Round 2 of observations

As I am up to date on the blog, let me use this chance to note down some more observations in relation to my stay in this country. I had made some observations concerning Ta'if city in my previous post on this issue. to read these, click here. Let me go ahead with some more observations concerning Ta'if. 

TA'IF:

• Truly, one can fall in love with this big, beautiful city. It is one of Saudi's tourist spots. The winter here can be very cold indeed, and I experienced a lot of chill every evening when I went out with Dr. Raid on the walk. As I was only carrying a fleece jacket, sometimes, the cold got to me so much that I had to abort the walk and go back inside the house at Mukhattat-ul-Visam. 
• The market area of Ta'if is spread over large tracts of land and is mostly centred around two major junctions: the one where there is Abbas Mosque and Abbas Square, and the one around Panda and Ta'if's heart Mall. In addition, the Tareeq (=street) Abu Baker and Tareeq Shubra has several large food shops, banks, electronics and white-goods shops, pharmacies and many other businesses. There is a huge "mobile souk" to cater to the needs of the ever burgeoning but trusting population. The Children's hospital is located in the narrow streets that connect the two aforementioned roads.
• The Gazzaz mall is located at Abbas square, and is quite near to the Keralaite area of shops where most of the Keralaite Indian run shops are located. These include grocery shops, restaurants, shops that sell odds and ends, utensils, toiletry and so on. The "Thara Restaurant" here is a famous joint for Indian cooking food, albeit, with emphasis on Kerala food, such as mixed vegetable with parathas, dry chicken, large grain rice and similar stuff. However, you won't find idlis, dosas and the like. The food here is fresh and cheap. Located next to it is a calling cabin for people to call their near and dear ones back home at rates much less than the calls that I can make with my mobile call, but more than what I can do with video calling on Skype.Each has its own advantages. This area also has laundries which will wash and iron your clothes for a small fee of SR 3 per cloth.
• The Ta'if Burj (tower) is located a little distance away from the Abbas square, and at its foot is the Ta'if's Heart Mall, popularly known by the name "Panda" which, actually, is the supermarket located within the mall. The Arabs, of course, pronounce it as "Banda", since they lack the "P" sound in their language. The mall is really huge, and its food court has to be seen to be believed. It is vast, with over 30 counters, ranging from the ubiquitous KFC and McD to the more unique counters which are specific to this country. I had a plate of rice with chicken tikkas and accompaniments of sauces, a little cooked brinjal (very frequently eaten by all Arabs) for SR 17 on one occasion. On another occasion, I tried a Fish sandwich (SR 5) from Al Baik, the biggest and most popular food chain in Saudi. It is like a Saudi-ised version of McD or KFC, with very low prices. For example, the chicken dish here will have 4 pieces of chicken legs, 6 breads (burger style), sauces and cheese for just SR 10! The food court has a skating rink in the centre for children, and large dining areas with modern chairs and tables where one can just hang around for as long as one wants.
• On yet another floor they had an amazingly big electronics store with dozens of models and huge inventories of TVs, refrigerators, computers, laptops, etc. Finally, before I move on, I must say that they had escalators without stairs - they kept going up and down like ramps which are even suitable for those who are in wheelchairs.
• On at least 4-5 days, I went to Ta'if only to surf the net, either in Abbas square, where I would sit in a garden  that is situated just opposite Gazzaz mall (see picture), or in Panda, where they did not mind me sitting for hours on end at one of the tables.
• Ta'if has broad roads, and their main road is called the Tareeq Shaher, which has big outlets like showrooms of Toyota and Mercedes cars, buiders' offices, food chain outlets, garments and jewellery show rooms, and so on.

I would now like to move on to things I saw and heard at the Muderiya Saha (the Ministry of Health) at Ta'if.


MUDERIYA SAHA:

• I will not be able to point out the exact location of the Muderiya to the reader, but suffice to say that it used to cost me either SR 10 or 15, depending on the idiosyncrasy of the dabbab driver who took me there from Mukhattat-ul-Visam. The Muderiya has a front entrance and a back one, and the offices of the guys who are in charge of the doctors who come to Saudi Arabia from all over the world are located close to the rear entrance. You are first welcomed to an outside cabin. Here, your passport and other papers that you brought from India are scrutinised; a clerical person then checks the photocopies of the certificates against the originals in your possession; finally, a medical form is given out to you to go to King Faisal Hospital for blood and urine tests, a chest X ray and a physical examination.  
• I took the necessary things with me but I was not aware that I had to take my original certificates for verification. In the event, I was lucky because the clerk did not insist on my producing them. He merely took an acknowledgement from me on each of the certificate's photocopies that I had got my originals back after verification. He then made the medical form for me and sent me on my way.
• It came as a surprise to me that the formalities at the Muderiya turned out to be simpler than I had thought them to be. It helped that both Raid and Sobhy had already prepared me for the procedures. As a result, I almost breezed through the complete cycle.
• After I had the results of the tests on Monday (exactly 2 days after I had submitted my blood and urine samples), I re-visited the Muderiya. They were very quick and I was soon led to an Egyptian doctor Mohd. Ashref, who gave me my allotment letter to go to Al Moweh Hospital. I pleaded with him to post me in Ta'if, but he refused point-blank. When I reached Al Moweh, I realised why. One of the pediatricians had just left and they needed a replacement for his departure. 

 I guess that brings me to the end of this rather long entry ... will try and share more news and views some other time. Please let me know how you found this entry. I will await your comments.

