Zalm vs. Al Muwayh

I have been asked this question by the administration in both the villages, as they have some sort of friendly rivalry between these two medical centers which are located within 50 km of each other in the vast expanse of central Saudi Arabia; I have been asked this question by the doctors and nurses in both places, who tend to weigh the benefits of each place against their disadvantages; I have been asked this question by my friends off-line and on-line: by reading my blogs, they are moved to ask me which place is better; and finally, I ask MYSELF this question each time I do a duty stint at Zalm. Which place is better?

Let me try and analyse this question: first of all, there cannot be a blanket answer. We have to consider many aspects of life before we come to any sensible conclusion. The obvious positives of living in Zalm are: lighter OPDs and admissions; stay in the hospital-provided accommodation with free meals and water all through the 24 hours; and, a cleaner, newer, better-designed hospital with an energetic administrator who is willing to spend to make the facility better (this is not just my opinion, but an opinion that resonates with many people both in Zalm and in Al Muwayh). 

On the other hand, Al Muwayh has a more lively atmosphere in the evenings; the people are familiar; my house is here, whatever be its advantages or disadvantages; I can cook my own food - a definite advantage, as I could not stomach the canteen food in Zalm that was being dished out to me every day; a hospital whose people I am friendly and comfortable with; and its proximity to Taif (Zalm is a further 50 km away from Taif, if you are looking at distances).

The disadvantages of Zalm: it is a much smaller and ill-equipped village; there is no garden or green space anywhere; no Indian restaurant serving south Indian dishes; it has a much hotter weather on a day-to-day basis throughout the year ... and not just that, it is dustier, with the hot wind swirling the desert sands all out on the roads, under the doors, inside ones' rooms and so on; the roads are not well-lit in the evenings and nights; the room rents for someone who is settling there are much higher; and the restaurants and the bank are quite far from the hospital, so that it is a lot more inconvenient.

The disadvantages of Al Muwayh: none, within the confines of what we are talking about. There are two large pharmacies, two south-Indian restaurants, four Pakistani restaurants (all on the highway, of course) and a lot of Saudi and Yemeni joints with a limited but tasty repertoire of chicken and rice.

The conclusion: Al Muwayh scores above Zalm in many respects. I would rate the living experience a lot better here than in Zalm.

News from Al Muwayh and Zalm

As I write this, I have received the news that today and tomorrow will be my last days here in Zalm and I will be required to report for duty back in Al Muwayh by Thursday, i.e. the day after tomorrow. I had taken a day's leave yesterday, and was in Al Muwayh in my house. Yesterday morning, Dr. Tahir Mir escorted Dr. Afzal Khan and me in his car to Taif. Dr. Afzal would leave us and proceed on his vacation by Wednesday. The house that we both stay in would therefore have just one occupant once I returned to Al Muwayh to complete the last few months of my stay here in Saudi Arabia. 

Dr. Mir was so kind that he remained with me while I went about shopping at various places in Taif in preparation for my solo stay in Al Muwayh. I purchased stuff from Panda, from Baab-Al-Rhea, from the Indian market, and so on. We returned to Al Muwayh in the evening, and I returned to Zalm today morning to be told that tomorrow I would be sent back to Al Muwayh as my duties were now over here in Zalm.

So, what else? My friend Dr. Parvez, the laboratory specialist in Zalm has joined back today. My other friend in the lab, Sr. Elizabeth returned to Al Muwayh from Zalm, where she had recently joined to work for 2 weeks. I have obtained some new friends' correct names and telephone numbers, and I would endeavour to connect with them on social media. Today evening, I plan to eat out with Dr. Rahim Baloch, the Zalm ENT specialist. We hope to eat at the Punjab Restaurant, a local dhaba that serves Lahori food. 

I am indebted to Dr. Atef, who works in Zalm as a Q and PS officer cum Orthopedic specialist. Over the last four weeks, it was his help with which I managed to take one-day breaks every week to go to Al Muwayh to relax and to re-furbish my wardrobe, medicines and snack items. The reason is that his house is in Al Muwayh although he works in Zalm, and he does a daily up-and-down from Al Muwayh to Zalm and back. 

Also, I got unexpected good help from Dr. Hany, who loaned me his car to go to Al Muwayh twice. He drives an old but powerful and trouble-free Mercedes sedan, and I can thus claim that I have driven a Mercedes car! When I offered to reimburse him for petrol, he smiled and refused to take any money. May Allah bless him. He is turning 64 and is going to exit the MOH job as early as within a few months.

Today is the eve of Ramadan for the Bohra community in India, and this also marks the 25th varas of Inas, my elder daughter. I hope to be able to witness the celebration on Skype in some time from now. How quickly time has passed ... she has completed a quarter of a century on this planet!

The coming Sunday will also be Father's Day, and I am all sentimental about it, remembering my own dad, who passed away more than 2 years ago. I expect my daughters will also be remembering me and may perhaps send me some token of their love with a courier that I have asked them to send (I have requested them to send me medicines, some books and stuff like that). 

