Winding up: Nearly Game Over

The last four days have been very busy indeed, as I am trying to wind up my affairs here in the Kingdom. Several tasks still remain to be completed, but I am hopeful that I will be able to do so in the days to come. I visited Jeddah twice in the last 2 days, and had the occasion to meet my cousin Juzer and his family again today. This was my chance to renew contact with my ailing cousin. His contribution to my experience in KSA is immense, as he helped me find my way in the first few months. I admit I have been remiss in contacting him or in keeping in touch with him, but this is something that happens. We did manage to contact each other through social apps like Whatsapp from time to time. 

Discretion prevents me from talking about his health issues without having taken his permission; suffice to say that he hasn't completely overcome the problems that affect his health. His wife Memuna and his son Abi Talib are both extremely helpful to Juzer, as he is a bit incapacitated. 

My father's eldest sister Zehra-faiji Attarwala passed away yesterday night, so our meeting in Jeddah with each other also helped us to offer condolences in the traditional way to each other (Taaziyat),

I had work at the Insurance company (the one that has procured for me the comprehensive medical negligence policy); I had to request them to refund the money I have paid to them for the next 2 coming years.

After this, I had to go to the Indian Chancery (the equivalent of the Consulate General) to pick up a certificate declaring that I have no adverse stuff pending against my name. I hope this letter will be okay in lieu of the Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) that the new job guys have asked me to bring, because the latter will be nearly impossible to obtain. The best guess was that it may take 10 more days for the police to come back with a rock solid PCC.

I returned to Taif at eight p.m. ... and went for dinner later in the evening, before coming back and writing this entry. Do leave your comments for me.

Reached India ...

The last week has been a bit hectic; there have been a few incidents that I would like to share, a few items of news and some other information. As I told you all in my previous entries, I started my leave within Al Muwayh last week itself; a few days later, I started organising my leave and its later repercussions. I finally completed all such tasks by Monday. On that day, I filled up an online application for a UK visa in preparation for my forthcoming visit to that country to attend a conference on Patient Safety and Quality in London from the 21st to the 24th of April 2015. I took an application appointment for their Jeddah office for the 19th of March. Accordingly, I packed my bags and left for Taif on the 18th. This time, the Ahle Saif Hotel had no rooms, so I took up a room in the hotel right opposite their hotel. It is called the Judur e Masief hotel. The Egyptian manager gave me a nice ground floor room for SR 70 per night. Initially, I did not know whether I would continue to stay in Taif or return to Al Muwayh for a night before going back to Jeddah for my flight to India on Saturday night.

In the event, I never did return to Al Muwayh. The Jeddah trip was a complete waste of time, money and effort. This was simply a center to accept a visa application, not to process or adjudicate on it. Hence, and also because they told me they would need my original passport to send it with my application to Riyadh where the UK embassy was located, I returned empty-handed. And wasted nearly 350 Riyals in the process. Afterwards, I called up the UK Immigration and Visa office (a premium call where you have to subscribe by credit card ... they charge you GBP 1.37 per minute!). They told me that there was no need to complete a business visit visa from the country of one's residence, and one could apply from anywhere else in the world. After this, I went ahead and applied once again, this time choosing Mumbai, India as my base station. And took an appointment for the coming Tuesday. Let us see how this goes ...

This time, I had booked my journey online through www.jetairways.com. They run flights from Jeddah to Mumbai ... however, the planes are not the big-sized ones but the usual Airbuses. Even so, I booked my journey with them. I reached Jeddah airport a bit early at around half past five in the evening for a journey that was still 7 hours away. I spent the next 3 hours going through my luggage and dumping a few old things like unwanted papers, old towels and such to bring the weight of my luggage down to less than 50 kg, of which the allowed luggage in the check-in category was 40 kg, while the cabin luggage allowance was 10 kg including the laptop bag. I exceeded both categories by up to 5 kg or so. The going rate for excess luggage was SR 76 per kg of excess. I pleaded with the check-in staff to forgo any penalties. And I succeeded.

Tragedy struck when information received by the onsite Jet Airways personnel confirmed that our flight would get delayed due to some technical problems.Initially, he led us to believe that the fault may get rectified and the flight might either be delayed by a few minutes to a maximum of 1 hour; an hour later, he had mellowed down and informed us that while the engineers were busy trying to rectify the malfunctioning part (he wouldn't tell us exactly what was the problem or which part had malfunctioned), they might have to wait for a suitable replacement part to arrive from their stock-facility in Doha by their next incoming flight, which was still 4 hours away. 

We resigned to various seats in the waiting areas. We tried to ask them to take us to a hotel, but they said that would be logistically impossible as our delay would not be for more than 5 hours at the most. 
We were waiting patiently for them to serve us dinner which they said they had requested to be sent for all the guests. What did arrive was adequate for the unforeseen emergency that had occurred. Our food packet had a large bread roll, rice, 3 chicken cutlets and a ladle-full of white beans. Adequate for the occasion. They finally boarded us a little before 4:00 a.m. as their local team managed to rectify the problem without awaiting the arrival of the new part from Abu Dhabi. They ran safety checks for quite some time, and once they were satisfied that everything was good, we took off at 5:00 a.m.

They served us breakfast on the flight. The facilities were quite mediocre, but the flight was event-free, barring some small instances of turbulence from the outside air. We touched down at Mumbai airport a few minutes before noon. 

They first sent zamzam water bottles and small bags on the luggage carousel. The big bags started arriving at 1:00 p.m., and I reached home at half past two in the afternoon. Thus, I arrived home nearly 21 hours after I first started my journey at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport at Jeddah on the previous evening.

