Ups and Downs continue in this rollercoaster of rural existence

First of all, let me thank each and every one of you, dear readers, who keep visiting my blog and follow my rather dreary existence on the sands of Arabia. Even so, I keep getting positive feedback from many of you: some find my blog entertaining; some inspiring; and some, well, simply good on literary merits. Thanks again for reading my blog for whichever reason applies to you. A few Indian doctors have found the contents interesting enough when they have themselves taken baby steps to migrate to Saudi Arabia in their own lives. They have then contacted me on other media such as FB, Whatsapp, etc. to speak or chat with me and get some idea of what living in KSA is like. I certainly don't envy them! 

On the other hand, I was contacted by a gentleman who sells car from a showroom in Australia. He was being offered a job in Riyadh where he would be the manager of a car sales showroom for some of the most expensive cars in the world. When he told me his contract details, I was stunned to realise that he would earn twice as much as I am earning now as a senior doctor. So, the lesson I learned was that car salesmen were more valuable to the system here than doctors are, although they need doctors much more than car salesmen from the Australian soil here.

After some hinting/coaxing/cajoling/nudging, all direct and indirect, some of the Zalm staff have sent me food cooked by their own hand. These items have included a spicy chicken from a Hyderabadi technician, an Adobo Chicken from a Filipina nursing group and authentic Mallu Avial from - who else - a Kerala-origin nurse. She even recounted the recipe of the item upon my asking her. I feel that I will try it. The surprise in the method of making it was not really a surprise, but even so, I must share it with you. When the item is nearly done, you simply pour fresh, unheated coconut oil atop the vegetables and cook for a further 5-10 minutes before your avial is done. Isn't it interesting?

I am currently taking a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) on Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration in Health Care from my favourite online learning site (THIS ONE). This is the last week and I have enjoyed the experience thoroughly. In a half hour from now, I would be joining some other amazing Courserians (yea, that is what we call ourselves) on a Google Hangout ... 

I watch one or two movies every day. Today, I watched the average entertainer "Dil Dhadakne Do" on my laptop. It proved to be quite commonplace except that it did send a self-improvement message to all those arrogant CEO's of rich companies. 

I have the feeling that I have less than a week remaining here in Zalm and I will be asked to return to my home village (Al Muwayh) before the end of the next week. By the time I return to Al Muwayh, my partner and co-Pediatrician Afzal Khan will have already left for his vacation to India. I will be managing the Pediatric work all by myself for the next over two months, as I see this happening from where I am just now. 

Do leave your comments below and let me know how you found today's entry.

How the Zalm posting has helped me

As my readers are aware, I was sent to Zalm within a few days of my return to the Kingdom. It certainly did not appeal to me at that time, as it appeared as if the sudden shunting was part of a penalty imposed on me by someone in authority. Ten days have passed since then. I cannot say I am happy in Zalm, but there are positive aspects to it. For example, I would point out that when I left last time for India in March, I had mostly cleared my house of my belongings. If I had stayed on in Al Muwayh, I might have had to re-purchase many items in my house. Also, I have missed one salary here, and it might have tightened my purse. Thus, the Zalm posting has freed me from the need to empty my purse right now and re-furbish my home or buy food, or stuff like that. 

Zalm is a very quiet place, and I have more time to do things I always want to do, but run out of time for. A radiology locum doctor next to my room has a Wi Fi and he has so kindly shared it with me, so that I am able to surf the net - a luxury for some, but an absolute necessity for me. I have watched live TV, downloaded movies, taken modules of studies on Coursera, updated my status on Facebook and Twitter, written this and other previous entries on this and other blogs of mine, and so on, only thanks to his generosity.

I have also found time to read a book here and there. And watch so many movies that are already on my laptop or that I have recently downloaded on to my laptop. I also downloaded and watched all the recent episodes of Grey's Anatomy, 11th season, and of Game of Thrones. These viewings have helped pass my time. 

I am also writing. I have recently begun writing a book to help candidates studying for the membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The book will not be a scientific compendium, but a lot of advice on how to go about passing the exam. 

Today, I successfully posted my Parenting book back on the internet to sell as an e-book. The link for the same is here. Readers from India may pay in Indian rupees using any credit card of their choice. International readers will probably fetch the e-book at much lower rates than existing e-books on Parenting, which often cost more than USD 15. I request readers to take a look at the link and to buy it or gift it to their near and dear ones if they wish to do so. 

