it. No further calls and no night calls. 


I spoke to my family in the evening (here, it is evening, but it is almost half past nine or more in India, so I thank my family members for taking my calls and for speaking with me at such a late hour.). I am making plans to visit India either in late May or early June as a split holiday. In fact, only yesterday, in response to my earlier post on monotony, one of my readers suggested that I do this to relieve the boredom. I pointed out to him that I had already started thinking in that direction, and my call to my family merely helped solidify that thought into probable course of action. Thanks, Dr. Muhbeen. 


My alu-palak turned out to be more delicious than I had thought, and I invite readers to "taste" it with these words. It looked a healthy spinachy green, it had the right "saag-like" consistency, the alus in it were the right shade of cream, and the overall preparation tasted divine, both with chapatis and rice. There's lots more ... so if anyone from Al Muweh or Saudi Arabia is reading this, come over and have it with me.


My evening jogs are becoming better and better. I am now able to jog for a continuous 30-35 minutes, or about 2.5 km. In addition, I also do some amount of stretching exercises and about 1/2 an hour of brisk walking. All in all, I guess I am doing just about enough to keep myself active and in good shape and good metabolic status. May Allah grant me these bounties for a long time to come. 

Days 81-85, the entire working week

As stated by me in my previous entry, the week that was was a horrible one for two reasons: my co-Pediatrician Dr. Yasser worked only on Saturday, and then went on leave, so I was alone; and two, the weather changed suddenly for the worse (it became much more cold), so that children came in huge numbers with respiratory illnesses, both to the OPD and to the ER. On any of these five days, I had at least 8 patients in the ward and up to three calls in the night. 


I had barely any time to explore the net, or check out my favourite web-sites or email, let alone time to publish the blog entries. On last Monday, I had to refer three patients to the larger Children's Hospital in Ta'if. This irked the residents since I had insisted that one of them accompany each of the patients in the ambulance.


In between, I managed to cook simple food, and I had to do this, as I had been away the last weekend and there was no ready food. The pakora kadhi satiated me for two meals and a breakfast (which I had with brown, whole wheat bread). I also made do with a few meals at one of the local eateries, and at least two lunches in the hospital cafeteria. I could not leave the hospital premises for lunch at home (something that I usually do as I go home with Dr. Narendra in his car), so I brought fruits, slices of buttered bread or something similar to have in the afternoon.


In the evenings, I continued my routine of walking and jogging on at least 3 of the five days. The other two days - I was busy on one of them, and plain lethargic and not in the mood on the second. I "skyped" with the family on two or three days, making up to them with a call to one of my daughters or Nishrin on the remaining days.


The work-centred week made me realise that things can change, and change rapidly, in this country. The cold wave that came in did so quite fast, and brought with it a wave of illnesses that made work so heavy. Just as suddenly, though, the intensity of work declined on Tuesday evening, and by Wednesday, the OPD and ER work had reduced considerably, the wards emptied out, and I had, finally on the Wednesday, not a single night call. 


Of course, my on-call continues through the week-end, but, if the trend is anything to go by, I should have an easy weekend.


On Wednesday evening, I prepared Dal, chopped and fried onions, marinaded some chicken and made a light mixed vegetable. I would make chicken, rice and may be some more food over the weekend ... lets see.

Day 74, Saturday, 28th January, 2012

The weekend passed, and a new week began on this Saturday. In general, I had a light week when I was on-call, and I had decided that I would go to Ta'if the coming week. As I write this on the evening of Tuesday the 30th of January, my preparations for the trip have already begun. But let me not get ahead of the story.


The day passed off uneventfully, really, except for the fact that I made a new vegetable on Saturday. It was a long, green vegetable, most probably the snake-gourd, which I experimented with. You just scrape off the skin and then cut the long stalk into smaller, more manageable pieces. Dice each into two halves, remove the cores as you do in a bottle-gourd, and then cut the piece into smaller pieces, again similar to the ones that you make with a bottle-gourd. You cook it in pretty much the same way as you do bottle-gourd; I added green-peas to provide for variety and texture and added only garlic, red-chilli powder, salt and coriander powder to spice this dish. It came out very well, and I enjoyed eating it on Sunday.


The duck curry has, meanwhile, continued to satiate my appetite, and I still have a lot of it in the refrigerator on the eve of my 4-day departure planned for Tuesday.\


The new doctor who has come to our hospital in the Surgery department in place of the still absent Dr. Shahid is Dr. Aly Kamran from the King Faisal Hospital, Ta'if. A Pakistani who is here in this country since the last 7+ years, he is a FRCS from Ireland and looks like a competent and tough person. I am enjoying the interaction with him just as I did with two of his earlier predecessors, Dr. Asadullah and Dr. Tariq (both these worthies are also Pakistani General Surgeons).


That's all for now ... await my next entry and please, please, do comment here!

Cooked something new ...

As promised, here are the photos of the duck curry I made today - the pictures are of the full duck with the skin, the next ones of the meat pieces and the liver pieces and the last one is the final look after seasoning ... intend to have it today!

Cooking food on one's own

Contrary to what you, dear reader may think, this is neither a gripe about the task of cooking nor a snub to female readers for whom cooking is a daily chore that they often come to despise. I am merely writing this to share my experiences about this essential task of living. 


For single males who have never cooked in their lives, a stint of work in a country like Saudi Arabia, and more particularly, in a small town like Al Muweh can be a daunting task. The reason is not too far to seek: there are no decent restaurants here; I mean, there are a few places, but they all have a limited menu of from 5-15 items in all, and not all of them are cooked well. Also, there are just a few cafeteria where fast food is available  - not the delicious food that you see in Pizza Hut or McDonald's but indigenous concoctions that are designed to be prepared and fried easily (yes, fried ... that is the only variety you will get in the small joints), are not too costly and are tasty enough for one to eat and to return to eat again and again.

Thankfully, I can manage quite well. The proof is that I have, in the last 1 1/2 months, cooked a varied repertoire of dishes, including chicken masala, yellow dal, black dal, cabbage, mixed vegetables, mutton mince, ready-to-fry samosas, noodles, soups, sevaiyan, brinjals, french beans, potatoes bhaji as well as fried, etc. Today, I made Penne pasta in a tangy tomato sauce, and kadhi with onion pakoda. Here are the pictures with a picture of a salad I made:


I am planning on an ambitious dish within the next twenty-four hours, and will display pictures of the same if the dish and its preparation are something to talk about. Watch this space tomorrow. 


The beauty of cooking here is that food prices are quite low, and it is possible to make even exotic things. That's all I am going to say for now. 


Bye for now.