Three days in Ta'if

After the end of the Hajj pilgrimage days, the roads to Ta'if, Makkah and Jeddah open up for the local people on the 15th of Dhul Hajj. Accordingly, I planned an outing to Ta'if from the 15th to the 17th of the current month (October 9th to 11th). I took one day's official leave, but left Al Muwayh in the evening of October 8th. Dr. Niaz Qureshi accompanied me from Al Muwayh, and he got off at a place called Arafat, which is a small village about 35 km before Ta'if. 

I checked into the Ahle Saif Hotel in Ta'if and had a quiet dinner at the Asian Hotel there. The first night passed off peacefully. On Thursday, I took my car to the garage where my Pakistani mechanic friend Mr. Nadeem Gujjar works. Handing over the car to him, I mandated him to repair all that could be repaired, and to overhaul my vehicle for any defects; after this, I returned to the hotel.  In the evening,  went around Ta'if, completing odd tasks; I also went shopping here and there, but mostly, I relaxed. Downloading some nice movies on my laptop was part of the relaxation strategy! 

In the night, I went to Vitamin Palace - an eatery on Abu Bakker Siddiq road, and ordered myself a treat of a Cheese-Chicken Jumbo Sandwich, a Fakh Fakhena (Fruit salad with Avocado, Mangoes, Pineapple, Pomegranate seeds and Papaya, to name a few ... with two single lops of ice creams at the top - vanilla and strawberry, in my case) and a soft drink. It was an immensely enjoyable dinner!

On Friday morning, I went to Jeddah in my now repaired car to meet Mr. Tanveer Malik, the Pakistani cabbie who had possession of the registration card of my old Toyota Corolla ... to bring this back from him. My forward journey got prolonged by a 100 km, thanks to wrong guidance by Samsung Galaxy's Google Maps, which guided me to a non-existent bridge to Jeddah (this prolonged my journey by 60 km), ... and then skipped a crucial U-turn to make me drive an extra 40 km!

Tanveer met me at his house, and I ate lunch with him and his nephew Mr. Ali. After this, before he could press me for more money (he has managed to inveigle me into parting with over SR 2000 in my last two trips to Jeddah), I took his leave and returned uneventfully to Ta'if by 5 p.m. In the night, I took dinner at the Asian Hotel. 

After this, I went to the Mobile Market and bought a slew of stuff such as a new battery for my Note 3, a monopod to take photos with my phone through a bluetooth connection, a new 10 GB Mobily Card for internet, and a new USB plug for recharging my phones.

Saturday saw me go to the Aramex office (it is on the King Faisal Road at a market place  just before the road turns to go toward Jeddah via Hada.) Here, I picked up my just-arrived external hard disk (2 TB for SR 474/-). Then, I went back to the car garage to fine tune a few installations, and then, to a car-key maker to program a new key. This guy could not make my new key because the programming did not occur properly. As a result, we had to wait for an hour before re-attempting the process - and this time, another man with greater expertise attempted it - and managed it successfully.

Earlier in the morning, I visited the local Centrepoint showroom on Shahar street and bought a new blue-coloured jacket and a new shirt for myself.

I then began my return journey to Al Muwayh, picking up Dr. Niaz again from Arafat. I arrived in Al Muwayh at a little after half-past seven. My journey had come to an end.

Life or Bollywood movie?

The Yemeni guy who had purchased my old car about a fortnight ago had second thoughts on this car; the legal office that was supposed to hand over the car to him had some problem receiving the all-clear status on my car as I had not cancelled the complaint regarding unknown persons robbing my car - this had to be done formally, and I was unaware of the system. Anyways, I approached my local police last week before going to Jeddah for my clinical MRCPCH course, and they made the necessary papers, but this had not reached the status of an official cancellation in the police's computerised system for over 10 days after the paper was made by my local police ... and until this was done, the legal office had NOT RELEASED MY CAR or transferred its ownership to the Yemeni fellow ... and he therefore lost interest in the car. He came to me in Al Muwayh on Monday the 22nd, and gave me the story. He said the legal guy wanted me to go to Jeddah and hand over the money back to the Yemeni and then re-possess my car!

Thus, I left for Jeddah in the Yemeni's car on Monday at about 2 p.m. We reached the legal office (maarad) at around 6 p.m. We met the legal guy, an Egyptian fellow called Atef. I paid the SR 3000 back to the Yemeni, and the officer promptly handed over the car key to me and gave me permission to take away my car. There would be some delay in getting back my vehicle registration card, he said, and it would be given to me the next morning. I was thus forced to stay back in Jeddah, without any toiletries or other stuff. 

The funny thing is that when the Yemeni guy came to fetch me in Al Muwayh, he told me that we would go to the maarad, I would hand him the money, get back my car, and then he would re-buy it from me through another maarad. He seemed interested in the car at the price he had paid me. The maarad guy wanted him to pay for "expenses" - an euphemism for extortion from him. The amount the officer quoted was SR 800! This would be a huge cut in the Yemeni's possible profit from the deal. So, he hung around me for some time, then he went a little further, ostensibly on the phone, and then, made an unceremonious, unannounced exit from the scene, without giving me back my money. The result: I now had back my car, he had back his money, and none of us would probably ever meet again.

I contacted the taxi-driver I had met last time, and stayed at his place overnight. The next day, we went to Maarad, but Atef told me the required card would not be ready that day, and so I requested him to hand over the card to the taxi driver Tanveer Ahmed/Malik. Next, we went to the old cars compound ("tashliya") to get an used compressor for my old car's A/C, and a few spare parts for my Hyundai Accent car (I needed a seat belt clamp and a front dashboard box, both of which are broken in my car). We then went to an A/C mechanic and fitted my old car with the A/C, filled it with gas etc. and then went to a mechanic to fix a few small things in the car. We finished both jobs by 8:00 p.m., after which I took leave of Tanveer (having paid him a huge amount for his service) and began my return journey.

