The Creed of Sinbads

Merchant Navy is a funny profession. Vaguely speaking, you’re paid handsomely for living miserably. Now the word ‘miserably’, too strong as it suggests, might provoke some debate among seafarers, since everyone has his own way of looking at it. Some call the ship as ‘Floating Island’, though the ‘Floating’ part doesn’t help in minimizing the agony of living on an ‘Island’. Sometimes the ‘floating’ goes on for a month, like my present voyage; we’re sailing from Dubai to Houston via Cape Town. And sometimes we hit the port every second day if we sail in the waters of Western Europe.

As for me, I have always seen my tenures on ship as an opportunity to do the things that I might not want to do on land. After each sailing we go back to the motherland with lot of money in the bank account. These paid leaves make us do everything that we were refrained to do while on ship. We go different places, party almost every night, buy all those coveted stuffs without thinking twice about the money. But as the popular phrase says among the seafarers: “Paani ka paisa paani ke terah beh jata hai”.

And then we are back on ship. And the cycle goes on. But while following the strict routine of the Merchant Navy life, I somehow got use to goad myself and make the most of the ‘seemingly miserable’ life. With no friends, no booze, no parties, no phone calls around for five months, I know I have this opportunity to learn something new in my solitude. I read lot of books, participate in lot of online forums and discussions, learn new skills and languages etc.

This readiness of keeping myself occupied myself all the time has a dark fear behind it; the fear of getting entrapped in the so called ‘miserable’ life. I’m afraid to spend any five months of my life in a miserable state. Now when with every passing day I’m coming closer to conclude the first phase of my professional life, I’m feeling happy. The road ahead is surely not going to be full of shipping-cycles.