A week in India

It has been a week since I came to India. I reached Mumbai airport at half past eleven on the night of the 31st of December. The airport at Mumbai is really a very busy one, and it took over 2 hours for me to reach home from there. The new T2 terminal is really well-designed, but I felt that the arrivals area is not as pretty as the departures area which is located on the upper floor in full sight of the sky. The arrivals occurs at a lower level, and one has to then descend to an even lower level to reach the taxi stand. At the time I arrived, there were 2-3 other arrival flights, so the immigration guys were really stretched. The long walk one has to take before reaching immigration, however, really dampens one's energy. It is nearly 2 km long! A few meters here and there have horizontal automatic walkers, but the rest of it you have to walk all the way. 

Back home, I was welcomed by my family in a very glorious fashion. Considering that the time was well past two a.m., that was so nice of them. Not only did I receive a whole lot of hugs and kisses, they even had me cut a cake as a welcome gift. I was thrilled by their elaborate preparations. 

The next few days saw me going to several places, among them, visiting my mom (who keeps well, Alhamdulillah), completing various tasks, and taking my family for dinner on the 1st of January (at a place called The Sassy Spoon at Express Towers, Nariman Point).

On the 3rd, I visited Sion-Koliwada with Nishrin and prayed at the Dashmesh Gurudwara there. Also met Lovely and her son there. From there, we parcelled two plates of Fish tikka to eat at home ... from a place known as Hardeep Restaurant. The restaurant is well-known to everyone in this area and receives hundreds of guests.

On the 4th, we invited Nishrin's brother Pappu with his family, as also Mom and her companion Sakinabai, and Murtuza and his family, to dinner. Kaizar and his family, too, were invited, but did not come. This was my first-time with Pappu's son Devender, his wife Radha and their mischievous son, who entertained us all the way with his antics and his unusually sharp mind. We served catered food: there were chicken legs, Mutton biryani, Gupta's Kulfi, Mutter paneer with chapatis, and carrot halwa. The last two items were home-made by Nish. Everyone enjoyed the food and our hospitality.

We also went for a marathon shopping session to Phoenix Highstreet on the 5th of January, spending nearly 10 hours there as we went to almost all the shopping centers there, including Skywalk, Galleria, Palladium and Courtyard. We ended with a dinner at Mainland China in Palladium Mall.

My studies are picking up, and just 11 days remain before I sit for my exams. It will be a tight race to the finish as I still have so much more to read. The evening Skype sessions are now not taking place, as most of the others with whom I was studying are busy doing other things. Only Dr. Sarita and I are due to appear from Ahmedabad in the next fortnight. 

I am missing my work in Saudi Arabia more than I thought I would. Life there is relaxed, while it is very hectic here in Mumbai. Anyways ... life goes on.

India on my mind

And so it goes: the bags are gradually filling up. I am allowed to carry 2 suit-cases of maximum 23 kg each, but already one is bursting at the seams. The second one is currently empty, but will get filled pretty quickly with books. Books of all kinds, since I am appearing for the MRCPCH exams from India, so I will be studying a lot in the final fortnight before the exams, which are on the 18th of January in Ahmedabad. I am now in the last few days, and will reach India a few hours into the new year. Hopefully. 

The news from all over the world continues to be so disappointing. No end in sight to the Syrian war. A third Malaysian origin plane goes missing. Saudi Arabia will post a deficit budget for the first time in many years, thanks to the slowing down of the petroleum-driven economy. The prospective Dubai employer has not agreed to revise my salary upwards, in spite of my request to do so. In the end, if no other offers are forthcoming, I will accept the offer from D M Healthcare and will probably apply for exit after I return to Saudi after my vacation. But nothing is sure for the time-being. Only time will tell.

My family back in Mumbai has been "warned" to give me a good welcome. They are reluctant, as I will probably reach home only late in the night (of the 31st)  - or, if you wish to see it another way, just at the onset of the new year. The first few weeks are going to be all about studies, but later, let me see where we go with the fun and the pleasure. 

Back here, Al Muwayh stays the same as always. A few new structures are getting erected, mostly Ground + 1 buildings which have space for 2-4 shops on the ground floor, and a few rooms for rent on the first floor. However, the buildings are made over several years, since the owners do not pay the workers consistently to create the full structure in a short space of time. My room-mate and colleague Dr. Mohd. Afzal is a picture of piety and simplicity. His co-operation and generally good behaviour has been inspiring to me. I have also learned from him how not to be "food-centered" as I usually am. He is happy to cook one dish every 3-4 days and have the same item for both lunch and dinner all the days till the vessel has been emptied! It is something I can never, ever do. 