I reached Al Muwayh in the late hours of the night - at half past two.

P.S. We went for lunch to a new place called Zamzam restaurant - which served an excellent plate of Kadai Mutton with rotis. I should review this place some time.  The service was a bit slow as there were too many costumers, but the food was piping hot and very nice.

Interesting stories from the last few months in a nutshell

Hi dear reader. I know many of you could not access Dayre, the application on which I blogged from June for three months, i.e. until August end. Hence, this post is a sort of summary of the things I did/experienced during these three months.

I was joined by a new Paediatrician from Kashmir India. His name: Dr. Mohd. Afzal Khan. He came around the last week of Ramadan, and within a week after Eid, we had to serve substitution duty in Zalm. The original plan was for me to go in the first week, and for Dr. Khan to go in the second week. Accordingly, I served my first week and returned to Al Muwayh on the coming Sunday, while Dr. Afzal reached Zalm to do his share of the two-week locum. Unfortunately, the director at Zalm refused him to return after his week was up, as, according to him, the Muderiya in Taif had been unable to find anyone else to replace him. (The Zalm Paediatricians were both not available: Dr. Hany went on his annual vacation, while Dr. Hamza, the other pediatrician went on emergency leave as he underwent back surgery for a severe disc problem.)

Dr. Afzal did six weeks in Zalm, and only returned after that. He was really bored there, as Zalm is an even smaller village than Al Muwayh, and if you search my blog, you will find that I have done several substitution duties there in 2012 and early 2013. 

In any case, it is only after Dr. Afzal returned that I was able to go to Jeddah to give my DHA exams, about which I have written in an earlier entry this month. In Jeddah, I sold off my old Toyota Corolla, and bought a 2010 Blue Hyundai Accent. The three days I spent in Jeddah were quite unique, in that I had the company of a Pakistani taxi driver Tanveer Malik; the latter stayed with me for 1 1/2 days, taking me to the exam center and back to my hotel, driving me with my car to the car market. 

After this, I had to again go to Jeddah to join the MRCPCH Clinical Training course at the King Abdul Aziz University Hospital from the 11th to the 14th of September 2014. This time, I drove in my "new" car, and the experience of driving in a properly air-conditioned car was really enjoyable. I stayed in a small hotel (Hotel Imtiaz) in the Al Naseem area of Jeddah which abuts the way to the university hospital, and is also close to the Bani Malik area of Jeddah. This hotel gave me a single room for just SR 100 per night, and I was therefore able to save some cash! However, I did a lot of shopping at a nearby mall (Danube) on the King Abdullah Road. Danube Mall is fantastic! The range of items available here is phenomenal. In addition to the hundreds of varieties available here, they also have a lot of imported stuff such as organic foods, chocolates, teas, coffees, biscuits, snacks, chips, etc. etc. These items are specially highlighted as "Imported" items on the shelves, and their prices are more than the other items sold by the side. 

I should also describe one more thing: during the six weeks that Dr. Afzal was in Zalm, the nurses in Al Muwayh organised a string of parties for one event or the other; they organised a send-off party for Dr. Tariq, our Syrian general Surgeon who has now been transferred to Taif and been promoted as a Thoracic surgeon.

Cakes and pastries for Dr. Tariq's party

Food and pizzas for the same party

Dr. Tariq

Then, there was a huge birthday party for one of the nurses, Virginita Camaro, who turned 54 on 1st July. This was a very well-organised function, and I did participate in the party by sending her a gift, and by being sent food in a special plate to eat in the hospital.

The invitation card for sister Virginita's birthday party

The message inside the card

The front of the wish card

The back of the wish card

The third was a baby shower for sister ____ who is expecting a baby in November. This unique party was preceded by all the invitees being given a blank card with lines to fill in as "advice for the baby". There was stuff like "Don't forget ....", "Always love ..." etc. I filled my card with a lot of nice lines for the baby.

The fourth party was a joint birthday party organised for four nurses who had birthdays in August, among them my good friends Sisters Maui Rogelio and Jocia Villaveurte (I know, simple last names, na?!!). Although I was not directly invited, they did send me food the next morning. Apparently, this was a very funky party as well if eye-witnesses are to be believed.

Yet another party was held to give a warm send off to the girls who work in the hospital in a subordinate capacity. These girls have apparently completed their tenure, but they have been asked to continue till replacement is available. There are 13 of them, and  they are all my good friends, esp. sister Kathy, Sandy, Maze, Estella and Armalyn. Once again, I participated vicariously - food was sent for me in the hospital! 

In addition to this string of parties, there were a few other things that took place ... but of these, in my next post. Thank you for reading.

Jeddah is Not Just a City - III

Unlike Mumbai, Jeddah can expand in all directions except into the Red Sea. Thus, if one researches how Jeddah looked like, say, 90 years ago, and compares it to what it looks like today, one would realise that it is much bigger now than it was before. The other thing is that as time has gone by, the government of Saudi Arabia has invested huge resources into creating a modern, up to date city that can vie with any other big city in the world. I have already mentioned to you about the large and wide roads. The sea-front is marvellous too. There are places where one may simply go to loiter (esp. if you are a male), sit, relax, lie down, take pictures, do a bit of fishing, etc. The roads on the coast are wide and it is a pleasure to drive down them. Here are a few pictures I took ...

