Completing 4 months in Saudi Arabia

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


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


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


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

Meandering a bit ...

Dear Reader, 


Please indulge me for a short time while I meander a little here and a little there. As I was unable to post regularly through the past seven days, I made mental notes to not forget certain things. It is with that intention that I am writing this post.


To begin, let me share a few Arabic words and comment upon them. There are three similar sounding words in frequent use: Tahweel, Tahmeel and Tahleel. Tahweel refers to "transfer"; for example, you can use the word in the context of money transfer, in the context of transfer of a patient from our hospital to a bigger one, and so on. Tahmeel is simply another word for a suppository - a bullet-like soft nosed, long object that can be inserted  into the child's rectum; it is loaded with medication that the child needs to be given. Finally, Tahleel means the act of submitting blood/urine/stools or other biological samples for laboratory testing. 


I have frequently substituted one word for the other in the OPD in front of Saudi parents; the net result is usually amused looks on the face of the already stressed parent(s).


My long walks to the Al Muweh garden have enabled me to see things and events which most employees of the hospital never get to see: I am talking about teenagers playing vigorous football on the special astroturf ground; about the resident birds in the garden - the hordes of warblers, several Siberian stone-chats, the common Hoopoe (which I saw just yesterday, and also today) ... it looks brilliant when in flight; about the spiritual atmosphere that pervades the locality especially as Maghrib time approaches - the teens leave the garden and drive away, several trucks leave the highway just behind the garden and stop outside the small mosque and the men - the drivers and their assistants spill out and walk towards the toilets and the wudhu area (rows of taps with sprinkler attachments set before a row of seats on which the men sit to perform the ablutions), and then proceed to enter the mosque in time to pray the salah; about the small tea and snack shop and its regular stream of customers (I am one such customer who has at least a cup of tea every day, and a kheema roll or a falafel sandwich on almost 70% of the evenings); and of several such things and events that are too many to list here.


I wanted to write about the kind of food that is available in the various food stalls here in Al Muweh. To sum it up in a line: not much is available, except for khubs sandwiches, falafel, dal, puris (stuffed with kheema), egg preparations like omelette  and scrambled egg, kheema, cheese and/or butter and/or cream sandwiches, etc. Most cooks are Bangladeshis and they aren't very particular about food hygiene or standard hygiene levels. However, they are far better than the hawkers you regularly deal with in, say, Mumbai, India! The items are cheap, most costing less than SR 2.00, though we have outlets where they are SR 3.00 or SR 4.00 in price. Soft drinks in cans cost SR 1.50 and other small drinks or milk-shake or curd bottles are generally SR 1.00 for 200 ml. One can fill oneself up in less than SR 10.00 on an average meal.


I am currently awaiting instructions from the Ministry on the date of my appearance for the Saudi council examinations; once I clear those, I will start the process for getting my car driver's license and for the purchase of a car. I am already insured against medical malpractice, thanks to the help extended to me by Dr. Asadullah and the executive at the Al Ahlia Insurance company based in Ta'if.


That's all for now ....

One more page added

There you are ... this new page shows all the plants, birds and reptiles I have seen so far since I came to this country. Not a very plethoric exhibition, but I am going to add to this page from time to time. Do take a look!

Some rumination

In my humble opinion, Nature watching and appreciating can be likened to worshipping God, as God created Nature. I used to think of this as a cliche, but, over the last several months, I have come to sincerely believe that God created us, intellectual beings, so that we could admire His handiwork and praise Him for his craft. 

Although I haven't travelled far and wide to seek Him through Nature watching, whatever experiences I have had have reinforced this truth in my heart. In these past months, I have seen, and most times, captured on camera, nearly 300 to 400 of His creations; I am just giving a rough idea of the variety that exists in Nature that is discernible even to a lowly traveller like me. Off-hand, I would say that this sample may not account for even 0.01% of His bounty. However, to see the myriad species of trees, flowers, non-flowering plants, insects, birds, mammals, and what not - the mind boggles at the thought that after 8-9 months of serious Nature watching, I am almost near where I started. Maybe I might have shifted just a little, but I have a lot more to see in this big, wide world of ours, and what I have achieved so far is so little, and yet, so significant!

My pediatric practice continues as before, but come the weekend, and my heart urges me to leave the work place and go somewhere, anywhere where there is a chance to see Mother Nature in all its glory. I often reach home in the afternoon and, without lunch, I pick up my camera and rush to go either to the local zoo, which is less than 2 km away from where I stay, or somewhere within 5-6 km radius where I am likely to see some greenery/life.

My portfolio of photographs has grown, and how! I have more than 500 photos now, and they are on my computer's hard disk, some located within folders describing one particular trip, and some within folders for one particular type of living thing - e.g. a folder on insects. I have begun to display these photos on Facebook, on this blog, and also published some on external sites on invitation (check out my article on Ovalekar Wadi Butterfly Park, Thane, on this site).

The surprise is that although my younger daughter does accompany me on many of these outings that I go to, she hasn't, as yet, developed any keen interest in Nature watching. It is obvious from my wording that neither my wife nor my elder daughter are in the least interested in this hobby or passion that I have nurtured.


Diwali was today, and I was standing outside my bedroom and watching the terraced garden that graces the view when I heard the typical call of the white-throated fantail - a bird that has a fan-like tail, and a song that is beautiful to hear and so soothing! I looked in the vegetation, and sure enough, there was the bird, flitting from one shrub to another, pausing only a while to sing that melodious nine-toned song once again.


And then, the unthinkable happened. Someone lighted a chain-fire cracker just below my house, and with the staccato sound of the cracker, the bird flew away, never to again return to the same shrubs for the rest of the morning. 


This is what really pains me: humans never think of the collateral damage they produce when they pursue something so inane as bursting crackers on this occasion. Think of the damage caused to birds on the kite-flying day, on Holi, and on the several such festival days throughout the year.

Some interesting photos with my new Canon 550 D camera and 18/55 lens

Here are the photos: These were all taken from the garden in my colony.

Hope you like them!

An Old Hobby Rejuvenated

I am, basically, a Nature Lover. If there is a God, Nature is It. Nature teaches, repairs, rejuvenates, delights, and humbles any one who may choose to look at it with an eye full of wonder. I have loved Nature in all its forms - geographical wonders, flora and fauna, geology, marine biology ... you name it, and I have oohed and aahed at its multifarious revelations.

Through childhood, however, most of this was second hand information, i.e. obtained through books, encyclopediae, short or long films, and later, television, where the serials made by David Attenborough, and the other stalwarts stand out, in their ability to enthrall and entertain the viewer. I have done all this, and yet, the person in me wanted to experience all this at FIRST HAND. 

During my teenage and college years, I have gone on many nature treks with college friends or Nature clubs, and some of these were simply excellent. I haven't forgotten my first look at a kestrel, albeit behind a cage at Karnala, or a golden oriole at a Powai trek. 

And now that I have reached a ripe old age of 50, I decided to renew my interest in this old hobby, and have begun by joining the Bombay Natural History Society. I also bought a few books - The Oxford Guide to Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (Helm Field Guides)) and "The Trees of Mumbai". So, here I am, and I hope to be able to share with my readers my Nature Journeys. And yes, here is a link to a book on the only wildlife park located within a metropolitan city anywhere in the world: The Borivali National Park, located inside Greater Mumbai. Look at this book, if you can, and you will be left wondering ... 


I am beginning this blog with my first ever birding expedition to Nerul Mudflats in the month of February 2011. So, sit back, read, and enjoy.