I am now off any diets, and have put on the 2-3 kg that I had lost during my GM diet days in the previous few months. I am putting in about 3-5 hours of study each day now. My Skype sessions are now not as regular as before since the sense of urgency is missing from among my Skype group members who are NOT appearing with me in January.

Saw a few interesting movies last week. PK, starring Amir Khan, was average in the story, but was lifted to a little above average only thanks to the awesome acting by the Khan. The other movie I saw, The Interview, is a Hollywood movie that was in the news because its release around Christmas was blocked by hackers from North Korea, the country that is ridiculed in the movie.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. I will next write after 3-4 days, and it will be from India.

Gradually entering the oncoming vacation mode

As I posted on my social page, I am shortly leaving KSA for a vacation. However, it is not just a vacation. I will also be appearing for my final MRCPCH exams from Ahmedabad. I am slowly shifting into the preparation mode for the vacation. I have stopped cooking food, as my refrigerator still has a lot of food that I have prepared earlier, or purchased ready-made from Taif. I am now in the process of emptying all those containers of previously stocked food items. I am amazed at my own ability to keep stocking the fridge with food: there are items that I parcelled from Taif; there are left-overs of food cooked by me; there's even food from India that I had brought back with me in end-of-June (stuff like kababs and cutlets which I have preserved in the freezer compartment - this stuff can stay without spoiling for even longer!); and finally, there are things which cannot be readily called "food" - it includes biscuits, chocolates, puffs, toast, assorted kinds of breads and roti, and what not.

So, I have decided to take some of the unique food items I bought here back with me to India. Thus, I will carry some breakfast cereals, some confectionery, some ready-to-eat low-cal food bars, ready to pop microwave friendly popcorn, and so on. I am not saying what impact these things will have on the home minister or my two daughters, but, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So, I guess, I have to wait and see.

My car got repaired, and I went to Taif and brought it back on Sunday. Actually, a medical rep from an infant milk formula company obliged me by coming to pick me up from Al Muwayh; he took me in his car all the way to Taif, where he dropped me at the garage of Mr. Nadeem, the mechanic who looks after my car. Nadeem stuck a bill of nearly 1200 Saudi Riyals on me, but I had no option other than to pay it in full. So I did. And came back the same evening to Al Muwayh.

Getting paid for blogging

Dayre is a mobile application which is being rolled out selectively to bloggers from all over the world. They sent me an email a few days ago; they have asked me (like thousands of others) to blog exclusively from their site for 3 months beginning June 2014. If they find that my blog fetches many eyeballs and followers, they may select to grant me a blogging scholarship running into thousands of dollars; even if that does not happen, they can still grant me a small honorarium at the end of three months. How cool is that? I have decided to write on a myriad topics ranging from fitness to food to lifestyle ... and I request all my readers here to visit my blog on Dayre whenever you can and follow me ... but hey, hold your horses. This does not happen until a few weeks later. At that time, I will post a link and you can then visit my blog either on your smartphone or on the laptop/PC. Getting more followers is the key, and hence this is a humble request. 

What is in it for you? LOL ... when you read the blog and enjoy it, please consider that as your legitimate reward. When the money comes, if it comes, sure, I can host a party at that time. Will let you know the details. Thank you.

Okay, so Al Muwayh is quiet. It is my third weekend on continuous call, and as of today, I do not see any relief, but I have requested my Medical Director for a few days' leave next week so that I can rest for a while. In other news, my studies are at a low level this week as the internet is fractious here and my colleagues cannot add me to their discussions. 

I am learning about a few things online. Both my online study courses have completed or are completing 2 weeks and it's been a great experience. The course on Engaging India has students from all over the world, with 40% of them from India itself. It seems that Indians also want to learn a lot about their complicated nation! The forums are exhaustive, and to some extent, exhausting. The guys out there are so well-read on matters Indian that I feel like I am a sort of caterpillar emerging out of pod of peas in front of them! The lecturers, both Australian, are certainly well-versed with their subject. They have both spent many years in India, so they should be knowledgeable about ground realities as well. And they are. To an extent. 

The other course I am doing is Community Change in Public Health. This course is also very interesting. It is about how health workers, NGOs and other committed beings and entities can transform communities from being helpless into being competent enough to take matters into their own hands and chart their own territory to improve their own health both individually and collectively. Building up on the principles of Primary Health Care (Alma Ata, 1975), the course goes deeper into how we can bring about such change and how we can measure and follow up with the progress of these interventions.