This is the pedestrian jetty where people come to stroll, fish, and look

This man is going to use a squid to catch a big fish

A mosque on the shore

This is a 5-star hotel under construction

The pleasure of watching birds on Jeddah shore

This is the view of the entire jetty from a little way off

This is a tern ... hundreds live here on the rocks

In spite of the complexity of the roads and the dense evening traffic, Jeddah is easy to navigate once you get the ropes of the Google Maps Navigation apps on your Android phone, as the roads are parallel to each other like in most developed cities of the world. The confusion arises as most roads in most cities of Saudi Arabia are named after the several members of Royalty from King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud down to the present monarch King Abdullah and his several brothers, off-spring etc. In most of the cases, the road that is the most important is named after King Abdullah, since the history of modernisation of Saudi Arabia is less than 50 years old.

The second thing I noticed was that both, in Jeddah, and in Riyadh, the main roads run on and on for several kilometers, unlike what we see in Mumbai or in most other cities in India. Thus, for example, Prince Majid street runs for over 15 km, traversing many different districts before running into or joining another main road. Also, many roads are known by numerals as well as names of royalty. E.g. the afore mentioned Prince Majid Street is also known as Shaara Sabaaein or Street 70. Jeddah has Street 60, 50, 40 ... etc parallel to street 70. This same nomenclature I saw in Taif and in Riyadh as well. 

Jeddah has hundreds of eateries serving food of all the different nationalities that populate it. I can mention that there are many restaurants from the basic to the luxury level that serve Indian-Pakistani-Bangladesh food, and similarly, Lebanese, Indonesian, Pinoy, Turkish, Afghanistani (Bukhari), Egyptian, Chinese, and even Continental food. I have eaten at a Chinese restaurant once, with my cousin Juzer Kagalwala and his family way back in early 2012; I have also tried most of the others, except the Continental, the Indonesian and the Egyptian restaurants in Jeddah, although I have eaten Egyptian green bhajias (what these guys call Tamia) in Taif. There are great Pakistani/North Indian restaurants in Bani Malik, Ash Sharafiya and Street 70 areas of Jeddah. To look for South Indian foods, you have to dig deeper, but there are several places where you can eat near-authentic dosa, idlis, medu-vada, and south-Indian variations of Fish masala, Avial, etc. From among the Pakistani restaurants, I would recommend Mehraan and Kababish on Street 70, and Nirula in Bani Malik for reasonably priced, tasty food. 

Coming now to the expatriates. As mentioned above, the city of Jeddah has expats from several countries, and each of them have coloured and adorned the city with their own, unique signature. This is not to say that expats have all been helpful to the Kingdom. Of course, there are rotten apples in all the world, and Jeddah is no different. Prostitution, Drugs, Alcohol, Robberies, and even Murder are all present in this old city. No particular nationalities can be blamed for this, but from what I hear, the worst ones are the men from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, and a few other nations. Prostitutes include the poorest of the poor women who live in the Kingdom, and I have often heard that they even include Saudi women, working either alone or in the company of other expats such as Syrians, Pinoys or Indonesians. Crime levels in the Industrial Port area are highest, as those who are settled here are the oldest inhabitants of modern Jeddah, and this area is also the least well-policed. 

Barring these aberrant people, though, the vast majority of expats have infused freshness and variety to the boring monochrome-culture of the Kingdom. They do live as second class citizens, of course, but this is not unique to Jeddah. It is a malady that affects expats all over the Kingdom. This, however, does not include white-skinned people from the Americas, Australia or Europe, as Saudis are in awe of white skin just as much as all Asians, Indians included. These Caucasians bring to the Kingdom its silver lining. It is their presence that makes malls stock things that Saudis would probably never buy, such as organic foods, special herbs for healing, European and American brands of toiletry, lingerie, cosmetics, apparel, shoes, foods, etc. etc. all thrive here. 

Let me end this entry with a few personal thoughts. I guess one can really like Jeddah, once one overcomes the cultural differences between a free city like Mumbai and one that is tightly administered with respect to religious and social sanctions. And, believe me, once you begin to like it, you and your family will enjoy their stay in this city.

(Series concluded)

Exploring Jeddah - II

In my previous post, I began writing on this beautiful western city on the coast of the Red Sea. In this instalment, I will give you glimpses of some of its beauty.

As I iterated in my first post, Jeddah has cityscapes on a large scale. Not for this city the narrow crowded bylanes of Mumbai; here, every street is built on a grand scale. Most streets (barring streets in old Jeddah and inside residential areas) are at least 8-10 lanes in width, with broad footpaths (side-walks to the American). There are bridges and under-passes, service roads on the side, and so on, in addition to the main thoroughfare. During most visits, in spite of using Google Maps and Navigation, I end up getting on to the wrong ramp, or driving past a turn or missing a U-turn and having to drive an extra 5-10 kms to get back to where I wished to go. This, in itself, can be seen as an unwarranted but equally enjoyable exploration of a great city. 

I have borrowed some of the following material from Wikipedia (see this.)

Jeddah is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia and the fourth largest in the entire Middle East. It is enviably located, as all ME cities are less than 2 hours away by flight. Being a commercial hub, Jeddah has drawn in people from many other countries of the world in the last nearly 100 years of its modern existence, but the history of Jeddah goes back to nearly the Stone Age. Subsequently, it has been colonised by several kings and dynasties, including the Yemeni Kings, Ottoman Empire, etc. 

Jeddah is also one of the most important cities to display street furniture unlike anything else in the world. It can be called as the world's biggest open air art gallery. Here are some examples: (Most photos are my own, except those which are not, which are from various contributors cited by Wikimedia Commons.)

