Days 200 and 201, Saturday, 2nd, and Sunday, 3rd June, 2012

Getting on with my story, I spent the next day, Saturday as well as the following night and the next 1/2 day in T'aif. The reason was to visit the Muderiya (Health Directorate) to return my passport and pick up my Iqama and to conduct some financial transactions on Saturday, and to coordinate with the Al Muweh liaison officer Mr. Ali to receive back the amount of HRA deposited with the Cashier by him on the eve of my departure from KSA a month ago, on Sunday. What else did I do? Well, I visited the T'aif's Heart Mall to spend some hours there on Saturday, I ate heartily all my meals at the Asian restaurant located near my hotel, I had both days' breakfast at the Thara Restaurant next to my hotel, I made a few essential purchases at Panda Department stores, I explored both the Shubra and the Abu Baker streets, and I slept and relaxed for two nights. 


During these two days, I also assimilated a lot of information on how to navigate one's way through the mechanism that is part of the officialdom in the Health Directorate. One has to visit nearly 5-6 people/departments before the paper that is essential for one's return to the Kingdom is ready. One has to try and communicate in Arabic (such as my knowledge of it is) with several officials before you get their signatures on the paper you hand over to them. One has to do a lot of walking and climbing up and down their two storeys of offices (most confusing to do this as all offices look alike), while remaining aware all the time that there is no cafeteria nearby to sate your hunger or slake your thirst. One has to travel across the city to keep going back to their offices located on Garwa street ... almost 4-5 km away from the city's centre that is the Gazzaz Mall. To their credit,I must point out that once I had produced the receipt of the payment made by me via Mr. Ali, the officer in the Cashier department retrieved a brown envelope from a well-organised safe and handed over the cash to me within 2 minutes.


The food I had in the Asian restaurant was wholesome, sometimes a little too oily, but always tasty. Hence I parcelled some of the items when I left T'aif to carry them back with me to Al Muwayh. What did I have? Well, I had a wheat porridge (Harees, they call it) on Friday evening, a kheema on Saturday morning, a dal on Saturday evening and a mutton curry on Sunday morning. By the third meal, all the waiters and the cashier/manager knew me well enough to attend to me more solicitously than before. I was offered an extra sweet dish, prompt service and a smile whenever I returned for the meal. It did seem like a shame that my fourth meal was to be my last meal for the time being. 


On Sunday evening, I bade good-bye to the hotel and T'aif and returned in a private taxi to Al Muwayh, just as I got calls from the Al Muwayh director to return by the evening as my colleague Dr. Yasser was getting ready to go to T'aif to be a part of a medical training course that would commence on the next day, i.e. Monday. I arrived in Al Muwayh at about half past five, and immediately went on call for today as well as the rest of the week. Thankfully, though, I did not receive any emergency calls that night and was able to unpack and relax in peace.

Update: Day 203, Tuesday, 5th June, 2012

Dear Readers,


Updating this blog is becoming a little of a chore nowadays, since I am passing through this negative phase after my return from the Indian holiday. However, I am making an effort today to resume the blog because there are several things I wish to share.


First of all, I left India on Friday,1st June, 2012. The main problem that kept me tense was my father's ill-health. For those not in the know, dad, 78, has weakened considerably in the last few months, and is now suffering from chronic renal failure, or, to put in simply, has failing kidneys. This may be secondary to diabetes. A few days before my departure, we had hospitalised him for a night to give him a drip and to confirm the diagnosis. Now, he is home, but he will need to undergo dialysis within a few months. His weakness is so much, that I was in two minds as to whether to leave on the appointed date or delay my departure by a few weeks. Reassurance from my wife and brothers finally made me stick to my previously fixed date of departure.


My flight was at half-past two in the afternoon, so I left the house with the rest of the family at about half past ten, arriving at the CSIA (Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport) in an hour. We separated at Gate B, and the wife and daughters went their own way. However, as usual, I was in for trouble when my large suitcase was weighed in at 42.5 kg! I expressed my willingness to pay the extra luggage charges, but the officer pointed out to me that the rules were that each piece of luggage must not weigh above 30 kg. I was in a state of panic then. I borrowed a mobile phone from someone nearby, and called up Nishrin. I told her the problem and asked her to go out and get me a foldable soft bag which would hold 8-9 kg. I then requested the security people to allow me to leave the departure area and wait outside for the family to return. Eventually, they returned at about 1:20 p.m., and I sat there and removed a lot of eatable items and so on and transferred them to the new carry bag. Re-armed with four pieces of luggage collectively weighing more than 50 kg, I re-entered the concourse and approached the same officer with a sheepish smile. I removed my wallet from the pocket to prepare to pay extra luggage charges, but to my utter surprise, he waived off charges and let me go without charging a penny!


The Air India flight took off about 1/2 an hour behind schedule, thanks to some late passengers and the "queue" that is a usual phenomenon at the over-crowded Mumbai International Airport. The flight would first go to Hyderabad (just as my Jeddah-Mumbai flight had done) and then, after a halt there to take in more passengers, it would fly to Jeddah. A journey that should have taken about 4 hours was thus stretched to over six. They served a measly vegetable sandwich on the initial leg, and then, a proper meal after about four hours of flying. The in-flight staff was good, and the entertainment panel, equally acceptable. I watched the movie "Geet Gaaya Pattharon Ne" (starring Jeetendra and Rajshree, producer V. Shantaram), as also bits of other stuff. 


We alighted at Jeddah at about 8:10 p.m. Jeddah time, and the walk through Immigration and customs took about 45 minutes, so that I was out of the airport at about 9:00 p.m. (Contrast this with the nearly 4 hours of waiting and torture I had to undergo at the Riyadh International Airport about six months ago when I had first reached the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia!)


I debated between retiring in a hotel room in Jeddah and travelling onward by taxi to T'aif and then retiring there. The latter option won, and after heckling with several taxi drivers,  I found an English speaking young Saudi, who offered the ride for SR 350/-. I accepted, and we left. Eventually, I reached T'aif at half past eleven, or almost twelve mid-night. I got off near Gazzaz mall, and checked in to Hotel Noof located next door to the mall. The nightly rent would be a whopping SR 200/-, and I wasn't looking at staying beyond the one night. My intention was to retrieve my Iqama and deposit the passport from the Muderiya the coming morning, and if everything worked out well, to proceed to Al Muweh the same evening.


The room was actually a five-room apartment with two toilets, a master bedroom, a large room with two beds, a living room and a kitchen with a working refrigerator ... the total area not less than 1000 sq. ft. I went to sleep within an hour of checking in, but after partaking of a sumptuous dinner at the Asian Restaurant located a mere 100 metres from the Hotel.


I slept soundly, but more of this in the next post.


Thank you for reading this post. I request you to encourage me by posting comments. Thanks.

Holiday over, coming back

Dear Readers, 


Today, I am taking the return flight to Saudi Arabia after completing my brief vacation. Will land in Jeddah by sunset, Inshallah. I intend to join work in a day or two. My holiday in India (specifically, Mumbai, and with the family, a 10-day vacation to Sikkim and Darjeeling) went off nicely, but for the worsening general health of both my parents. My dad will soon go on dialysis as he has been detected to have renal failure, and mom continues to be cardiac-handicapped and is restricted to the house. 


Will write more later ... am getting ready to go to the airport now.


Thank you all for reading.