My hope is that by tomorrow evening I would be back in my home in Al Muwayh. I can then start cooking ... and enjoying my life in KSA, as I have done in the past three years, give or take a few months. 

That's it for now. Thanks for reading. Do leave your comments here ... bye!

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.

Trying new things

I am now at Zalm for over 2 weeks. It has been a very quiet phase in my professional life, there is no doubt about that. The lack of any professional challenge is actually quite irritating, but I find that if I do other things that are creative or productive, the irritation goes away. So, yesterday was Friday. I had debated about whether I should return to Al Muwayh for the weekend, as I am off-call this week. Then, I realised that even if I went home to Al Muwayh, I would be the one to suffer, as I would have to cook food, search for other stuff and so on. So, I decided to stay put in the room in Zalm and make myself busy online. 

I am now in the process of polishing a novel that I wrote earlier ... more than a decade ago on THIS site. Having learned where to sell my e-books, I think it is a good idea to prepare yet another e-book and try and sell it on POTHI.COM, where I have also put up my Child Care book for sale.

This is an adventure story set in India and features a group of college students fighting for survival in a forest in Madhya Pradesh. I will send the link to it once it is approved and put up on the site. I plan to price it low so that more and more people are able to access it. 

The next thing I am doing is continuing my online studies. On THIS site, one can take free courses whenever they want on a wide range of topics pertaining to all disciplines. A free course is good enough for learning, but if you wish to add the study to your CV, you need to pay a small amount of between USD 39 to USD 59 to get a verified certificate for the given course. The one I am doing currently is from the University of California, San Francisco, and is on Communication between Healthcare Professionals and what impact it can have on the hospital's Healthcare statistics and performance. 

Next on the list is watching movies that I have for long downloaded on my laptop or in my external hard disc, but haven't had the chance to watch until now. In the last two days, I watched two classics from Hindi cinema - Sadak, starring Sanjay Dutt, Pooja Bhatt and Sadashiv Amrapurkar (the last one in the role of "Maharani" - a transgender owner of a prostitute den - a role which brought him the National Award that year); and Taal, starring Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Akshay Khanna and Amrish Puri ... a musical that took the people of India by storm when it was first released. Next on my short list are other movies that are equally famous, including Aah, starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis, and a few others.

Last, but not the least, is to walk. I have begun walking about 3 days ago, and am trying to walk at least a few kilometers each evening to return myself to some semblance of fitness. Let me see how long I can sustain this activity. 

Yesterday, I received a lovely gift from one of the radiology technicians Mrs. Khairunnissa - she cooked spicy chicken and chappatis for me on my specific request which I had made the day before. I really dislike the food provided by the hospital's kitchen and I have been going around requesting Indian/Pakistani/Filipina staff to share their food preparations with me. Hope they all bring me food ... 

And on that note, I end this entry. I hope you liked it and will take some inspiration from it. Thank you.

Two down, three to go

No, this is not a description of the drinks I took today! It is the number of weeks that I have worked and will be working in Zalm. Yes, drumrolls, please. It is official: I will be spending another 2 1/2 weeks here in Zalm. It is not that Zalm is a bad hospital. In fact, there is ever so little in the form of work, that I am mostly reading/writing/sleeping/eating. Besides, the room in the hospital is fairly well-equipped and the food is free, so it all accounts for a good amount of savings in monetary terms. The hospital cleaners have to be summoned every few days to clean up the room and the corridors. But essentially, there is no stress. Internet access is all right too, as the STC signal is strong here in my room and I have purchased that company's internet card. 

So what are the negatives? Not many. The reason I am even adding this paragraph is the longing I have to be in Al Muwayh, with which I identify my own home and work. Of course, my home is just a rented place. No great shakes. I don't even have all the things that I purchased and adorned the home with. Just three suitcases of stuff that I brought back from India when I returned here 3 weeks ago, and the remaining furniture that I could not dispose off when I went to India a few months back. I have no large refrigerator, no microwave, no television, no other comforts ... but I still feel happy when I am in my old home. So yes, I do miss Al Muwayh.

There is another reason why I like Al Muwayh better than Zalm. It is the fact that Al Muwayh has become a brighter, busier small village than Zalm can hope to be ... not even in the next ten years. There are several new businesses coming up ... and the hospital, though older than the one here in Zalm, and busier, is also a more homey place. I am more at home with all the nurses and the doctors here than I am in Zalm, where I am mostly considered a "visitor". There are no Indian doctors here, and I do not know anyone outside in the village, which, by the way, is dull and not even properly illuminated at night. There is no garden in Zalm, just one open space with a lot of man-made design and furniture and a lot of children's play equipment, which lies unused because there is no grass or even false grass in this recreational space. 