Day 18, Saturday, 3rd December, 2011

Dear Reader,


I have very sporadic connectivity with you (read "internet") as Al-Moweh is a small town, and the device that I am using has poorer coverage than the other major company's device, but as I am not flush with cash, and I bought my current device for SR 100 (that is nearly 1400 rupees), I am trying to use the same device rather than the other, more favoured one (the device costs SR 180, which is over INR 2000).


Today, I gave one of the guys in the hospital SR 500 along with my original passport for making my work permit (also known as the "Iqama"). Once I have the permit, I can open a bank account and also send information to the authorities to credit my salary into that account. The entire procedure may take another 1-2 weeks, after which the process for the salary to be credited will be put into motion. 


Getting up in a big house can be a scary thing, because, once you are up, you have to finish  all your chores as soon as possible and leave for the duty. Although the official start timing for the duty is 7:30 a.m., most doctors report by 8:00 a.m. or so. The fact is that the place where I am staying is a good 15-20 minutes' walking distance away, and I had to start rather early if I were to make it on time. In the event, I had a light breakfast, took a quick bath, hung out the clothes that I had washed yesterday night (in the washing machine), and also set some of the utensils and other stuff back in their proper places.


Just after leaving, I called up Dr. Narendra Punjwani, who is a Sindhi friend who is working here as an orthopedic surgeon. He has a car, and he lives just across the road from where I live. Luckily, he hadn't left as yet, so I requested him to take me with him. That is what happened, and I arrived at the AGMH just around 8:00 a.m. i went to the cafeteria to have a small, quick breakfast of scrambled egg ("shakshooka") and tea. After this, I was in the out-patient department till the Dhuhr prayer. In between, I had to go to complete some tasks in connection with the submission of documents to Mr. Abdur-rehman, who works in the Medical Records section. I was asked to also submit recent photos, which I did not have. 


I had earlier met Dr. Shehab, the medical director, who had asked me to accompany him to his house where he would hand me the rubber stamp I had ordered from Ta'if via him - so I grabbed this opportunity to go with him and also requested him to take me to my house, from where I picked up the snaps that were needed (and which I had had the foresight to carry from home over 2 weeks ago!).


This is a unique self-inking rubber stamp that costs SR 50, and comes with a blank impression surface on which you may attach whichever letters you want from a bank of letters, characters, numbers and punctuation that come with the pack! It was an amazing -albeit tiresome - experience to create your own stamp with the legend of your own choice. I settled for a 3-line stamp with "Dr. Taher Y K" on the first, "M.D." on the second and "Sp. Pediatrics" on the final line.


This took the better part of an hour, I think. During this time, I kept seeing patients too, and before long, it was time for the prayer and lunch break. After the break was over, it was more of the OPD time, and soon, it was time for the Asr' prayer and finally, the end of another professional day. 


I got a return lift with Dr. Aala, an Egyptian ENT specialist who is a very kind and helpful person. My colleague Dr. Yasser and one other doctor whose name escapes me also joined him in his vintage Mercedes car that drove very nicely. It was a pleasure to see Dr. Aala leaving each of us at our doorsteps, a journey that made him go sometimes into the interiors of this crazily designed town.


Once I was near home, I visited a supermarket to buy some stuff, and then went home to cook cabbage, clean up the kitchen, surf the net and write this entry. I also spoke to Nishrin and ate some biscuits and popcorn while watching the movie "The Zookeeper" - which I had downloaded to my laptop before leaving India.


Once I am through with this entry, I intend to have my dinner and then arrange my stuff in the closet. Inshallah I will sleep by half past ten. I intend to make this a routine.


I am done. And, for the first time since I began this blog, I am ending ahead of the completion of the day! (Hurray!)

Day 17, Friday, 2nd December, 2011

As I write this, I am awed by the observation that my blog has already had more than 1100 views in the last sixteen days! It is truly humbling to observe that so many of my readers are ... or rather, must be coming back every single day to read the updates. Tell me if you are one of those who await the next installment and I will pray for your well-being. Is there anything in the blog that you do not want to be there? I am sure that if your argument is cogent, I will consider editing the objectionable content.


Today, like yesterday, was an off day for me. However, I cannot say the day was unremarkable. The reason for this is this: Today, I left the house that the hospital authorities had given me and shifted to the residence of a surgical colleague from Haridwar, India. His name is Dr. Shahid,and as I write this, he must be on the way to check in for his flight to India from Jeddah. He is going there to organise and attend the wedding of his sister-in-law. I consider myself lucky to be accepted by him as his sub-tenant, because he has a well-furnished, rather large house on the ground floor, about 15 minutes' walk from the hospital. He has, in his house, a 4-piece sofa set (with a 3-seater sofa, a 2-seater sofa, and a pair of 1-seat chairs).There are 4 rooms, each with a working A/c, a twin tub washing machine, a big 2-door refrigerator, a microwave oven, a colour TV (not being used) a functioning kitchen and more.


As Dr. Shahid is away for over a month, this house is in my custody till his return. I saw that Shahid is very careless with the cleaning task of his house.The kitchen was really, really dirty, as were the other rooms. There were almost 2 dozen cartons stuffed with hundreds of things like old clothes, screws, carpentry tools, decorative pieces and so much else that I must say the mind boggles! There was a small super-market nearby, and it was being managed by an Indian - a Keralaite. I sought his help to get two Indian/Bangla Deshi guys to come to my house and help me to clean the whole house. Presently two of these fellows did come and we began the cleaning work. They split up, and while one of them began to clean the kitchen, the other started with the various areas of the house with brooms and a vacuum cleaner.


They were at it for more than 2 hours, after which the house I stay in is looking much better indeed. I am also glad to report that the net is working, albeit very slowly and with a lot of uncertainty and periodic lapses. 


I went to sleep after 10:30 p.m. Thus ended my day.