From Wikimedia Commons. This is the famous Cycle Chowk of Jeddah

These are just some examples. Most roundabouts in Jeddah are adorned with similar, or even more bizarre sculptures, some over 80-90 years old and done by internationally famous sculptos including but not limited to Richard Moore.

Jeddah: Discovering a mega-city Part 1

This post is a special one as I attempt to describe this amazing city to my readers. My first visit to Jeddah was within a few days of my arrival in the Kingdom nearly 35 months ago. I went there to meet and stay with my cousin Juzer, who is here since 20+ years (as I write this today). His wife Maimuna and his son Abi Talib joined him and making me feel at home as they escorted me to Makkah to perform my first Umrah (read about it here). I stayed with them for three nights, and during the day, I went out on my own to see the coastline on the Red Sea. My first impressions of Jeddah were that it was a really big city, perhaps as big as Mumbai, and similar to Mumbai in many ways, as, like my own Mumbai, it, too, is vertically aligned, stretching out vertically for more than 75 km with the airport at the northern end; it, too, has a humid, warm climate; it, too, is a happening city of its country; it, too, has sea on its western coast, and, like Mumbai, offers a lot of sporting activities for the sea-loving person; it, too, has several malls, eating joints, fast-food chains, etc. and so on.

 However, while there are resemblances, there are several differences too. Being part of a closed-culture country, Jeddah lacks the vibrancy that Mumbai (or, for that matter, any other mega-city in India or any of the other developed countries of the world) offers. You won't see colourful women on the streets, just the ubiquitous black burkha (known as the abaya in the Arabian world) - I can never forget the sea of black in the Food Court at the Red Sea Mall during a visit to this huge, huge mall that I made in 2013. 

What Jeddah gains over Mumbai, however, is its grand scale. The roads are really wide and well-planned. Most roads have service roads and are highways by nature. Speeds of cars may go well above 100 kmph in the mornings, though, in the evenings, the traffic comes to a crawl, and may even get jammed on weekends. What you see is all kinds of cars ... the most expensive cars are not a rarity in Jeddah. I have seen Lamborghinis, the most luxurious Mercs, Subarus, Audis, stretch limos, and what not. People here are rich, and I mean, really rich.

Next, I must mention that each visit of mine has led me to different areas of Jeddah, and each time, I have stayed in new places. This may seem to be paradoxical to my usual way of touring, where I go back to the same old hotel each time (such as at Taif), but the fun is of discovering more and more places in Jeddah. Thus, so far, I have stayed in over half a dozen different places. The best is difficult to define, since most hotels offer the same fare, but the best in terms of location and convenience, for me, was the Imtiaaz Hotel at Al Naseem street - where I stayed last week when I had gone to attend my MRCPCH Clinical Training course. It lacked luxury, as it was their worst located room, but it had all the usual comforts, and I can't complain since it was offered to me at half their usual rates of SR 200 - i.e. at SR 100 per night. There were plenty of nearby food joints, it was just 5-8 minutes away from my course venue at the King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, and all the amenities were functional. The most luxurious was the place I stayed in about 3 weeks ago, when I went to Jeddah for my DHA exams. This was the Deyouf al-Wattan hotel in Al Rawdah. The rate was SR 200 per night, and the room had a lovely, well-equipped kitchen (which, however, being alone, I never used), plus all the usual fare in a well-appointed studio.

Which takes me back to my visit with Dr. Narendra in 2012. We went by SAPTCO bus, and stayed in a place that was just minutes away from the bus stand. This was the Hotel Janoob, and while the room was compact and had no amenities except for the AC and the fan, the convenience of this place was its proximity to several malls in the Corniche area. It was a pleasure to navigate the various malls and do a lot of window-shopping that time.

The Mall area near the hotel Janoob

Another view of the Malls area

The prices of this chicken have hardly increased over the last nearly 3 years ... now it is SR 12 per plate.

The poor-man's flea market with filth similar to that in Indian cities

The back view from my room in Hotel Janoob, 2012

The most popular fast-food chain in KSA where you sometimes need to wait for an hour to have your parcel handed over to you.

Let me end here, and I will describe a bit more about the landscapes and street furniture of Jeddah in my next post.

Returning after a 3-month hiatus

It's been a drowsy three months. I was blogging on the Dayre platform since the first of June, and when their experimental period ended on the 31st of August, I sort of wondered whether that was a better platform to work on, or whether I should return to Blogger. Blogger won, obviously, since here I am, ready to write here. 

So, what happened during these three months? Nothing earth-shaking, but a lot of smaller things. Between the 13th of June and the 29th, I spent two weeks in India. During these 18 days, I was in Bangalore for 5 days, attending a training course for MRCPCH Final exam, which I was hoping to give in India in September. The remaining 10-odd days that I spent with my family in India were memorable as always. 

After this, I returned to Al Muwayh. The locum doctor who was working in my hospital during my absence was the Pediatrician from Zalm, one Dr. Hamza, an Egyptian guy. He stayed on for nine more days, and then, after he left, I was all by myself without a relief/holiday for about one more month. Then, during Ramadan, a new Pediatrician joined me in Al Muwayh. He was Dr. Mohd Afzal Khan from Kashmir India. A few years older than me, Dr. Afzal came as a harbinger of my luck turning. He came to live with me in my house. I found him non-intrusive, and very, very, cooperative in all respects. I gave back my love and respect for him in equal measure. 

After about 8 days of his arrival, Ramadan ended and Shawwal began. A few days down the line, we got a message from the Muderiya that one of us would have to go to Zalm on substitute duty, as their other pediatrician was proceeding on leave. We promised to serve one week each, and asked Dr. Shehab to inform his counterpart in Zalm. He did so, but when the second week ended, Zalm did not release Dr. Afazal, who remained there for 4 1/2 more weeks before he was released from Zalm. (I had already served the first week, and the problem started in and from the second week, when they stopped his return.)