As to restaurants, there are a few that are worth mentioning: there is an Indian place which serves north Indian food, and a Pakistani place that serves similar food, albeit Lahori style. A few cafetarias for sandwiches and burgers, and a few Saudi/Yemeni restaurants that serve broast and grilled chicken. That completes the restaurant scene for Zalm.

Is there anything to redeem Zalm? As I said, its hospital and its hostel are newer, better equipped and more fun to work and stay in. And that, basically, keeps me going. 

That's it for the day. Do write in and let me know your comments and share your experiences with me. Thank you.

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.

Five days over in Zalm and not much to write ...

Unless you count for the umpteen movies stored on my laptop that I have watched/am planning to watch over the next several days. Work here is much less compared to Al Muwayh. The Out-patient department sees a load of less than 10 patients in 9 hours! Accommodation on the first floor of the hospital is good. I have the last room in a row of seven rooms ... a blessing, because the Mobily network is best here. I have taken my chapatis from Al Muwayh to Zalm, and I prefer to eat those instead of the refined-flour khubz that they give us thrice a day. For the last week, I was alone, but from today, the original Pediatrician of Zalm, Dr. Hani Moharram, is back. We are thus, two doctors, with not much work to divide between us.

The hospital continues to be better than the Al Muwayh one. Not only is it newer, it is managed much more efficiently. They have done quite well in the annual inspection of the Infection Control Department (they got 95% on their assessment, which means they are the best peripheral hospital in the Taif region!) and the Patient Safety Department (where, too, they are no. 1 among peripheral hospitals, with 94% assessment). 

The unreliable internet means that I have to depend upon the help of an Egyptian radiologist who is staying in the room next to mine. He has a STC 4G router, and when he turns it on, the net is faster than a bullet train! Sometimes, though, he removes the SIM card from the router and puts it inside his mobile phone ... thereby disabling his WIFI. I tried to buy a new STC 2GB net card, and although it worked quite well from the morning until the evening, it has stopped connecting since then.

Dr. Magdy, my old friend from Al Muwayh, came over to Zalm some months ago, and has been working here since then. He informed me yesterday, though, that his request for transfer to the Children's Hospital in Taif has been accepted. Today morning, he finally left for Taif. As Dr. Parvez and Dr. Rahim Baksh are also absent, I am having to live without live company from Indians/Pakistanis or any south Asians.

That's all for today. Will return after some days to fill you in on what is happening.

P.S. I cleared the IELTS exam (Academic mode) with flying colours, getting 8.5 out of a possible 9.0 in the exam.

... and off to Zalm

As I had expected, I have been told to assume substitute duty in Zalm, starting today. This has been a regular experience of most doctors: to be sent elsewhere as soon as they arrive back in the kingdom after their vacation. So it has been with me! The precipitant, in my case, was the fact that there was already a locum paediatrician working with my colleague Dr. Afzal. This locum paediatrician is a Palestinian specialist from Children's Hospital, Taif. As a result of THREE of us being present in Al Muwayh, this shift, for me, was predicted to occur within a few days. The shift, though, has occurred within a day of my arrival ... so here I go to Zalm. As it is, I was without internet for most of the time here in Al Muwayh. What will happen when I reach Zalm is anybody's guess. I may not be able to post here or connect with the net while being there, except for short presences on the e-mail or on Facebook.

As and when the net connectivity is available, I will keep my readers posted.

Thanks for reading.

Finished Zalm duty and went to Muderiya for work

The 7-day duty at Zalm was quite routine and I was basically bored because internet was almost never available to me. Although my mobile has an internet-enabled SIM, this worked only for a few hours in the morning when locals were sleeping. Past ten a.m., the network refused to open any pages, forget about running games or apps. Thus, I spent the free time watching TV serial episodes and movies that I had on my laptop.

In fact, I completed watching FARGO - a very unique 10-episode thriller that I have had on my laptop since a few years. This story traces the fortunes of the inhabitants of a small town in Minnesota, U.S. in 2006 when a criminal lands among them. The role of the main actor who plays the bad guy was enacted by Billy Thornton. This is an amazing story and is completely based on TRUE EVENTS. I recommend this serial only for adults - and from among adults, only those who can stomach viewing violent events and blood. 

I also watched all the episodes of Gray's Anatomy Season 11 that I had on my laptop. The series is still going on, and to date, only 14 episodes have been aired. I think this series will appeal to everyone who wants to see medical stories mixed with romance, violence, etc. 

The only doctor who was helpful during all the seven days was the Pakistani ENT surgeon Dr. Rahim Baksh, whom I also mentioned in my previous entry. I went out with him on 2-3 occasions for dinner, and I also went to his home to access the net that he has there. Unfortunately, the STC router he has doesn't pick up the signals too well, and quite often, my visits to his place were not very productive. Be that as it may, what won my heart is that he always, ALWAYS agreed to let me go to his place. In fact, on my last day in Zalm, he had to go somewhere else, and he came to the hospital to hand me his house keys, and allowed me to go to his place without him being present. May Allah reward this fine man with His bounty.

