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MARITIME STORIES

Ordeal of a captive seafarer
 

While leaving Kandla port on May 2010, he never thought that he would witness the veiled faces in waters. Chirag Bahri, a second engineer from Ghaziabad, UP, was sailing on MV Marida Marguerite which was hijacked for eight months. Men on MV Marida Marguerite were prepared to venture into, Gulf of Aden, shark’s mouth for low speed and shorter freeboard vessels. Best Management Practices were done, fire hoses were arranged and crew was briefed by the captain of the vessel, Mahadev Makne, to avoid piracy. MV Marida Marguerite slithered into the waters of Gulf of Aden and the nightmarish truth emerged as reality on a fast skiff starving to gobble MV Marida Marguerite, a chemical tanker. The ebony-skinned, six feet goons used a ladder to climb the vessel and in no time they were on the bridge of the vessel. The second engineer after venturing into Somalian waters received the worst call of his life in his engine room,

“Vessel is hijacked, come on the bridge.”

Helpless and terrified he came on the bridge with other crew members. Route of the vessel was changed to the origin of pirates-Somalia. To terrorize and suppress the hidden heart of a commando amongst each of the crew, pirates used rocket propelled grenades and fired few shots of AK-47.

The days when pirates used daggers to scare and looted vessels are digging potatoes. Now we have web friendly, technology devouring, updated with vital information (well the job profile demands it), says Chirag with sarcasm. The crew was shocked and frightened, each of the pirates had AK-47 and machine guns, he says.  

The initial days of captivity didn’t see any ghosts. The emotionless and insensitive beasts, as adjectivated by Chirag, denied harming the crew at the initial time. Six of them, aged 25-30, were headed by their financer of the whole piracy plan. The financer knew English and also Hindi in bits and pieces. Their religion is to get maximum ransom at any cost, says Chirag. These illiterate Somalians also knew to use satellite phones.

Through phone calls between pirates and people involved in the nexus, Chirag came to know that piracy is not Somalian local business but has its has roots extended in Europe and other western countries. After three months, the devil within pirates woke up from his sleep and the crew witnessed worst days of their life. The crew on MV Marida Marguerite was losing hope and dreamt of death every evening, says Chirag with a tinge of death rubbed on his face. To add to the tyranny, one of the fellow members stabbed on their back by sharing relevant information with pirates. Prasad Sharma (name withheld on request) shared about price of the ship and cargo to gain their confidence. He also plotted against captain and other fellow seafarers by using captivity as a mode to avenge his grudges.

The vessel saw more pirates stepping on its freeboard as it reached Somalia. One who negotiated the ransom deal was a 55-years-old man who used to be a driver in Mumbai. He was educated, could speak Hindi and was well aware about India, says the second engineer.

“Pirates are diseased mentally too.”

Says the second engineer.

They are jaded with ailments like piles, asthma and STDs. They eat like beasts and drink filthy water and appear weak. The crew on MV Marida Marguerite was scared that pirates will extinguish the fuel as they never allowed them to put off generator and lights. Chirag and other men in white were tortured and battered. They were not allowed to talk to each other, they were forced to lie facing the ground when not working.

“We were tied with ropes for hours and hours.”

Says Chirag while narrating his ordeal.

To keep the terror alive pirates also fired a bullet closer to one of the crew member ears. It was disheartening to see our superiors brutalized and converted into slaves of pirates, says Chirag. To horrify the crew, pirates also locked captain of MV Marida Marguerite and told that he is dead as stated by Chirag.

Displaying no Arthurism, the second engineer bluntly says that he doesn’t wish to venture Gulf of Aden again but would continue seafaring. He concentrates more on oasis than torment in a desert and terms the captivity as a learning experience. Chirag suggests saving fresh water on a vessel is vital from the first day of sailing. We produced water for for our vessel and other captive vessels for eight months in Somalia, says Chirag. They produced fresh water for eight months at anchorage which helped their crew and other sailors on fishing vessels. MV Marida Marguerite gave 300-350 tonnes of fresh water to other vessels in need.

After eight months the nightmare got over. The ship owner agreed to pay the ransom. The seafarer was zapped to see how pirates became friendly with seafarers after receiving the ransom. Pirates offered the crew with wine and dates after receiving the ransom and greeted them. They called crew members their brothers and that they will miss them. They also sought forgiveness from crew if they were being hurt.

Keep your hopes alive, the only fuel to your life, laments Chirag with a tinge of smile. It is difficult to think about others during captivity but unity is very vital. Keep calm and save your energy. Listen to the pirates and follow their orders, do not risk your life, he advises. Use your energy when the time comes. Don’t dilute the hierarchy during captivity, please respect your superiors as you used to before the hijack. Keep the oil of patience burning and be friendly with them.