Dr. returned to Al Muwayh in the first week of September. After this, I left for a brief holiday in the second week, reaching Jeddah to attend a MRCPCH training program under the aegis of the kind staff of the King Abdulaziz University Hospital's Clinical Skills center (CSC), and the supervision and guidance of a team of doctors led by Dr. Mohammad Jawwad, FRCPCH. The course ran for four days, from the 11th of September until today evening. I stayed in the Al Naseem area, from where the University was less than 10 minutes away by road. 

Earlier, I had come to Jeddah for a few days to appear for the Dubai Health Authority exams - an exam that I passed! In the interim, I also received an offer of employment from a UAE based hospital group. Thus, it appears that my dream of shifting to the UAE may turn out to be real! 

In India, my family patiently went through their hectic lives as my home's living room and the kids' room was thoroughly renovated. As I write this, I was informed by my daughter that the renovation work has just got over and my house now wears a fresh look.

There are so many more things to share, but I shall return again tomorrow with the next installment. Until then, good bye!

A Weekend in Jeddah - Day 2: Friday, 4th April, 2014

I slept for a long time, waking up at nearly half past eleven in the morning. After my prayers, I decided to take my car and do a little local travelling and sight-seeing. My Note 3 was fully charged, and I would need that to turn on Navigation with Google Maps and the GPS, as well as to take pictures of interesting sights. I was raring to go. There was no time for breakfast or tea, so off I went, first reaching the sea-side near Corniche area, north Jeddah. This is a sea-front full of 5-star hotels, interesting street furniture, round-abouts with lovely sculptures, and a sea view to die for. They have constructed a viewing pier which has three spokes. People walk up to the end of this pier, and either just stand there, or sit, or fish. I just stood there and watched a few locals do some serious fishing. I mean they had these awesome professional fishing rods, and used squid as bait! 

At the Jeddah shore, waters of the Red Sea are crystal clear, dark blue and very deep. Swimming is prohibited. Fishing is the main reason people come here on weekends. Although I did not stay long to see the results of the endeavours of the locals, I did move around, watching the incessant movement of the sea water, the coastal birds, and the local people who had made their way to the shore to do some loafing around. 

The spoked pier in Jeddah at the Red Sea shore, Corniche

That is a squid being used as a bait

A view of the Island mosque

Black-winged stilt

Black-crowned night heron

A Ruddy Turnstone (name provided by my friend Salil Choksi, an avid birder)

A gull in flight

Gull waiting for its lunch

A sea gull in full flight

 After a long stay here at the beach, I proceeded to a Toys R Us store nearby. This store is also known as Iceland store as the store has a very big skating rink on its ground floor. The first floor is mostly full of rides for small children, as can be seen in the pictures below.

The skating rink at Iceland

 From here, I proceeded via a few brief detours, to the large and magnificent Red Sea Mall. This mall has over 12 entrances, is spread over several blocks and has almost all the things we need to buy from the shelves. Here is a picture of Gate #1 of the mall.

The main gate of the Red Sea Mall

The mall is spread over three floors. The ground floor has a lovely water fountain that seems to spring directly from the ground! The next floor has hundreds of show-rooms, while the top floor, in addition to shops, also has one of the largest food courts I have ever seen. It is a pleasure to simply do window shopping here. I spent nearly three hours here, visiting many shops, and purchasing  lots of this and that at the department store "Danube".  

The water fountain on the ground floor of the Red Sea Mall.

After leaving the mall, I had a troublesome time finding my way back to the hotel (Al-Husna Al-Mutatawerah) as I had no GPS ... my cell batteries had died completely. It was at about half past nine that I finally reached my hotel. I left my luggage at the counter, then drove a few km to reach a stretch of Street 70 that has over half a dozen Pakistani restaurants. I ate my dinner at Zahra Restaurant. I ordered "chaamp masala". The lamb meat was pre-boiled, as it mostly is in small restaurants all over the Kingdom. The gravy was super. After a rather heavy meal, I returned to the hotel, where I went to sleep at 1:00 a.m.

Taking a much-needed break: Wed 5th December to Monday 10th December 2012

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, my co-pediatrician went on his annual vacation in the days immediately following my return from Hajj. Since then, I have been working all alone without any break. I knew I could seek relief from my duties for a few days, and the hospital administration would need to give me substitutional relief by appointing a locum doctor in my place; such a locum doctor would have to come from any of the other hospitals in the Ta'if region. Dr. Shehabeldin went out on a limb for me, but could not get a replacement for me from ANY of the other places. I was getting frustrated. Eventually, he sent a request to the Muderiya to arrange a locum doctor from Ta'if, most likely from the Children's Hospital in Ta'if. 

The substitute doctor arrived at about half past three on Wednesday 5th December 2012 (21st Muharram 1434 H.) Having explained everything I could about the in-patients and showing him around the hospital, I finally left the hospital to start my five-day leave. I decided to stay in Al Muwayh that evening, winding up my other tasks and relaxing. 

On the next morning, I travelled to Ta'if with Dr. Alaa Ashwah, the E.N.T. surgeon. He had his own work here, He was kind enough to leave me as close to my hotel as possible. Later, I joined him in Panda and browsed the mall with him until after the dhuhr prayers. He also took me to a food mall called the "Riya", where I purchased some salted, baked biscuits and a pineapple fruit tart (which, by the way, was very nice!) After this, he dropped me near the mall and proceeded back to Al Muwayh. I handed him some of my purchases, to keep in the boot of his car - I promised him that I would retrieve my stuff when I returned to Al Muwayh.

