“The story began with my marriage to a merchant navy officer who was then working as Chief officer in an Indian shipping company. Read on about how my maiden voyage journey turned into an adventure of a lifetime!”
This article has been published as submitted by the writer without any editing by Chillibreeze so you can critique it, in its original format. Please feel free to rate and comment on this article.
Submit your article and be rated by other Indian writers
Scroll down to the bottom to rate this article.
Author: Malvika Ray
The story began with my marriage to a merchant navy officer who was then working as Chief officer in an Indian shipping company .A small town girl who had grown up in various project townships, the sea was a mysterious entity .A year after my wedding, on a cold night of December year 1986,my maiden voyage began from Kolkata on M.V Jalamudra ,a multi purpose carsgo vessel. Our itinery was Kolkata, Chittagong, Chalna, Jeddah, Port suez ,Antwerp and Dundee.The ship had loaded jute products in Kolkata, with me keeping my eyes pressed plastered to the porthole most of the time .Finally late one evening loading was complete and I was about to start on my first voyage at sea .I can still feel the fresh, cold air of the river touching my face and as the ship slowly started to move with the help of tugs with a pilot guiding us through the lock gates into the Hooghly. As the pilot disembarked the ship sailed past Sandheads The brown river waters joining with the blue expanse of water all around was breathtakingly beautiful.
Our first half was Chittagong in Bangladesh, my first step on a foreign land! I recall with ecstacy the Jamdani saris and a restaurant called Sarah where the food was delicious and unforgettable .The cries of the beggars on the streets however tempered my thoughts. After that our ship sailed for Chalna a port on the Mongla river.
Here we loaded from a barge. The immediate surroundings of the ship were absolutely rural .Our ship loaded jute and a frozen cargo of prawns. Chalna being our final loading port we finally sailed for Jeddah via a short halt at Chennai for refuelling.
As soon our ship left Indian waters we all settled down to our daily routine life .For wives on board without children life becomes like a holiday and at times monotonous. I had brought a coconut plant in Chalna and nurtured it on board shifting it to different size drums and it grew with time. The pursers wife and me did some cooking for the officers, providing them with a welcome change from the usual ships cuisine. Christmas and New Year’s parties, boisterous as they were brought some excitement and thrill to shipboard routine.Before reaching Jeddah, my husband developed a fever, which progressively grew worse. He was against making a fuss about it but our old man-the Captain was sharp enough to realize that something was wrong. When we touched Jeddah he sent my husband to the doctor. My better half returned complaining that he had been prescribed medicines for malaria which even he could have done on his own so why this fuss!! Two days passed and my husband’s condition worsened.To add to our worries, a day before reaching port suez at midnight the fire alarm began to ring. There were lots of running around, and the smell of smoke .The disciplined crew and officers well drilled in fire fighting knew what to do. People wore life jackets and lifeboats were to be lowered……I was adamant that I would not leave my husband and run away. The captain smiled at my ignorance and made things clear to me that no such thing was going to be done . A stretcher was readied to take my husband to the lifeboat .I took our passports ,wore a life jacket, prayed hard. God must have heard me ,for the crew was successful in controlling the fire and things soon returned to normalcy by dawn, and we sailed on to port Suez.At Suez, my husband was diagnosed with paratyphoid, and since the ship was expected to proceed on her voyage after 2 days so I was instructed to get ready to go, leave the ship and accompany my husband home after he recovered.MAN PROPOSES AND GOD DISPOSES .The ship’s 2 day stay at Suez turned into a 8 month!!!!! Due to a financial crisis that had overtaken the company our ship was arrested at Port Suez and not allowed to precede any further .Meanwhile my husband recovered and returned after 11 days.Then began a new life on board. .News kept filtering in of further problems besetting the owners .Communications were not advanced as it is in these days, and rumours about what was happening were rife on board .We could not proceed onwards nor return home. We were stuck at port Suez.The crew and the officers on board were stopped being paid theirs salary, with those who had liabilities at home were facing untold problems. Many started planning to quit the company but to do that you had to go home. The Indian missions at Cairo and Government agencies charged with attending to such cases were falling over each other in their ineptness in handling the situation. With neither any cash on board nor any credit with ships food, water and fuel shortages stared us in the face. Then we started the barter system. Vendors came in boats selling us potatoes, flour etc and in return they would get back expensive cigarettes, and drinks .It pained us to give away expensive personal items but we all needed the necessities of life more than the luxuries .Parties and fun making on board had come to an end Everyone’s face was down with worry and we were counting the days to return to India.Concerned that the deteriorating situation on board would ruin the frozen cargo, the cargo interests finally arranged to pay the ship for essentials including a small payment for salaries. With a little money in hand our mood lifted and we managed to take a tour to Cairo. For a small town girl the sights and aura of history and ancient civilisations are too intensive to describe. The museum, pyramids, sphinx and Son et lumiere including the crooked chaps offering camel rides was an unforgettable experience.The people of Suez were helpful and sympathetic and dispelled the commonly held belief on board that Egyptians are devious and cunning race. The roadside food stalls were interesting with roasted chicken, stuffed pigeon, unleavened bread and delicious peanut chutney.Six months passed in the midst of worry and some fun. The captain was a tower of courage and strength during these difficult times .Festivals came and went with or no news from home, until finally a decision was taken to tranship the frozen cargo at Suez and the rest of the cargo at Djibouti.Completing our transhipment, we sailed to Bedi Bandar in Gujarat. There everybody left except my husband and the second engineer, who along with a local cook and helper remained onboard as caretakers.
The Gujarat days were unique in their own way. There was no shortage of food but hardly anyone to share it with .At night, we had no electricity and used lanterns on board! It was such an extraordinary experience and just a little scary to have the full ship just to ourselves!
Byline: I was born in Kolar Gold Field, Mysore. My father being a mining engineer had a transferable job. So I had the opportunity to stay in various parts of India in small projects and sometimes in cities. This way I got an exposure to different cultures of different states. My husband is a Captain in the merchant Navy. Our family consists of our two teenaged sons, my father, my mother in law, and our adorable 11month old Labrador retriever dog whose name is Scooby.
I love to read, write, listen to music and experiment to cook new dishes. Earlier I worked in Sikkim tourism, then as primary school teacher and also cultivated oyster mushroom and sold them. Due to my growing responsibilities I have reached to the conclusion happily that working from home and converting my hobby of writing into a dream job is my cup of tea. Time and my dedication will judge whether that dream will materialise or not.
More on Chillibreeze
Read, rate and comment on more such articles by Indian writers
Take advantage of our confidential and professional article review services to get your writing rated by an expert critic
Check out our Writing Courses and Writing Assessments
Want to work on client projects? Read more about our screening process
Related posts:
- A Morning in Madras
- How Relative is Gandhism in Today’s World
- My Moving Life: From India to UK
- An Early Frost
- True Stories from the Desk of an Indian Palmist
Comments:
Loading ...