He considers shipping media a source to convey his message to the media in general and says that media should be careful about what is going in print or showed on screen. The seafarer also advises for written laws and procedures to be followed by ship owners and managers when hijacked sailors come back home. He supports rehabilitation not only for the captive seafarers but also for their family members. Chirag postulates sick leave of a piracy captive for at least three months and post piracy counseling for captive seafarers to come out of the past nightmarish cocoon.

Chirag, persistent and patient has been brave to share his tortures in piracy seminars after the release of the vessel. “I agreed to share my ordeal because it would change and add something to the information of those in white, I don’t believe things would metamorphosize early, I know it will take time,”

Says the second engineer.

He was unwilling to become a source to pound TRPs for TV channels through his ordeal of eight months of captivity so he kept it only to maritime magazines. A piracy affected seafarer must be compensated after release as some of them would not be in a state to join shipping as a profession again, states Chirag. They should be compensated to start something, according to him. He wishes to place period ahead piracy and is positive that it will happen. A simple guy from Ghaziabad, UP, charmed by sea affirms that he got scared to see pirates on his vessel. This second engineer aims at making seafarers aware that piracy is not a thriller movie but a dark comedy, dark for captives and comedy for pirates. He is wishful that shipping administration would resolve the issue so that one doesn’t have to narrate their ordeal of captivity. The predicament of captivity cannot be weaved in few words.

Ordeals of a captive are not only a way to understand what they went through but also why did they? One cannot understand how dreadful it is to encounter men with AK-47 and RPGs at sea in a distant land until they witness it. Learning lesson, it can be termed for the shipping companies, ship management companies and administration. Chirag Bahri is representative of each and every seafarer and cadets who will ventures these dark areas tomorrow and might fall prey to selfish motives of few hands. As Murphy’s Law states if things are left to themselves, they tend to go from bad to worse. We hope for a serious consideration in the green room.

-Vijaya Kandpal

Inheritance of Loss or Gain

The virtues of a proper composite education as well as proper parenting of children in the right manner cannot be emphasized enough if we wish to leave a legacy of responsible successful adults for future society and the coming generations.

The virtue of obedience is no longer exploited because it is dead. I am not a kid, says a kid. Liberty and money is what they aspire for and back benchers make the best professionals. It is the whole chuttnification of education as it is chuttnified and is always with something new and ‘up’ .Gone are the days when only education was considered the highway towards success.

Now every parent wants his kid to leave a trail blaze in life and end his or her career in a trail of glory. Parents want their kids to experiment.

They want to admit their kids in such schools where their creative interests are best bred and developed and where the emphasis is on producing well rounded individuals and not just book learning. Parents now believe in being frank and being a friend to their kids.

Academics v/s Sports:

‘Padhoge likhoge banoge nawab,kheloge kudoge banoge kharaab’ (you would be successful only if you study and you would go down the wrong path if you play sports), is a lame and old fashioned perception. Time and again this perception has been proved to be untrue by nary a successful sportsman who has gained great heights. Today a sport has gained prominence in society and has metamorphosed the biased masses. Vaibhavi Khaire, 15, a student of the Indian Education Society, Dadar, who appeared for higher secondary exams this year, says,

"I was interested in playing for my school because my coach encouraged and motivated me enormously; I think that playing for my school will help me in future."

Says Romario D'souza, who has also appeared for higher secondary this year and is a student of Don Bosco, Matunga, "I have been named after the famous football player, Romario, by my father because he is big fan of football and even though he himself couldn’t make it as a professional footballer, he wants me to become a famous football player. My school has a big campus and is a popular school for sports like hockey, football, basketball and table tennis. A sport was taken seriously and I am sure it will help me to be a successful sportsperson. Ragini Singh, 40, who teaches Hindi at Shri Vani Vidhyashala at Kalyan says,

"Sports help to break the monotony of the classroom and rejuvenate the students, which enables them to develop a well rounded personality as well as concentrate on their academics."

Technology a boon or a curse for the schools:

 There was a time when if ones neighbour had a mobile or a computer, it was news and the devil’s face in old advertisement s of Onida,’ Neighbors’ Envy Owner’s Pride’ came to ones mind. But now if you don’t possess a mobile phone it is considered news. Technology has made man what he is today and forgetting ones mobile at home can lead to a nightmare. The people who personify this are school going kids who tire themselves out physically in school and then exhaust themselves mentally sitting in front of computer screens at home.

"Kids have become addicted to computers and video games. My son who is eight years old is glued to the computer and prefers to play video games all day rather than going out", says Sumedha Raikar, a freelance writer.