On Sunday, after leaving Zalm, I went to Al Muwayh to meet my hospital and medical director, and then left for Taif to meet the important people in Muderiya, with whom I have filed my papers in request for an emergency exit. What happened there is not too interesting, but the gist of it is simple: I am not being permitted to leave the kingdom ahead of the end of my contract. I must, it seems, wait till the contract is OVER, which is about 5 months from now.

Day 4 in Zalm

Well, as I had written in my previous post, I was assigned to go to Zalm for a week starting last Monday. It is now Wednesday evening. The work has been fairly light, and I spend my time watching TV series that I have downloaded on my laptop in the last several years. In fact, it is quite a change from the earlier toxic routine where I used to study with colleagues on Skype each day in the evening. Now that studies are no longer a requirement, I am enjoying my time doing things that I had kept off from doing the last few years. Zalm is a small village, and has nothing to attract a visitor, so I am mostly confined to my room. 

The way I pass the time also included going out with a Pakistani friend - Dr. Rahim Baksh/Baloch is an FCPS-qualified ENT surgeon from Karachi and is posted in Zalm. He stays alone, and is therefore available to me for spending some pal-time. We went out to eat on the past two days, and yesterday, it being my birthday (by the Gregorian calendar), it was my treat! Back home in India, my family cut a cake, which they did on Skype so that I could also witness it. On Facebook, I received more than 200 greeting messages on the wall, on Whatsapp, perhaps 4 dozen, and several of my friends wished me personally by calling me or messaging me through other apps like WeChat, Hangouts, etc. It felt nice to receive messages and calls from literally hundreds of people!

My request for an emergency exit is pending approval. 

Today, I officially received the MRCPCH Clinical exams result. I have passed, and will now need to apply to the Royal College for Membership (it is priced at approximately INR 40000 per year!) ... I am officially now able to write the letters after my name. Yippee.

Four more nights and three more days remain before I can return to Al Muwayh.

Thank you for reading this. Do leave your comments!

A week past, and for a week ahead

I write this on a Saturday, the usual off-day in KSA, and at approximately noon-time. I am quite satisfied with the progress of my application to end my service here, for reasons that I cannot make public here. I have had a great time here in Saudi Arabia. Three years of my service ended in mid-November 2014, but I could not terminate my contract at that time as I needed to work here for at least another year. However, on coming back here from my India vacation, I have chosen to resign from here and plan to leave as soon as possible to be with my family in India. 

In the past week, I started my resignation process by first drafting a request letter at the Muderiya with my ex-Medical Director Dr. Shehab, who works in the mutaaba department (which investigates complaints from patients). He wrote out my letter in Arabic. With this letter, I went to my hospital director Mr. Ahmed Farah, who read the letter and immediately agreed on my request. A few days later, armed with this letter and a few formal papers that I got from the HR department of my hospital, I returned to the Muderiya, and after romping through different areas of the directorate, I finally submitted my papers to the relevant person, and returned the same evening to the hospital.

The next day, news arrived that I would be serving a substitute duty in Zalm for a whole week beginning the coming Sunday. Well, I tried to refuse this, as I thought the Muderiya might need my help the next week - and perhaps the Director of Health Affairs of Taif might want to speak with me and try and dissuade me from resigning. (There is a shortage of doctors in the Kingdom, but in Taif to a maximum extent.) However, the medical director and his assistant Mr. Mutaib called me to their office and asked me to go to Zalm, and gently reminded me to be on the good side of the Muderiya, or my resignation process could "get" delayed.

Hence, I acquiesced. I will go to Zalm tomorrow. In the meantime, I am busy packing my things ... I have already nearly finished packing my books, and half of my eatable stuff. Clothes and utensils from the kitchen are yet to be packed. Also, I am trying to negotiate with people who might want to buy off my furniture, appliances, etc. And, of course, my car. Let us see what happens ...

Thank you for reading this specially relevant installment of my blog.

In Zalm ... day 2

Yesterday I reached Zalm for my 2-day stint at about 10 a.m. The doctor who was waiting for my arrival is Dr. Hany Moharram, an Egyptian Pediatrician who is quite senior but usually very amiable and friendly. Today, my meeting with him was a bit soured by his impatient temperament bordering on poor manners. I learned from others that he had been pressurising the Medical Director for some days to be allowed to go for 3 days to his family in Taif, but when I received the missive from them, which was in the afternoon the day before yesterday, I only agreed to go there on the next day. Which I did. 

Anyways, Dr. Hany left as soon as I had met him, and the rest of the day passed off without any major event or calls. I had brought a plate of paya with a roti from the Pakistani restaurant in Al Muwayh before leaving that place, and I invited the Zalm ENT surgeon Dr. Baksh to share this with me at lunch. He did come, and we also finished the hospital-provided lunch between us.