I have made friends with my co-Pediatrician here, Dr. Hany Moharem. He has a table-tennis table in his house! I went to his place some days ago, and discovered that he and his other friends play the game regularly. I joined in as well. I was completely out of touch and had a tough time scoring even 5 against these seasoned players. I was quite surprised by the skills of Dr. Hany, who remains in good physical shape despite his age of nearly 64 years. He is due to retire in a few months' time. Yesterday, I was joined by a Pakistani anesthetist friend who is also doing a locum post here. His name is Dr. Abul Bashar, and he and I went to Dr. Hany's place to play TT, as we used to call this game in our salad days. It is exhilarating and fun to play, and I think a dose of such game-play is required in every house where there is place enough to do so, as it can keep the family fit and united.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and as always, my request to share this post with others on G+ or other social media, to write your comments and to start a conversation with me and with other readers.

Day 80, Friday, 3rd February, 2012

Over the last six days, I have had one of the most busy emergency on-call weeks since I landed here in Saudi Arabia. Readers, I am sorry that I was unable to update the blog for these six days. I have had several calls to go to the hospital, some of them in the darkest hours of the night (before dawn), and this has caused a fair amount of tiredness and a sleep deficit that I will try to compensate for during today and tomorrow, the weekend days. I think the spurt in work was due to the sudden reversal of weather from pleasant and cool to a biting cold with gusts of wind that made children acutely ill, most of them coming with a sore throat or episodes of wheezing (like the wheeze of an asthmatic older child). Quite a few of them needed to be hospitalised to make them recover early.

Okay, so having cleared that from your mind, let me proceed to tell you about my last day of the last week. As you may have already read, I was in Jeddah, and on Friday, I had to return to my place in Al Muweh. My cousin Juzer and I had visited the SAPTCO (Saudi Arabian Public Transport Co.) bus stand on Thursday evening itself and we had already purchased a ticket for a morning bus to Riyadh (which would drop me off at Al Muweh). 

Thus it was that on Friday, I finished all my personal tasks by nine a.m. and got ready to leave Juzer's house. Being a weekend, Juzer and his family were still sleeping when I decided to leave. I had to inform him that I was going, so I gently called out to him across the door of the hall into the living room and beyond. He was still in his pajamas, and I offered to go alone, but he said he would come with me to leave me at the bus stand. So nice of him! We hurriedly left the house by half past nine. (The bus was due for a 10:00 a.m. departure, so there was no time for me to drink tea or have a breakfast.)

Once inside the bus, I went out to buy a cup of tea and also some snacks in lieu of the breakfast. We set off exactly at six (and I was one of the last passengers to board, having arrived at just six minutes before it started on its journey).

The journey itself was quiet and without any excitement. We bypassed Mecca, halted at Ta'if, and finally at the restaurant just before Muweh. The entire trip consumed nearly 7 hours (including the almost 1 1/2 hours used up by the two breaks). I finally landed at the SAPTCO stand behind Al Muweh at 4:50 p.m. During the journey, I did not have a full lunch since the only food available at Ta'if was rolls and chips at the snack stand. Although a full lunch was available at the last halt near Al Muweh, it was nothing but broast chicken with rice - not one of my favourites. Also, it did not make sense to have it here as I would be reaching hone fairly soon. During the trip, I watched "The Untouchables" - a 1987 Hollywood movie I had downloaded in Jeddah - on my laptop. This is one of my all-time favourites, and I remember watching it three times when it was first released in India. It is based on true events of the rise and rise of the Chicago Mafia of the 1920s and 1930s, but it is a fictionalised account of how it was finally controlled by a team of policemen that worked night and day to capture the kingpin of the Mafia (Al Capone). Do see it ... I do not want to be a spoiler by revealing any more. It is crisp, taut and full of unexpected turns. Check it out here. I also slept, listened to music, explored my new mobile, and did this and that during the long journey.

After getting off at the Al Muweh bus stand, I walked home, unpacked, ran the washing machine to full capacity to wash all of my journey clothes, ran it once again to wash the ehram clothes, and cooked some basic food for the night. 

Nothing more to add here, so I will end this entry. Thanks for reading.