The Weekend that was: Days 51 and 52, Thursday 5th and Friday 6th January, 2012

The past two days, comprising the weekend, were rather drab, as I was free from duties but sitting in my house and roaming about the town - with no opportunities for an outlet or trip elsewhere. This will continue to be my routine as long as I do not obtain my Iqama. So be it.


Dr. Niaz and I have gradually begun to come closer: he has begun to cook food in a rather quaint way; he usually boils chicken/meat in a large pot with water, salt, chillies and tomatoes. He seems to enjoy this soupy food. As a result, I am unable at most times to share my food with him. However, on Thursday, I offered to share bhajiyas and batata-wadas made by me, and he did have a small helping; on Friday, I served him egg omlette with chapati, and his response was very favourable. He called the fare "excellent". I also made lady fingers this weekend. I am waiting for him to have that. On Thursday evening, we ate home food, but on Friday, we both ate at the Kerala Hotel (Hotel Malabar) located behind our house area abutting the main highway. While I enjoyed fish curry with chapatis/dosai, he had chicken masala with the same accompaniments.


Our walks take us to the Al Moweh garden every evening after Ishaa prayers. Dr. Niaz, initially a reluctant walker, has now become as eager as me to do the walk; he actually bought pumps to wear on his feet. His pace is also quicker now, and he seems to enjoy walking as much as I do. Good for him, as he, too, is a diabetic and has recently put on weight. (He is nearly a dozen years younger than me, though.)


I had a long video chat with my family on Friday evening, and that was a great thing! 

Day 50, Wednesday, 4th January 2012

So, here I am, finally, on the 50th day post of my stay in Saudi Arabia. It feels good because I am still at the crease, and batting more comfortably than before. Of course, this is all because of the wish of Allah and the help and support I get from my family, well-wishers from all over the world, good buddies at Al Muweh and elsewhere, and the kindness shown by strangers one meets on a daily basis in my town. 


Do not underestimate the power of the last-mentioned category; these are nothing short of angels sent by Allah to ease your journey in times of stress and trouble. Or, at least, that is the way I look at them. They must be angels, don't you think? The Hyderabadi manager of the hardware shop gave me four steel nails free when I needed them, saying that it was no big hassle; the washing machine repairer from Mumbai will invariably call me to sit with him and run to get "shai" (the way chai is pronounced in SA because there is no ch- sound in Arabic, :-)); the Pakistani barber who had offered me room in his own house on the second day of my arrival in the town, and he actually took me to his house to show me the room he wanted me to take ("you can pay me whatever rent you want, sirji" he had said); the numerous instances of car drivers who will stop the car and offer you a lift (these include some nice Saudis too, by the way); I can go on and on, but I think I have illustrated the point fairly strongly.


Wednesday turned out to be a routine day and there were no surprises - pleasant or otherwise. We came to know (by "we", I mean the medical and paramedical staff of the hospital) that our present Mudeer (hospital director) has been transferred out, and the current Asst. Mudeer Ahmed Faar (Abu Tukaa - which is the Arab way of calling someone as the father of .... , in this case, Father of Tukaa, his son) has been appointed in his place. The prevailing opinion seems to be that the new incumbent is more meticulous and efficient. Only time will tell what the change entails for the hospital, and for us. 


In the evening, Dr. Niaz and I went for the usual walk in the direction of the garden. On the way, we stopped at the local Kerala restaurant to have a cup of tea each and picked up some chapatis and dosai to have with the gravies at home for dinner and for subsequent meals over the days to come. 


I think that's it. Nothing else to share with you all, so I will end here. The next post, inshallah, will be about the weekend.

Day 48, Monday, 2nd, and Day 49, Tuesday, 3rd January, 2012

If I had been Sachin Tendulkar or Sehwag, and on the crease opposite Australians in the currently playing test match, I would have been very nervous as I am now close to completing my half century on this land that is Saudi Arabia. Well, I am not any of those people, and I am certainly not nervous, more jubiliant than I had thought I would be when I had come here over a month and a half ago. Thanks to the availability of the net, this blog, my readers (you, my dear friends), the cheap calls to my family and friends via VOIP every day, the quiet and calm of this small town, the unpolluted air, the friendly colleagues, the easy hours of work, the daily brisk walks and healthy food options that have enabled me to lose nearly 4 kilograms and the diverse activities that I undertake when I am free, I am quite content here. 


The last two days passed nicely enough. There were just 8-9 patients in the entire day on Monday, and even fewer on Tuesday. As I am not on ER duties, I was completely free to do my own thing after leaving the hospital in the afternoon. I must say that Monday turned up an unexpected surprise, and I worked on this surprise on Tuesday, so that I am quite happy here on Wednesday as I write this.


So, what exactly was the surprise, I can hear many of you ask me. The surprise was a 1 km walk along the main road of Al Muweh in the direction opposite to the one I take everyday to go to the Hospital. There is a garden here, sandwiched between the Tareeq Abdulla of Al Muweh and the Jeddah Riyadh highway.


A garden? Yes, a garden! I write this from hearsay that is possibly correct, since the sources include some informed people. The town has received generous largesse from the administration, and they have used this to decorate the town with lighted roadway lights, sculptures (made from stone, mud and wood), artificial and natural patches of greenery along the pavements on both sides of Tareeq Abdulla, and this garden, that was inaugurated last year. It is a landscaped garden (see photos on the new page I created to showcase the garden), with seats and umbrellas, and children's slides and swings, and a beautiful water fountain and just ahead, a water stream. Alas, children of this town have vandalised most of the artifacts. They have broken many of the toys, tilted over the seats, jammed the fountain nozzles so that its pump got burnt and play football where there is natural grass overgrowth so that the grass has withered away. Although I did not go close to the swings and slides, I think many of those are also broken.


In spite of the above problems, the garden was a sight for sore eyes. I visited it thanks to my room mate Dr. Niaz and his Pakistani friend who works in the Saudi Electric Co in a senior job as an overseer of connections and transmission of electricity in the entire region. This visit was between Maghrib and Ishaa  prayers, and we combined it with a rigorous walk that helped shed some flab (I hope). I resolved to re-visit the garden the next day with a camera. 


This is exactly what I did on Tuesday. I went there immediately after my return from the hospital, and I carried with me my Canon DSLR this time. The photos that I took there are in the new page I just created, and the photos of the birds I saw there are in the Photographs:Nature page.


Do read and comment on this post and also visit the photography pages to share your observations/comments. Thank you.