I returned to my hotel where I relaxed, prayed, downloaded movies and did similar stuff. In the evening, I went to the "tahweel al Rajhi" to transfer some money to India, then went to the Mobile market to buy a Samsung S3 phone and then back to the hotel to retire for the day. I ate my dinner at the Indian restaurant below my hotel (as usual). 

On Friday, I purchased a "Pehla" TV pack from a shop on Khalid bin Walid street, visited King Faisal hospital to meet my friend Dr. Asadullah (the surgeon who has always helped me in the past), and got my contacts and other data transferred from my old Samsung Ace to the new Samsung Galaxy S3 with the help of an Egyptian Mr. Ahmed, who has a small shop in the mobile market. I ate breakfast at the Thara restaurant but the next two meals in the Indian restaurant. 

On Saturday, I went to the Muderiya, retrieved my passport, which I have decided to keep with me (they have recently permitted this for all expatriates who work in the medical sector) and then went back to my hotel. I also recovered my new Iqama from our hospital's liaison officer Mr. Ali, who met me near Gazzaz mall after the Ishaa prayers to hand it over to me. Barring this one job, I relaxed the whole day. Then, early morning on Sunday, I went to Jeddah. The reason: I wanted to visit the office of the  Ministry of Foreign Affairs (vazarat kharjiyyah) to submit the form I had filled for my family's upcoming visit to the Kingdom. I had filled this form online, then downloaded and printed out a copy. Along with the form, I had also brought with me, my marriage certificate, birth-certificates of both my daughters, the copies of all our passports, and a copy of my new Iqama and a letter from the Muderiya showing my current occupation, salary, etc. (the so-called Taarif Maali). I took an early morning taxi from right opposite my hotel, reached Jeddah at about 8:00 A.M., and reached the MOFA in a new taxi in the next seven or eight minutes. A very orderly queue of people was in place, all controlled by just a few policemen. At about 15 minutes past 8:00 A.M., the offices opened, and the queue began to move forward. After entering the complex, we had to surrender all our mobiles/laptops to a policemen who put all the cell phones in small cul-de-sacs, and handed a numbered token to the visitor. The queue inside led to a third policeman, who asked for the original Iqama to confirm our identity, and thence, admitted us to the inside room where a bank-like token system took me to a window within about 40 minutes, and I submitted my form and the supporting documents to the Saudi man inside.

By half past nine I had finished my work. I left Jeddah soon thereafter, and reached Ta'if at about half past one. By three p.m., I checked out of the hotel, and taking the usual bus of SAPTCO, I was back at Al Muwayh at around  half past eight p.m. in the evening. 

I resumed work the next morning.

Tuesday, 9th October, 2012: Gave my MRCPCH Part 1 exams

Due to a busy month, I skipped publishing this post at the right time.

As the title says, I gave my Part 1 A and B papers for MRCPCH (Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health today, at the King Abdulaziz University's examination center (building No. 29, next to the Football stadium), located within it. The experience was humbling. As expected, the question papers only looked simple. Each part had 75 questions, and lasted 2.5 hours. 

I answered as best as I could, and was also able to stick to the correct time schedule. I allowed myself at least ten minutes at the end for revision of my answers. In the end, the format for the exam was simple. In between the two papers, we got a lunch reprieve of about 45 minutes. The organisers gave us a chicken burger each and supplied us with tea twice and unlimited bottles of water.

I had the chance of meeting three of my friends from the Facebook study group that I was a part of. These three, Drs. Alaa Mahmoud (from Khartoum, Sudan), Shreen Ahmed (an Egyptian) and Shaima Lofty (also from Egypt) are working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as doctors. It was a happy meeting indeed. We exchanged good lucks etc. before the exam, but did not get any more occasions to meet up.

After both the exams were over, I got a surprise when a car stopped near me to give me a lift back into town ... the driver was none other than the supervisor for both the papers in my room! He was gracious enough to take me into the town center, from where I managed to go to my cousin Juzer's place for the night.

The next morning, I would go back to Ta'if to pick up my passport in preparation for my journey to India.

Thursday, 26th and Friday, 27th July, 2012: Madinah

It was time to eat some food for the next day’s fast, but I first made my way to the area where there were budget hotels in the company of my new Dubai-based friend. He had made some prior arrangements, and I thought it might be prudent to go with him since he would probably help me get accommodation too at this unearthly hour. It turned out to be a good decision. He and I got separate rooms in the same hotel (Hotel Qasr-e-Gurbani, or the Gurbani Palace Hotel). I took the room for two nights, at SR 200/= per night. It was a 5-bed room on the second floor, and was much like the rooms I have stayed in at Mecca on my previous trips. Thankfully, though, the room was fairly clean and decently appointed. I took a bath, did my ablutions, and then went down to a Bengali restaurant to eat something for the next day’s fast. 

After this, I proceeded to the Haram of the Masjid-e-Nabawi. My first look at this magnificent mosque humbled me no end. It really was a great structure, befitting the great Prophet of our times. Over the next one and a half days, I saw more and more of this and as I write this, I am overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of this mosque.

I first joined in the morning prayers (the Fajr’), and then awaited the opening of the door that would take me for the first look at the tomb (the resting place) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). There were huge crowds and a lot of pushing and jostling, and it was some time before they actually opened the doors, so that I was being gradually crushed by the pious and eager men around me, all here to pay their respects and pray before the Holy place. The policemen had a tough time controlling the crowd, but, at about 5.55 a.m., they finally stepped aside as we all rushed in to file past the grave of the Prophet and his Most Favoured Followers, Hazrat Umar and Hazrat Abu Baker.