What else is happening? Well, I am visiting India from mid-June until the end of the month (for 15 days) in order to attend a training course for MRCPCH in Bangalore and also to meet my family and complete certain pending tasks. My leave permission letter arrived from the Health directorate on Thursday, so the vacation is ON. 

I also wanted to share something about a TV serial that I had downloaded on my laptop and which I have been viewing episode by episode since the last several months. It is called BREAKING BAD. It completed its story over 5 seasons (approximately 70 episodes) and after viewing four of these five seasons, I can say that this is a must-see serial. Download it and watch it, guys. The main protagonist is a mature actor, and acts very convincingly. His wife, his handicapped son, his work colleague, etc. are all well-chiseled characters. The story itself is compelling viewing.

That's it for now. Right now, of course, all Indians are restlessly awaiting the announcement of the results of the general elections - with Narendra Modi predicted to carry the day and become India's next Prime Minister and his party, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the party forming the government. I am following the news on Times Now, and it is, sometimes, even more gripping than all the other TV shows combined. At other times, though, crass politics and name-calling makes the viewing offensive, nay, unpardonably unwatchable.

Some more news from my homestead

Well, I have so many things to do that I am simply lacking for time to sit on the net ... people know me as the guy who is always on the computer ... either on FB or on the blogs ... which is, to some extent, correct while I am in KSA. However, in India, I have about 20-30% of the time (compared to the time I used to have in KSA) available for browsing the net. As a result, I am unable to write the blog as much, or play games on FB as much, or even reply to various mails as quickly. I am unable to join my MRCPCH friends for online discussions. I am unable to find time to watch TV ... need I say more?

Yesterday, I purchased a plum-coloured Honda Activa scooter through the grey market. With this, I am now much more comfortable commuting through the narrow lanes and crowds of South Mumbai. 

In other news, both my daughters are good. Inas continues to work at the Juice Salon as a hair dresser/stylist; Hannah, the younger one, has just successfully completed their college's cultural festival, in which she was the Joint Head, Creative Team - as a result, she is very, very happy. Mom is okay, I guess. I had her checked up by a cardiologist, who opined that her heart was good. Then, I took her to a chest physician who felt she has lung-related problems, so we have begun the treatment suggested by him.

That's it for now. Do leave your comments and oblige. Thanks for reading this entry.

Nine days in India ... so far.

How quickly time passes once you are with your people in your city ... I reached India on last Friday night, and the first eight days have gone by so quickly I can only step back for a little while and look back upon this period with awe. Let me retrace my journey for my dear readers.

As you know this is the fourth time I have come to India since I went to work in Saudi Arabia two years ago. I made three journeys last year; the first was in May 2012, the second was in October 2012 (when I came to India for just a week, and this was on the occasion of my father's passing away) and the last one was in March 2013. This year, I had decided to go for just one annual vacation, combine it with some optional and additional off-days and stay in India for a longer period. Well, that longer period is rapidly growing shorter.

In the past eight days, I spent two entire days in the house, supervising various repairs to my house. While the carpenters spent one whole day in my house, joining/fixing/repairing etc., the plumbers and painters took the next day, fixing a water tank above the toilet and painting some worn out portions of the "storage" area and so on. Between these two days, I also spent a lot of time righting the internet, which had conked out. Compared to the easy and fast access we have in KSA, internet in India is slow, unreliable and finicky. It was after repeated calls to the call centres that Hathway's internet service was restored. Thus, I was incommunicado for a few days.

I have also set in motion various tasks that I had set for myself before starting on my vacation. I have submitted my camera and the paraphernalia for cleaning and servicing. I have booked my tickets for a trip to Punjab to meet Nishrin's family members. I have started preparing for my birding trip to Goa next week. I have repeatedly apologised to my friends on the net for not being available for studies. I have planned mom's visit to a cardiologist next week. In this fashion, I have been busy, busy all day and half of all nights, doing this or that, planning that or this, and so on. On my extensive agenda are many other tasks, among which are a trip to Pune, at least another Nature outing, dinner parties with my doctor friends, spending quality time with my family, and planning on an international holiday with them, most likely South Africa, and many other things.

