7th May 1991 - just looking back

5:00 AM: Wow…. Time to rock. I just woke up so early in this morning still not feeling bad about it. You will be surprised knowing that today I woke up myself, neither my alarm clock screamed nor my mom shouted on me. I am really really excited today. A few days back my summer vacation has started and today we all are going to our native place. It’s a small village in Burdawan district of West Bengal. I never stayed there for long, but I always like to visit the place. It’s full of life, green and fresh air. No one will stop me there. It’s complete freedom. Well I cannot wait anymore. Let me get ready quickly.

6:00 AM: I did not expect streets to be crowded so early in the morning. I hope we will reach to the station in time. Now we are in Taxi and going to Howrah Station to catch the train. I know the name of it, it’s Azimgunge Passneger. We always take this train to go there.

6:45 AM: Train has started his journey right on time. I occupied one window seat and sitting in front of my elder sister. Dad as usual has taken a few news papers and once he will be done with reading it he will start solving the puzzles in it. That is how he spends his time in train. My mom and granny both are busy chatting with each other. I don’t understand how they find so many things to discuss. Anyway I observed that it’s only me and my sister who are enjoying the scenic beauty outside.

8:30 AM: Mom has prepared Luchi and Alurdom in the morning and brought it packed for breakfast. It’s my favorite, but today I am enjoying whatever the railway hawkers are bringing for me. I tasted Chirebhaja, Badam, Rosogolla, Kanchagolla, Khirkadam, Jhuri bhaja, Cucumber and a lot many things. Now I am full. Dad is saying we will be crossing a river very soon, so I am very excited to see that.

12:00 PM: oh god…… I slept. I don’t know how. I just remember a guy dresses in saffron gown was singing a folk. Mom said he is a Baul singer, singing for money. It was really melodious and I fell asleep. Right now we are standing in a junction stations named Katwa. This is the last big station we have in our journey. After this we will cross a river called Ajay and then will reach to Shiblun station. Basically that is a pretty small station with no platform. Train stops there hardly for 10 seconds. So it will be tough to get down with so many luggages. I just had a walk with my dad; we went to see the change in engine. Till now we were pulled by one diesel engine. Now they are changing it to Coal engine. I don’t know why, but that is why it is taking time. Dad said that he has talked with the guard and got an assurance that he will make a long stop in out station just to make sure we all can get down easily. That sounds cool. Meanwhile let me give you a brief of my village. Well there is no electricity, there is no telephone connection. The roads are not metalled. There are only two houses in the entire village made of bricks. There is only one mode of transpiration there, bullock carts. No bus service, no taxi neither Cycle Rickshaw. A month ago dad has sent one letter there by post, saying on which date we are coming and by which train. They will send a bullock cart to the station. If the letter gets misplaced, we have to walk with the entire luggage.

12:30 PM: At last we reached to Shiblun station and safely got down from the train. I could not stop myself and ran to the cart. Yes it has come to receive us. (That means they got the letter in time). It named as Bullock cart however I can find only two buffalo to pull it, doesn’t matter to me.

1:30 PM: We just reached to my uncle’s place here. It was a long 1 hr journey again in the cart. I took one more small nap in between. The boring canch-konch sounds which were coming from its wheels just helped me in that. I just saw two people is doing fishing in the pond in front of the house. That means I can expect a big Muroh (head of the fish) on my lunch plate. Wow….. My one week’s summer vacation is going to start in a good way. I know a lot more is waiting for me.

Pirates of the Somalia - Live experiance

Today I will be sharing one thrilling story. You must be heard about the Somalian pirates these days. They are all over in the Gulf of Aden area, targeting the cargo ship. They are just coming in speed boats with Bazooka and get into the cargo ship by threatening to blow them up with Bazooka. After that sometimes they are just going away after robbing the ship, sometimes they are taking the sailors as hostage and claiming for Ransom. My next story is related to this only. My brother is a marine engineer and he is now sailing in a cargo ship. He often communicates with me through email. Quite a few times I got email from him stating that they were crossing the dangerous Gulf of Aden area. That’s part of their job so they can’t even oppose. The only good thing is they are getting paid an amount by the company. Anyway, from the day Navy ships from different countries are patrolling the pirate prone zone, the pirates are pushed back. Still the threat is always there. This is what I realized when I got the last email from my brother 3 days back. It was written in Bengali, I am just quoting him here in English.

Dear Raja,
Today’s news update from my ship ------------------------
Today we crossed Gulf of Eden and just entered Red Sea. Since a few days back one attack took place here on a chemical ship, anti-piracy drill is going on here. It was decided that a Japanese Frigette will escort us to the next port. So we reduced our ship’s speed to 12 knot just to maintain the same speed as the convoy. There was two Frigette, one is leading the way then second was just behind us. One helicopter was also in the entire convoy. But after that all of a sudden we got a news that we got cargo in another Italian port (Savona), so to get that cargo we have to reach there early. So we increase speed and left the convoy. Now we are running in full speed (20 Knot). Today morning at 4-00 AM a tanker was attacked which is just ahead of us (15 min from our position), How do I know this? My Captain heard their message when they were trying to contact the coalition force in radio. Still we don’t know the end result. As we have not heard anything else, guess that they are safe. After that at around 8-00 AM an alarm is raised that there are two suspicious boats in the left side of port. But we kept Vigil, and there was no incident. Still we are not completely safe. I think some more anxious moments are still waiting for us. This time we are really really scared. Hope everything will be fine.
Cya

For me it was tough time until unless I got his next email that he is safe.