I slept in the evening for quite a few hours, and as a result did not get any work done on the net or in relation to my courses. In any case, the rest of the evening passed without incident. I sat with a few other doctors who are also serving at Zalm but have come from other places just as I have; at mid-night, I took leave of them and went to sleep.

Early the next morning, I received a Cesarean section call, and so, I left my room at six a.m. After the job was done, I returned to my room and freshened up for the rest of the day's duty. The duty hours passed uneventfully again. I had just 4-5 patients in the OPD. In the evening, I returned to my room and watched a very endearing unusual film on rollerblade skating for children. The movie is called "Hawaa Hawaai" and featured child artistes in the main roles. I guess it was released sometime in 2013. I would recommend that my readers do try and see this movie if they can. 

That's it for now.

My short trip to Ta'if and what lies ahead

As I stated in my last post, I went to Ta'if for a half-day. I left my home after the Dhuhr prayer, reaching Ta'if just after Asr'. I had a simple agenda. The first task was to visit my bank and send money back to India; after this, I had an open agenda to spend the evening. I had hoped to fix my car, but realised that time would be wanting; hence, I just visited a grocery store to buy several items to take back home; a bufiya (a fast-food joint) to have tea and some snacks; the mosque to perform the Asr' prayers; and, finally, Ta'if's Heart Mall to purchase some food from McDonald's to carry back to my place as well as to do some window shopping.

I completed all these tasks by half past seven, and so, left Ta'if to return to Al Muwayh. Both, while going to, and returning from, Ta'if, I used my car's media system to watch two old Hindi movies - Aar Paar and C.I.D. Naturally, I had to watch them in bits, as I had to keep my eyes (and my mind) on the road, but I daresay many of my readers will think I did something unacceptable! Hence, before you say "WTF", let me submit that yes, it was wrong for me to have done so, and I was putting myself at peril.

But it was really enjoyable to listen to the fantastic bouquet of songs from both these movies ... and while Waheeda Rehman was scintillating in C.I.D., Guru Dutt was thoroughly enjoyable in Aar Paar.

Coming now to what happened on the next few days. Sunday was uneventful, but today, i.e. on Monday, I gave an educational talk on "Effective Communication" in our hospital's conference room. Interspersing my talk with anecdotes, and embellishing my presentation with some cartoons helped my listeners to stay awake through the necessarily brief talk of just over 22 minutes. 

I caught up with my online studies today evening, and, after writing this, I plan to prepare a small bag for my 2-days' duty at Zalm starting tomorrow. Yes, Zalm beckons again. So, as my colleague has completed over six weeks there last month, it is my turn to go.

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.

The last fortnight

In the last fourteen days, a lot happened that I can write about, and much more that I cannot so easily write about. One of the things that happened pretty early on is that there was a request for a pediatrician from Raniya, a place that is located about 350 km away from Al Muwayh. I was once again asked to go there, but I refused because I have to study for my examinations that are scheduled for next month. He was reluctant on account of the fact that he has his family with him in Al Muwayh, but I argued that I had already gone for such duties four times in the last two or three months, whereas he hadn't gone even once. Thus, Dr. Yasser went to Raniya, while I did all the work here in Al Muwayh. The duties were not as bad as in the previous months, and it allowed me time to study.

My reading is mostly online. The books I read for a short while when I am in the hospital. As I did not get any response from Onexaminations.com, I decided to buy a month's subscription from another student portal called 123doc.com. This cost me UK pounds 49.95. Anyways, the portal has great questions, and I hope to be able to do as many as possible in the time remaining. As I write this, I have covered more than 400 questions out of their bank of over 2500. The comments and teaching notes are better than the ones on the previous portal that I was using, so I am happy. Our study group on Facebook is very active now, and we share at least 10-20 questions everyday, although not all the members are equally active as a few of us, including me. We cover different topics each day, and we do a joint sharing exercise on Friday evenings. This Friday, i.e. a few days ago, we covered three different systems, viz. Development, ENT and Dermatology. The interactions were good, and it seems that almost all of us are in the same state of preparation. Inshallah, we will all clear the exams.

On Wednesday evening (four days ago), I went to T'aif with the pharmacy technician Mr. Mohammad. He dropped me near Panda, and I went by dabbab to Ahla-Saif Hotel, where I have also stayed on the last two occasions. Mr. Ahmed, the Egyptian manager recognised me immediately, and on my request, allotted me the same room as on the last two occasions. I used the two nights to enjoy myself, not studying much. I downloaded several movies with the help of the free wireless connection that the hotel offers to all its guests. On the morning of Thursday, I went to Al Rajhi Bank's Money Transfer to send some cash to India. Also, I visited the T'aif Zoo ... known in Arabic as the Hadeeqat-al-haiwaan.