The BIG event that occurred during these days was the wedding of my cousin Fatema Moonim's daughter IBRIZ to ABBAS, s/o Dr. and Mrs. Hatim. The Mehendi function took place on Wednesday last, while the reception was on Saturday, i.e. yesterday.At both these functions, we had a great time. In particular, I had a great time meeting with so many old friends and acquaintances, as well as many internet friends for the first time. 

As I write this on the night of Sunday, I have just returned from a dinner outing with my family. We went to Curry Club, a sea-food restaurant located bang opposite Regal Cinema at Museum Circle. We had two starters, one, a Bassa-fish dish, and the other, tandoori prawns, This was followed by a Lamb Xacuti with appams and a Dum Biryani (lamb). For accompaniments, we had a soup and/or juice-based mocktails. Enjoyed the dinner very much. 

That's all for now ... thanks for reading. I have posted some pictures of my family and me on Facebook. I will try and post them here as well. Please bear with me in the meantime. Here is a sampling:

Thanks to all of you once again for your attention and kind wishes.

 

The last week before the annual vacation: Sunday evening (17th Nov.) to Thursday morning (21st Nov.)

After my return from Turabah on Sunday evening, I started my preparations for the annual vacation coming up this coming week-end. I had expected our liaison officer, Mr. Ali, to bring my passport from the MOH Muderiya on Sunday and hand it over to my colleague Dr. Niaz Qureshi (OB-GY from Pakistan), but Ali did not oblige. However, he had assured me on the phone that he would hand me the passport on the next day if I went to Ta'if. I had no choice but to take permission from our medical director Dr. Shehab and request Dr. Yasser to allow me to go to Ta'if. 

On Monday, I received my passport from the Muderiya directly, as Ali had arranged with one of the employees to hand me the required document without him being present. I was greatly relieved to have my passport with a valid, stamped exit-re-entry visa. This is the exact moment when all my stress dissipated! Now, I was, for the first time, sure that I would, indeed, be going on Friday, the day of my flight to India. 

I then allowed Yasser to proceed on a two days' leave and said I would look after the work.  One of my other friends, Dr. Emaam Sayed, had co-ordinated his ER duties in such a way that he would be free to take me to Ta'if in his car. Things were finally going my way, I thought smugly. Yasser wished to return on Thursday afternoon, and I okayed this, since I was sure Dr. Emaam would not mind taking me in the evening. 

Then things again began to go wrong. Emaam said he would be going in the morning ... and when I tried to re-arrange my understanding with Dr. Yasser, he went into an incognito mode! His official cell number was switched off, and he did not pick up the other number, his personal line, which he has shared with me. As Tuesday turned to Wednesday and morning to night, my panic increased. I had to contact him and request him to join the next morning, or I would be left without any mode of transport to go to Ta'if. 

In the end, he never did pick up my calls, but, to my pleasant surprise, he turned up for duty on Thursday morning. Thus it was that I finally left for Ta'if with Dr. Emaam at ten a.m. on Thursday. 

My vacation had finally begun!

P.S. On Tuesday evening, my car again gave me some trouble. One of the belts that connects the engine and generator to the car battery had probably fallen off and the battery, therefore, was not getting charged. I managed to get the necessary belt replaced and rectified the problem on Wednesday evening.

Mumbai at last: 28th February 2013

Over six days have passed since I landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai at a few minutes before 8:00 A.M. on Friday 22nd February 2013. This is my third visit to Mumbai since I left to work for the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in November 2011. I have attempted to discuss many facets of my life there in the last 14-15 odd months in this blog.

My first vacation was in May 2012, when I came to Mumbai for about 25 days; during that visit, I also went for an internal holiday to Sikkim and Darjeeling with my family. The second time I came here was in October. My father had just passed away, and I came to Mumbai for about a week to meet my mother and other members of our families to condole my father's death.

This is to be my longest holiday - 35 + days. Also, no long internal holidays are planned this time as Hannah's exams are getting over only a few days before the end of my vacation here. I do plan to meet relatives and friends, of course, and this should take up a fair amount of time.

My first six days have been a bit hectic, as I have been busy running here and there for several domestic matters. I purchased a second-hand Chevrolet Beat as Hannah, my younger daughter, plans to use it to drive herself and/or the family in the days to come.

In other news, I must say that I am surprised that I am actually missing my friends in Saudi Arabia. The first time, I did not, as my ties with them were not as strong at that time. The second time was a very brief visit to meet my family at the time of my father's demise. This time around, there are no hard and fast rules, no serious issues of engagement and I am free to relax and to do what I please in the next month or so that I am going to be here.

