My life at Al-Jinadriya

My decision to venture into a new assignment in Saudi Arabia brought me the stiffest opposition from my loved ones. Looking back I think it is the most rewarding and in right direction in my career. The hype and negative propaganda by the media in west and at home made my decision look wrong and at a time when I was having a good and secure job everyone was telling me that I am a studpid. I had to start everything fresh as the language,people and the land were new to me, I was dumb and deaf in a foreign soil. When we started a clinic exclusively for horses in Al-janadriya where about 200 small horse breeding and racing stables housing about 4000 horses , there were many things at odds against us. There were so many Indian grooms working in the farms, but to my disadvantage, most of them were from northern india they speak hindi or urdu, I speak none of the two as I come from southern state of tamilnadu I speak in Tamil and English. Luckily I had Dr.Kirmani, my colleague and collegemate of mine with me who can speak fluently in Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, English and Urdu who had spent about ten years working in a poultry hatchery in Saudi Arabia. When we go and introduce ourselves to the horse owners there would be so many irritating questions like do you know how to scan a mare for breeding, to treat colic, to stitch vulva,etc.etc. Once a horse owner told me that his horse is lame and wanted me to have a look at it, I examined and told that it was lame on right hind, but the owner said it is lame on left hind, I stood by what I said, but owner was unwilling to accept so I prescribed the medicines and told him to give. After some time the owner said, he was wrong and I was right, just to check whether I have brain or not, he argued like that(Mukh fi alla maafi). The most irritating thing to me was the owners lack of knowledge of horse breeding industry in india, when they see a indian introducing himself as an equinevet, giggles and teasing comments were the first to come. The practice was mostly restricted to vets from the west, I had to face the stiffest competition from them, but to my luck a british vet who was having a roaring practice left janadriyah on a better assignment in west. So I could fill some of the gap created by him. Our practice started picking up on a gradual phase and those who doubted the abilities of a Indian vet started giving us job.
(to be continued)