My dinner on Wednesday was at the Asian Restaurant located just below my hotel; on Thursday afternoon, I had a meal that was a hotch potch of snacks at the zoo and some at a local eatery. On Thursday evening, I visited Rayaan Broast, a restaurant suggested to me by my Indian colleague at Al Muwayh (Dr. Narendra). This place is located on Tareeq Janoub, the road that goes left from Shaara Shaher, and is also the route to go to Al Bahaa. There was a sizeable crowd, and I ordered and ate a mutton shawarma sandwich (it was delicious), and ordered a chicken broast to take back to Al Muwayh. It is waiting for my attention in my fridge at Al Muwayh as I write this from my room in Zalm (wait, I am getting ahead of my story).

On Friday, I mostly rested in my room, and left to return to Al Muwayh after Asr' prayers. I went by SAPTCO, the state bus transport, as usual. I arrived in Al Muwayh around 8:00 p.m., and later that night, participated in the Friday night revision session on my study group in Facebook.

Then, yesterday evening, I received instructions to go to Zalm for a night and a day to cover for the absence of their lone pediatrician who had to go to T'aif urgently. The medical director of Zalm, Dr. Talal was returning from T'aif by car, and he personally picked me up at half past eleven p.m. from outside my house and brought me to Zalm. 

Today morning, we had a conversation that explained why he had to bring me urgently. It seems that the pediatrician here had to leave urgently, and there was no time for the director to arrange a proper reliever through the central office (the Muderiya) as he usually does. 

Duty today was light, and I relaxed for most of the day. That's it for now.

Zalm, Day 4

As I write this, on my fourth day of substitutional duty at Zalm, a village about 50 km away from my home town of Al Muwayh, I am reminded of my earlier stint here in May/June. The last time I was here, I had a minor accident while trying to exit from a local supermarket. The step outward was very deep down, and I had twisted my right foot and had had to apply a crepe bandage and walk with a limp for over 2 weeks thereafter. 

As it happens, I sprained my right ankle again at the very same place this time as well! It happened on my second evening here when I visited the supermarket to get some things. It is only after I had sprained the ankle that I recalled the previous incident. 

I got my foot in a crepe bandage the same evening, and now, after 2 succeeding nights and mornings, the pain has reduced considerably, although I still need an analgesic now and then.

Zalm has hardly changed ... I am referring to both, the hospital and the village. This time, I was not too keen on walking, and hence stayed indoors in my room on the first floor of the hospital, adjacent to a Syrian OB-GY doctor who is also here to substitute for the local gyne doctor who has gone on vacation. This doctor is Dr. Nabil; he is over 58, but has a steady hand while operating. I attended one Cesarean section delivery and I saw his work, hence the certificate of his ability. Outside the hospital, he has other good qualities such as soft-spokenness, concern for others and a simple but profound sense of the rightness of any matter.

The meals I get are the same as they were during my previous visits. The  kitchen staff usually makes one vegetable and one fried or roasted non-vegetarian item. Most of the times, they overcook the vegetable, as this is the custom here. The non-veg is generally either fried fish fillets or chicken broast (that is roasted and basted over heat and oil). Can't say I really enjoy them, but they are okay, I guess. 

I did not get proper access to the net on the first day, but later on, it's been better, and I have been able to study for long periods without interruption. My Onexamination stints are okay, and I am consistently able to score around 70% each time I do more than 10-15 questions at a stretch. However, some questions are really tough and I have to go to special internet sites to read about these things ... can't be sure I will pass ... so I keep trying to improve  myself.

Day 274, Tuesday, 14th August 2012: To Zalm and back

I had prepared my bag for substitutional duty at Zalm for 2 days, and so I went to the hospital to await further directions and arrival of a driver who would take me to Zalm. Unfortunately, I was unable to leave until 12.05 p.m. and had to while away the time waiting in the ER. Once the driver (Ayad) came, 
I first took him to my home to pick up my bags (one general bag and one for the laptop) and then, he drove me to Zalm over the next 35-odd minutes. We arrived at Zalm at about 12.45 p.m., and the driver left thereafter. 

I learned that Dr. Talal, the medical director, had gone for the afternoon prayers, so I awaited his return. When he came, he shocked me by telling me that they did not need any substitutional doctor today ... as they had requested this for Sunday/Monday and the pediatrician was already working here! I asked him to provide me with return transport, but he expressed his inability to do so, as there were no car-drivers at that moment. I called up Dr. Shehab who then talked back with Dr. Talal. The latter then arranged for my return to Al Muwayh with an Al-Ewan medical car that was travelling to T'aif.

In the event, due to some delays in Zalm, I reached my house back at about 3 p.m. After this, the day passed as usual. I studied, slept, ate, and went for my evening duty to the hospital where I surprised everyone who expected me to be in Zalm.

My 5-day stint as a substitute Pediatrician at Zalm

Monday, 2nd July 2012 saw me going to Zalm to substitute for theiresident pediatrician Dr Hani, who was to proceed on a 5-day leave. Earlier, I was to go the previous week, but a change in Dr. Hani's schedule pushed this to this week. The request had come for five days, and I accepted this because I was, in any case, homeless - so to say - for the entire week, as I would be able to move into my own place only by Friday or Saturday. The in-charge of the ambulance drivers is a man called Mr. Sattam, and it was he who took me to Zalm on that warm, sunny Monday morning. 