Technology has made kids smarter than ever before and digital technology will be replacing the usual notebooks and pens in schools soon. Till some time back in the name of digital learning one could only find Av (audio video) rooms where the lessons are taught on projectors. The immense exposure and easy availability of the internet and web has made the teenagers aware and well informed. But aren’t we paying a high price for this heightened awareness? Today it is rare to see children playing in the neighborhood locality after school or in the evenings. The conception of ‘play’ is lost, as now it remains something related to competition and not entertainment. Technology has also made the attitude of students reckless and casual. Nandan Kothari, 15, a student of Archana, St.Xaviers ,Gujrat, who has appeared for higher secondary this

Year says, “Schools need to be strict about the usage of mobile phones. I am not allowed inside the gate of my school if my shoes aren’t well polished, leave alone wrongly using my mobile. I thank my school because it has taught me to be disciplined and focused. However, in Mumbai, my cousins carry their mobiles and use them indiscriminately in classrooms.”

Yet another negative of today’s techonology is the rampant usage and availability of pornography through the internet and the subsequently resulting cyber crime. Cyber crime has become a real menace to be reckoned with, with the easy availability of hacking softwares and readily available literature on the topic. The web is truly a double edged sword as on the one hand, it is highly informative, yet on the other hand has the potential for immense destruction. Gone are the days when writing was encouraged and handwritten letters and greeting cards were worth waiting for. Today, through emails and mobile phones one can communicate so easily and seamlessly across the gap of whole continents. Thus, the term ‘communication’ has become a paradox.

Spare the rod and pamper the child:

I still remember Mr. Arora who used to teach us Hindi in ninth grade and used to remember his school going days fondly. He used to recall having the Hindu scripture Ramcharitmanas on the tip of his tongue or else having to prepare himself mentally for a hard wack of the thick bamboo stick his masterji carried.

Pushpanjali Pawar, 35, who works with St.Jude ,an NGO for kids suffering from cancer as an administrator , says that school teachers are not strict enough anymore and that they have lost their command, authority and respect in the rat race of becoming friendly with the kids. She has an eleven- year- old daughter who is a student of Shri Vani Vidhyashala at Kalyan and relies completely on the school to look after the kid because of her demanding work schedule. She wants schools to encourage the usage of libraries so that students come out of their cocoon and explore the world around them. Most schools refuse to admit kids who have working mothers because, in such cases, there is no body at home to supervise the kids studies, which ultimately affects the performance of the schools. Being friendly with the kids is the mantra every principal is giving to his teachers, so that they can reduce the fuss over the kids, as the era of the teachers parenting the kids has faded away. Ragini says, “Now a days, children are pampered as parents are working and whatever time they get with them they want to live it to the fullest which has made kids emotionally dependent upon them and they can’t bear the anguish of their teachers when they fail. The rod doesn’t exist anymore; the punishment is ‘extra home work’ or ‘stand on your bench’. I have two kids and my son is 21 years old, he confides about his attractions and girlfriends with his father, a thing we could not have remotely imagined of doing when we were of his age”.

Sex, but not education please:

Sex has become a veiled thing and a forbidden fruit and hence tempting and misused to the core. The four letter F word has turned into a period after every sentence and will very soon be in our dictionaries for the alphabet F. Love has no meaning anymore except physicality and breakups have become  so common that one can ask ones friends about it on the first meet. Dating is the need of the hour and hanging out is considered the jukebox of fun.

It is ironical to see sex as a taboo in India, when in ancient Hindu literature it has been considered pure and vital to run the cosmic. People shy away even from speaking about it. Kamasutra might have done well in the west but in India people will frown if they catch Kamasutra in your hands. Puberty brings in lots of ennui, conflicts, perplexity and queries along with physical changes. There should be some medium or source to make the children aware about the reasons and meanings of these changes. Sexual illiteracy can lead to rape, teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquency and other horrendous crimes as, without sex education, teenagers would be unable to channelize their energies in a productive and healthy way.

Parents remain tight lipped when kids ask questions about child birth or sex. They are embarrassed to see an intimate scene or an advertisement on AIDS and sex education to kids from parents is still the story of ‘birds and bees’. According to Ragini, she underwent training to teach sex education and HIV related issues in schools, however later on the parents objected and the principal aborted the idea of conducting it. Ragini too feels that school going children are ‘too young’ to understand the concept of copulation or physical intimacy properly. Daya Joshi, 50, who used to be a Hindi teacher in Carmel Convent School, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh ) says, “Sex education in the syllabus was not digested by many, so we kept a question box outside the office and answered queries related to sex through the school magazine.”

The concept of education

The old concept and definition of education might have come at a time when there was a view that everybody should learn the same thing. Today imparting somebody’s ideological values can no longer be done without raised eyebrows, dissent and a multitude of challenging questions. This is what education has come to symbolize and that’s why every meet in school is about diversifying and updating new methods of education. I am sure that in the days to come there will be a new definition altogether.