After coming to Mumbai, I have begun to go to the Mazgaon Garden for the morning walks. So far, the progress has been fair. My family and I went to see a movie and ate out the same evening at Ling's Pavilion, the restaurant behind the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower near the Gateway of India. The food was delectable, but the Mongolian chicken preparation was really, really HOT. We had to have it between sips of water.  For those not familiar with this Chinese eatery, it has a lovely milieu and interiors, a running stream with large fish in it under one's feet, a multi-level seating arrangement and great food. To reach this place, one has to enter the Cafe Mondegar Lane. The restaurant entrance is tastefully made, and eating within is a pleasure too.

Which movie did we see? Oh yes, we saw the movie Kai Po Che (the guttural cry made by kite enthusiasts in Gujarat when they manage to cut and set free another flyer's kite ... it literally means "Have cut it!"). This movie is adapted from Chetan Bhagat's "The Three Mistakes of My Life". Rating: 4 stars.

I performed Hajj last October, so I am also distributing a "hadiyah" a token gift of dates, zam zam, and a small memento to all my relatives and close friends. In connection with that, I have been busy too, making the parcels and then going to each one's place to hand these over with respect and love. 

Will continue to update my experiences in the days and weeks to come ... 

Holiday over, coming back

Dear Readers, 


Today, I am taking the return flight to Saudi Arabia after completing my brief vacation. Will land in Jeddah by sunset, Inshallah. I intend to join work in a day or two. My holiday in India (specifically, Mumbai, and with the family, a 10-day vacation to Sikkim and Darjeeling) went off nicely, but for the worsening general health of both my parents. My dad will soon go on dialysis as he has been detected to have renal failure, and mom continues to be cardiac-handicapped and is restricted to the house. 


Will write more later ... am getting ready to go to the airport now.


Thank you all for reading.

One week in India over ... looking ahead

Dear Readers,


My first vacation in India began last Friday when I landed uneventfully at the C.S.M. International Airport on Friday morning at 9.05 a.m. I was met by Nishrin, and we drove home in an airport-taxi. On the way, we looked in on Inas and Hannah, who were both at Inas's institute (Hakim's Aalim, Versova, where she is in her last few weeks of training as a Hair-care and grooming expert). I met both my daughters with warm hugs. After a while, I went homeward with my better-half, and reached home a little after 11.00 a.m. 


The next seven days have passed in a whirl-wind, as it were, with visits to several places to do several things: at the rationing office, the travel agent (we are, as a family, travelling to Sikkim for a holiday later this month), the post office, the various banks where I have accounts, at the bank from where Inas got her education loan for the last year of her training as a hotel management student (I am clearing off that loan), various shopping areas and malls, relatives' places, and so on and so forth. For the first time, I am experiencing what many of you have already gone through when you return to India for a brief holiday. Believe me, I have now begun to understand why many of you don't find the time to call us or accept our invitations for lunch/dinner. 


It has been a hectic trip so far, but the redeeming thing is the gastronomic pleasures that I am satisfying every single day. I prepared a list of the almost 70-80 things that I miss in Saudi Arabia, and I began to visit all the outlets where I can get those things to eat. On an average, I strike off 2-3 items off that list, and I think I have already satisfied myself on over 20 of those items! The already-completed list includes pani puri, sev puri, chana bateta, batata wada, kabab with lambaa pav, idli sambar, masala dosa, onion utthappa, poha, fish meal (at Apoorva, with the family), mooli paratha and chhole (at a nice Parathas only outlet near Kala ghoda), vegetable sandwich, seekh kabab with tandoori roti, paya with roti, water melon, guvar ki bhaaji, and maybe a few more items. On the to-do list are chinese and korean items, a meal at Shalimar (Bhendi Bazaar), pav bhaji, khandvi, upmaa, bhel puri, pizza, and many more items. LOL.


My unique moments this week have been a) a visit to Nishrin's new parlour where we used to have a joint clinic-cum-parlour at the JJ Junction; she has really done the place up very nicely, and it was a pleasure to visit it; b) a visit to Marol to meet my aging faiji Zehra-faiji and fuwaji Mohsinbhai; c) a visit to meet both the maasis - one at Versova (Zulekhamasi) and the other at Borivali (Sakkamasi) d) connecting with so many people -doctors, friends, neighbours, acquaintances, and even some old patients.


As my vacation enters Week 2, I am looking forward to meeting more of my friends, relatives and others, sampling more foods, and visiting Sikkim on an unforgettable holiday.


Thank you for reading. Please do comment.