Zalm is a small village located 50 km ahead of Al Muwayh as you go from T'aif to Riyadh. In fact, it is almost equidistant from Jeddah and Riyadh. I had gone for a 3-day duty here in March, and this was my second occasion. Ideally, my partner should have gone, but he requested me to go this time as well as his wife is in her last month of gestation.

Upon arrival, I met and interacted with  Dr. Talal, the Medical Director. I then met Dr. Hani, and went up to the quarters to take possession of one of the well-appointed rooms. Presently, I began my stint as Dr. Hani left. My first afternoon saw me seeing just three patients, and the next few days were no busier. Food was on the house. I had five breakfasts, five lunches and five dinners. Most of the times, the food was monotonous; for example cheese and halawa sachets were ALWAYS given at breakfast, along with the ubiquitous khubz and tea. Lunches and dinners always had khubs, a piece of roasted or fried chicken or fish, a zucchini vegetable curry and so on. The main positive thing was a sealed 600 ml of sterile water with each meal. In the end, I was able to save 5-6 bottles to take back home (to Al Muwayh) with me.

I got more than enough rest and long afternoon naps; in addition, I was able to study quite a bit. There were sufficient numbers of patients in the ER in the evenings, and the reason for this was that the locals, especially the women-folk, were more comfortable with the late evening visits that avoided the formalities of creating/retrieving a file from the Record Office and avoided the heat that existed outdoors. 

There was just the one delivery, and just the one admission of a child with gastroenteritis. All in all, it was a good stint. It also gave me the chance to meet all the resident doctors here, esp. Dr. Inam Bari, Dr. Afaq Khan, Dr. Fadwa, Dr. Farzana, and Dr. Kareem. (Except for Dr. Fadwa, who is a Sudanese, all the others are Pakistanis. For some strange reason, Zalm has many Pakistani resident doctors!)

P.S. I skipped one night meal from the hospital and went out to the Pakistani restaurant (New Punjab) and had kheema and roti. It was quite nice!

P.P.S. A surgeon also started his substitutional duty with me to Zalm. He is Dr. Tariq, a Syrian surgeon. In the quarters, we occupied neighboring rooms, and we also had access to an empty and working refrigerator and a fully working, multi-channelled TV set with the relevant modem.  This, and the internet, helped me pass the time. 

That's all for now.

Locum duty at Zalm: The next two days

In Saudi Arabia and most other Arab countries, Thursday and Friday, as you are well aware, dear readers, are equivalent to Saturday and Sunday of the non-Arab world. On these two days, the specialist doctors are generally free to relax in their homes or do whatever they please to do, unless they are on call, in which case, they have to remain in the town. If not on call, one can also leave the town and go anywhere else in the country.

Most of you must not be aware that Zalm was the original town they were planning to send me to when I passed the interview for selection last year. In fact, when I called up the Department of Medical Recruitment in New Delhi (I got their number by searching Just Dial, an amazing service), I was told that Zalm was the place they had selected for me to go to once my travel was confirmed. In fact, my printed contract mentions Zalm, not Al Muweh. So, what made them change their decision?

Two things: One, I was considerably delayed in coming to Saudi Arabia (nearly 7 months, since I gave the interviews in late April, and eventually came in mid-November). In the interim, they appointed other doctors in Zalm, and my position was no longer available, In fact, the pediatricians now working in Zalm include the Egyptian Dr. Hani, whose locum I had gone to serve, and one Dr. Rajkumar, a Haryanvi Indian. Both have joined last year much after April. The second reason was the untimely exit of the Egyptian pediatrician in Al Muweh, a giant of a doctor by the unusual name of Dr. Bakry. His departure in October created a vacancy, which I was then asked to fill. I thought of sharing this with you since the news is relevant to my current post.

Back to the diary then. My weekend was spent in Zalm. I had a total of seven calls during these two days. Of these, five were sore throat, and the remaining two were cases of lower respiratory infection (similar to but not the same as bronchitis in adults). In addition, I had a delivery room call to attend the birth of an essentially normal newborn.

On 'Thursday evening, one of the Pakistani resident doctors (Dr. Inam Bari) and I went to have dinner at a local restaurant run by three Pakistani brothers. The restaurant is called the "Punjab Hotel" and serves excellent food. We had minced meat (kheema), chana dal, peas-potato curry (alu mutter) and rotis, followed by tea. Enjoyed this very much. On Friday, I got some of the food back to my room where I had it in the company of Dr. Prakasan (though he did not touch the kheema, being a patient of peptic ulcer disease.)

