The intoxication of Merchant Navy : The life within

The intoxication of merchant Navy: the life within

Somewhere in 1975 sitting on the wooden tiles of Fraser assembly hall of my school and watching some English movie on a 17 MM projector, I saw the vast expanse of the sea on the screen and somewhere from the back I heard the word Merchant Navy.

That was my first introduction to the world of Shipping. It was certainly not a career that I desired at any time during my school ,on the contrary I used to dislike it.

But destiny plays with us, and God does not gamble with us, but also throws the dice in the dark as Einstein said… I landed on a ship through the college.

From the very first moment when I saw the vast ocean from the tiny moving island that I was on, I could feel the freedom in form of the cool breeze on my face. It was a freedom bordering on liberation Which soon was to become my second nature.

It is almost unimaginable for a person who has not spent more than a week at sea that what this freedom means.It is not the freedom away from worry and responsibility of the world, but it is certainly the freedom from any laws of any country.

Even though technically, we follow the laws of the country that we arrive in , but practically we’re governed by the laws of the flag of the country that we fly, which is mostly in a nondescript country of West African Coast Also called Flag of convenience.

But as most would know that 90% of the time when we are out in the open sea, a sailor is governed by the laws of nature alone, and his survival depends on the cooperation and compassion of his fellow mates.As I have often said that having million dollars in cash at this point on ship would not even get you one square meal.

Your worry is not the world food problem or the Indian GDP but how much food do you have in the refrigerator rooms below the deck.

Apart from food and fuel for the ship, the Sailor is not worried about anything. He is beyond the executive order of even the most powerful man on earth, and probably at par with the richest man in the world as far as basic necessity of life goes.

This freedom or independence give him a certain amount of self dependence or Atmaram-nirbharta as the buzzword is going around in the country. Soon our friendly sailor realizes that the only thing that can happen is what he will do on his own, and the only helping hand is at the end of his own shoulder.

But to me early on in my career it dawned that not only in matter of philosophy, but also in matter of economics and finances, the Mariner is largely left to fend for himself.

His employer does not worry about his future , his health or his life.He has no pension or retirement benefits.His family thousands of miles away is left equally to the mercy of God and relatives both of whom seem to disappear at crucial moments. It is all this that continues to weigh on his mind and preventing him from becoming the enlightened one.

Due to lack of any guidance, he continues to put away his money or his savings in land or other avenues, which he cannot liquidate when needed. In Earlier times, his salary was certainly superior to the cost of living of India, and so the land that he could buy was not what other people on land could.

All these things used to bother me in no uncertain terms and continue to do today because not everyone has become financially savvy. Even today I find people being distracted and diverted from their core competence and delving in businesses which are not capable of giving them returns that simple investment in equity could with almost zero risk .

Coming back to the initial topic of the intoxication of  freedom … it is important that this quality be channelized creatively in restructuring their finances  , personal matters, expressing themselves as writers , artists, motivators and leaders.

What sea gives us is not easy to replicate but easy to distribute. 

Jai Varun Devta !!!