I am once again getting used to a bit of walking

Naturally, since my car has not yet been found! I remember my first year here - when I had no car and had to hitch-hike with other doctors, or locals to reach the hospital or travel to Taif. Now, however, things are different. After using the car that I had up until a few days ago, I have sort of become so used to driving it everywhere that walking is alien to me! Of course, I still walk almost every day as part of my fitness activity, but that is in the evenings. Whereas, what I am talking about is, like, walking to the hospital in the morning as well as after the lunch break, and walking home from the hospital in the afternoon for lunch and in the evening at the end of duties. In addition, since I am perpetually on call, I have to sometimes go to the hospital in off-duty hours as well to attend to emergencies.

I have gone around my village and also around it a couple of times to search for my old car, but no result so far. The police have no news to share either. I have also asked my hospital director to talk to the police and to influential people in the village. 

In the meantime, life goes on. Yesterday was so-so. I had a couple of ER calls, but nothing great to talk about. A gynec. colleague who is leaving within a few weeks wants to dispose of his car, and I may accept his vehicle if the price is right. Yesterday, I rode with him in his car and also drove it for a short while. Although his car is in pretty good shape, it is 17 years old, and his asking rate seems a little high, so negotiations are going on.

I have requested for a much-needed break next week ... and will travel to Taif if there is a replacement found. 

Yet another misfortune with my car

I will make it brief. On Friday, I last saw my car outside my home at about 7:00 p.m. From then until the next morning, I was indoors and did not see the car. When I emerged from my house at mid-day on Saturday, the car had disappeared. First I thought I must have forgotten about where I had left it the previous evening, so I went around my street and the adjoining areas, even going as far as the supermarket where I usually buy my provisions. It wasn't there. 

Being a Saturday, there was hardly any crowd wherever I went, but I then went to the police station to file a complaint. The guy on duty, a Mr. Nasser Otaibi, was quite efficient. He sat on his office chair, and removing a blank writing book, he began to systematically jot down all the required details about my car. I had to sit patiently while he did so. After he had filled 3 sheets of his large book, he said good-bye to me and retreated to an inner room. After a few minutes, he asked me to put my right hand thumb print on several places on the document, and then he let me go. 

I returned to the police station the next morning and was given an official copy of my complaint letter. In the meantime, news about the loss of my car had spread to almost all the corners of the village and almost everyone I met said Inshallah I would find the car again.

Hoping against hope and keeping my fingers crossed. Economically it will be a big loss since I have nearly spent 20000 riyals on this old car (Toyota Corolla, 1993). R. I. P.

Getting paid for blogging

Dayre is a mobile application which is being rolled out selectively to bloggers from all over the world. They sent me an email a few days ago; they have asked me (like thousands of others) to blog exclusively from their site for 3 months beginning June 2014. If they find that my blog fetches many eyeballs and followers, they may select to grant me a blogging scholarship running into thousands of dollars; even if that does not happen, they can still grant me a small honorarium at the end of three months. How cool is that? I have decided to write on a myriad topics ranging from fitness to food to lifestyle ... and I request all my readers here to visit my blog on Dayre whenever you can and follow me ... but hey, hold your horses. This does not happen until a few weeks later. At that time, I will post a link and you can then visit my blog either on your smartphone or on the laptop/PC. Getting more followers is the key, and hence this is a humble request. 

What is in it for you? LOL ... when you read the blog and enjoy it, please consider that as your legitimate reward. When the money comes, if it comes, sure, I can host a party at that time. Will let you know the details. Thank you.

Okay, so Al Muwayh is quiet. It is my third weekend on continuous call, and as of today, I do not see any relief, but I have requested my Medical Director for a few days' leave next week so that I can rest for a while. In other news, my studies are at a low level this week as the internet is fractious here and my colleagues cannot add me to their discussions. 

I am learning about a few things online. Both my online study courses have completed or are completing 2 weeks and it's been a great experience. The course on Engaging India has students from all over the world, with 40% of them from India itself. It seems that Indians also want to learn a lot about their complicated nation! The forums are exhaustive, and to some extent, exhausting. The guys out there are so well-read on matters Indian that I feel like I am a sort of caterpillar emerging out of pod of peas in front of them! The lecturers, both Australian, are certainly well-versed with their subject. They have both spent many years in India, so they should be knowledgeable about ground realities as well. And they are. To an extent. 

The other course I am doing is Community Change in Public Health. This course is also very interesting. It is about how health workers, NGOs and other committed beings and entities can transform communities from being helpless into being competent enough to take matters into their own hands and chart their own territory to improve their own health both individually and collectively. Building up on the principles of Primary Health Care (Alma Ata, 1975), the course goes deeper into how we can bring about such change and how we can measure and follow up with the progress of these interventions.

What else is happening? Well, I am visiting India from mid-June until the end of the month (for 15 days) in order to attend a training course for MRCPCH in Bangalore and also to meet my family and complete certain pending tasks. My leave permission letter arrived from the Health directorate on Thursday, so the vacation is ON. 

I also wanted to share something about a TV serial that I had downloaded on my laptop and which I have been viewing episode by episode since the last several months. It is called BREAKING BAD. It completed its story over 5 seasons (approximately 70 episodes) and after viewing four of these five seasons, I can say that this is a must-see serial. Download it and watch it, guys. The main protagonist is a mature actor, and acts very convincingly. His wife, his handicapped son, his work colleague, etc. are all well-chiseled characters. The story itself is compelling viewing.

That's it for now. Right now, of course, all Indians are restlessly awaiting the announcement of the results of the general elections - with Narendra Modi predicted to carry the day and become India's next Prime Minister and his party, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the party forming the government. I am following the news on Times Now, and it is, sometimes, even more gripping than all the other TV shows combined. At other times, though, crass politics and name-calling makes the viewing offensive, nay, unpardonably unwatchable.