Day 134, Wednesday, 28th March, 2012: Zalm

The vetical shades that hid the night from view did nothing to keep out the early morning sun as they were white. Thus, I woke up at about 5:00 a.m.! I snuggled back inside the covers and slept some more in the new environs of my shared room in the campus of Zalm General Hospital, and wondered what the day had in store for me. Finally, my room-mate and I both got up at a little after 7:00 a.m. and dressed to go to the hospital for the day's work. 

 Earlier, I was called to the ER twice to see some sick children, and so, I had had less sleep than what I normally get, but both the children, thankfully, had nothing serious, and I could dispatch both of them after some basic tests and a prescription that they could continue the treatment with, at home.

The adjoining photo and the one below show the ER of the hospital.

A view of the parking lot outside the main hospital building

Zalm, like Al Muweh hospital, is more like a primary health center. and although it has intensive care units, a fully functional operation theatre, and all the equipment money can buy, these facilities are not in use, either due to the lack of trained personnel or the lack of initiative. It is also possible that many such hospitals all over Saudi Arabia are meant to serve just local communities in lieu of a robust private medical practice set-up in this country. Most of these hospitals are staffed by expatriates, such as doctors from other countries of the Arabian Gulf, Pakistan, India and so on, nurses from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, and so on, and subordinate staff from the entire Indian peninsula including a horde of people from Bangla Desh.  

Only the admininstrative staff is local, and is culled from the same region as the hospital. The situation in Zalm was no different, but the difference was that the administrative staff seemed a whole lot more competent than the ones I have met elsewhere. The hospital itself looks shiny and new, and most of its departments are functional and well-maintained. The resident doctors were all respectful and polite, the nurses, extremely charming, friendly and efficient, and the subordinate staff , helpful and keen. 

The next few pictures are of the room allotted to me (the one on the extreme left), and the access route to it from outside the hospital. 

The door that leads to the stairs on the first floor to the doctors' residence area

The entrance door to my room

 The next three pictures show the door of the room I shared with Dr. Prakasan, the room itself (with my bed) and the chairs in the lobby outside where the canteen service left our lunches and dinners for us to come and collect it ourselves. To their credit, however, it must be said that the lunches were packed hygienically. The main problem was that all the lunches were identical to each other, with sheer monotony preventing me from partaking of the dinner served to me on the next two days, but more of that later. 

My room

The lobby chairs

Sister Gracie in the Pediatric OPD

Today being a working day, I was required to stay in the out-patient department from eight o'clock till four p,m,, with an hour's break from noon till 1:00 p.m. for lunch and afternoon prayers. The nurse in the Pediatric OPD was one sister Gracie, a Filipino who was very efficient. Of course, it is quite a thing to say that she was efficient, because we saw a grand total of just FIVE patients, none critical, over the entire spell of seven hours! During the day, I also managed to hospitalise one child from the ER, a case of sore throat with high fever, and in the night, one infant with an accidental ingestion of one or two tablets of an antidepressant that his grandmother was using at home. Both the children stayed in the hospital for just one day, going home the next day. 


All my meals were sponsored by the hospital, and on Wednesday, I ate my breakfast and lunch in the canteen. Dinner was sent to the doctors' quarters and was left on the chairs outside in the lobby as it was the night before. 

Dr. Prakasan, my room-mate

Alfaaz, at the cafeteria outside the hospital

After clinic hours, I went back to the room and whiled away the evening doing this and that - but mostly surfing the net and reading some stuff from the study material I was carrying with me. At about a quarter to six, Dr. Prakasan and I went out for a small amble, reaching one of the only two main arterial roads, where we crossed over to the opposite side to have tea in a local cafeteria. The sole person who served us our tea was a fellow-Indian by the quaint name of Alfaaz. He comes from Allahabad, the city in Uttar Pradesh which is on the bank of the river Yamuna. (This is also the city from where the great Amitabh Bachchan came to Mumbai to become a huge, huge superstar and a movie thespian the like of whom I have not seen in my entire life-time.)

After tea, we returned to the hospital, where perchance, I discovered that there was a password-protected wireless signal on my mobile. With some poking around, I had the password, and so, I sat near their "control room" and surfed the net for free for about an hour or so. At about half past eight, I went outside for my daily walk. Out of the hospital, I walked all the length of the small village and back, to register a distance of 3.25 km. I stopped at a grocery/convenience store for a banana and a bottle of water. Arriving back in the hospital, I continued walking around the hospital for some more time, so that I had logged in 5.25 km in all, burning about 250 calories. (My Samsung Ace has a downloaded app called Sports Tracker which uses GPS technology to monitor your exercise after you have entered in all the details. It will also display your speed, your pace, the map of the path you took, and if you connected a heart-rate monitor, a graph of the heart rate that you achieved during the given exercise. It also allows you to share the exercise parameters on Facebook and other social applications if you are connected to the net.)

After this, I returned to my room where Dr. Prakasan and I had dinner, and after some chatting with him, I opened my PC to surf the net. I went to sleep at a little after one a.m. 

That's it for now.