We got seconds to gaze at the tombs with reverence and then, the policemen urged us to move forward. Past the exit, I was guided next to the main entrances of the ancient grave yard where the family members and others of past ages are buried, viz. the Jannat-ul-Baqi.

As I ascended a ramp to reach the main gate of the graveyard, I had mixed feelings: what, after all, could a visit to the graveyard achieve? And yet, I moved on. My first glimpse of the graveyard was of a level piece of ground with small mounds of soil topped with pieces of stone at one end. The area covered by this looked so small. There was a huge board here with messages to the faithful in several languages. The gist of these messages was to ponder about Death and about the Holy people who had gone to Allah before us. It (the message) implored us NOT to kiss or fall at the feet of the graves, and exhorted us to simply send our “salaams” to the Dead Ones. It taught us not to pray through dead people as they had no power to grant us our wishes. It told us that Allah alone had such powers.

I moved to where a spiritual teacher was addressing a crowd of men in chaste Bengali. I could not understand him and moved on. Just a few feet ahead, and as I climbed a little, the panorama changed from this being a small graveyard to being a HUGE one with more than 25000 graves all spread out over an area of more than 5 sq. km.  According to Wikipedia, the graveyard was annotated as such by the Prophet himself, and continued to expand as the years went by. Several of his family members including sons, grandchildren, wives and others, and his companions are all buried within the graveyard. Before 1925, there were several mausoleums here, but they were demolished by the ruling King of Saudi Arabia in accordance with the tenets of Islam as it is practised here.

I suddenly, and inexplicably, had a moment of epiphany, and before I knew it, I was mourning the Dead along with the other faithful devotees. I cried for a while, then moved out, and walked back through the Mosque to reach my room, where I went to sleep for the next several hours, only to wake up after noon.

 

The rest of the afternoon I spent visiting the mosque once again, and praying the other salahs. At about half past four, I hired a taxi (for SR 100) to take me to all the places to visit in Madinah. The taxi driver, a kindly Saudi soul, was very co-operative, and took me to see the Jabal-Uhud, the Jabal Reemah, the Masjid Quba, the Masjids of the Trench (six of them in one spot, including the Masjid Dhul Fatah), the Mosque of the “New Qiblah” (Qiblah-tain), and the Masjid of Hazrat Hamza. My tour of these places took up about 2 hours. It was interesting. The first two were adjacent hills where battles had been fought against the Qurayshi warriors. There was a holy ground here where about 70 warriors laid down their lives for the Prophet. There are no graves, but the area is cordoned off and surrounded by a steel and iron enclosure. I had a prayer book with me which assisted me in praying special prayers at some of the mosques I have listed above.

We returned to the Masjid-e-Nabawi half an hour before Maghrib. I saw something here that I will remember always: the immense preparations for the breaking of the fast of thousands of devotees. People sat on huge plastic sheets, and were served by people with water, food, fruit, drink and dates. The devotees sat patiently, and the servers came one by one, bringing with them packets of the various afore-mentioned items. When the Azaancame on the air, thousands of us broke the fast, and partook of the food and water etc. served to us. In about ten odd minutes, the entire congregation was through with the “iftaar”, and all moved towards the mosque interiors or other areas to line up for the Maghrib prayers.

After this, I went out, back to my room to relax, and returned for the Ishaa prayers after an hour and a half. I skipped dinner as I had already eaten my fill at iftaar. I roamed around the mosque, and finally returned to my room by half past ten to go to sleep early in order to get up in the morning for the next day.

The next morning saw me go again to the Mosque for the Fajr’. After this, I entered the Rowdah area of the tomb of the Prophet (PBUH) and did my prayers in accordance with my prayer book. This was accomplished by joining, once again, the hundreds of devotees clamouring to go in to do the same as I. Prayers accomplished, I moved out and visited the Jannat-ul-Baqi once again. This time, I lingered on for a longer time, taking photos and doing prayers for the Dead.

It was nine o’clock when I returned to my room, and after this, I changed into my street clothes and checked out of the hotel. I walked the short distance to the local bus stand, but, upon being invited by a taxi owner who was looking for one passenger to go to Jeddah, I accepted his request and boarded his cab. My co-passengers were a Nigerian family of husband, wife and their two children, who all sat in the back seat of the SUV. We reached Jeddah uneventfully at around 1.40 p.m. 

The purpose of my diversion to Jeddah was to pick up a small parcel sent by Nishrin through a lady passenger who had arrived in Jeddah from Mumbai the same afternoon. I got off their taxi near Juzer’s residence, but on the opposite side, and I called him to share with him my arrival. Next, I called up the number given to me by Nishrin of the person I was supposed to collect the parcel from. Imagine my horror when the recorded voice told me that the number I was trying to reach was out of service.

I called Nishrin, and after some frantic calls by her, I was given the information that the number I had been given was wrong. A fresh number was given to me, and I then called up one Mr. Uzair. He asked me to take a cab and guided the driver to his place. We picked up the package, and with this, I then asked the driver to take me to the Saptco Bus stand at Corniche. 

I got into a bus at 4.00 p.m. After a long and tortuous journey of nearly eight hours (instead of the printed 5 hours and twenty minutes), I finally reached Al Muwayh just before midnight. The reason for the delay: the driver took us all to a restaurant on the OPPOSITE side of the road for iftaar. After having the food, etc. he drove us BACK towards Jeddah … almost a hundred km, before finding the bridge that would allow him to execute a U-turn to go back towards T’aif!  

Thus ended my three day pilgrimage.