As a merchant navy officer’s wife I always love to bask in the glory of my husband. This profession has got enormous influence on me and my household. I owe a lot to this profession and with time I have fallen in love with this profession. You must be thinking why it is so….then here is my story…..
When I got married to a shippy, every body was of an apprehension that they are not good. They travel most of the time, they drink a lot, and they have got all sort of bad habits and their family life is always in rocks. I thought; let me see what is there in store for me.
He just came in my life and swept me off from my feet…foreign tours, flights, hotels, dollars, dresses, jewellery…just name it, it’s there at my disposal……Life was like a fairy tale . The life got filled with all sorts of positive thoughts……Yes money places a vital role in our lives and how vital that money could be, I first time felt in my life. The earning in dollar, every time you multiply to find its value in rupee …hmmmm….just awesome.
Then came the phase, when he joined first time, the ship after marriage. That feeling, that agony, I tasted first time in my life. When he went away I felt that nagging emotional pang. Waiting for days together for a letter to come, a little phone call looked so precious than anything in this world. Then came the phase where I need to join the ship all alone. This is called honeymoon retold. When I reached there I found out, what lies beneath this glamour. The amount of energy, the patience, the way they handle the day to day situations on board, left me awestruck. They are the talented lot who can do all sorts of physical work so also mental work and are capable of running the ship single handedly, without waiting for anybody, just left me spellbound. This fairy tale lives of these officers no more looked to me fanciful. I started leaning to value those hard earned money. We started saving for rainy days.
After a certain point, when he decided to take up the shore job, new avenues of this industry opened in front of me. I could see the multifaceted, multi-dimensional hues of this industry. Its potential really allured me. On board I used to see the work of charterers, the ship chandlers, manning of a ship and running a ship, but at as he took the shore job I could understand the entire thing from cadet training to handling of a ship, from multimodal transport to different surveys, getting a ship and correlated problems and I could more or less understand the way this vast industry is running. I started dreaming about many things.
When he started writing books on shipping I gained the knowledge on Chart work and Navigation, the ship stability and the cargo related fundamentals. When he explained me about the magnetism part I kept on wondering …. ….ship’s magnetic field, earth’s magnetic field then cargo’s magnetic field, the gyro, the magnetic compass…….. it was like huh……… and with so many variables one has to maintain it’s stability and reach the destination in time!…..This whole learning process and in spite of being a house wife I could possess a vision beyond my four walls is just because of this industry and my husband…..Now I hope, we can contribute a lot to this industry, which I adore so much…..
By Mrs.Swayamprava
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This one was a entry for "proud to be a mariner" contest.
