Love Lasts Forever (2 page)

And after spending a year, we learnt, like us, money was the primary reason that drove all others in our batch to this profession.

Our batch boasted of one hundred and twenty cadets. Needless to say all of us were very excited today. We would finally begin our career with our pre-sea certificates that would guarantee us a place on a ship. And that’s when our wages would start. On this note, I quite liked my job. I mean, no other profession offers salaries to eighteen year olds, and that too, in American dollars.

‘Finally,’ Joe Singh gasped.
‘We’ll be out of here. I’m going to buy a cell phone for myself from my first salary.’

‘Good for you,’ I said, ironing my uniform.

Our door squeaked open. It was Priyank Bhatia - our neighbour and class monitor.

‘Hurry guys, Shukla
ji
is waiting for the fall-in.’

His characteristic cackle irritated the hell out of us. What sort of a guy has a name ‘Priyank’? He was much better off with an ‘a’ at the end of his name. He anyway was a woman trapped in a man’s body. Our entire batch, along with the seniors loved pulling his leg
, and well, I hate to admit, ogling at him. His rhetoric, voice, gait, stance, and every damn organ of his body screamed femininity. Fair, soft and spotless skinned, he was like an oasis in a desert full of boys. In the last one year we’d perhaps seen just about half a dozen women in our campus and they were no match to Priyanka’s beauty.

Which explains the attraction toward her, I mean him.

‘Yes darling, we’ll be there in a while,’ Joe Singh said with a flying kiss, thrusting his lips toward him.

Priyanka pouted his lips, brandished his arm
, and hurriedly moved on to the other rooms. He did take his job of a class monitor damn seriously.

‘Oh thank God,’ I said. ‘I’m so glad we’ll be out of this shitty place today. I’m longing for the sight of a beautiful woman. It’s been ages now.’

‘Didn’t you just see Priyanka?’ snapped Joe Singh.

Half an hour later we queued up in the fall-in. I completely abhorred the idea. It was basically making all the cadets stand in a line like donkeys and a head count was taken to ensure no one was missing. And if at all someone
was
missing, you know, may be due to a drink too many last night or a fitful sleep, he had to run the entire length of the campus thrice. That was three kilometers times three, making it a mighty nine kilometers.

           Today, however, each one of us had turned up on time for the fall-in. After all, it was the last of our life.

           After the fall-in, we proceeded to a bigger ground where the passing out ceremony was planned amidst huge pomp and show. With over fifteen acres of space, the ground could easily accommodate the families of all the cadets, our instructors, and professors. We were made to stand in three groups, with each group comprising of four rows of ten cadets each. In front of us, our families sat and scoured the three groups in search of their lone donkey.

           The ceremony began with the dean giving an incumbent speech that was outright boring and horrendous. I mean, come on, you don’t scare the cadets who haven’t been out at sea by talking about storms and hurricanes that gulp the entire ship within minutes
, or blabbering about some nonsensical ghost stories on ships that you experienced, or talk about pirates hijacking ships. All ten minutes that our dean spoke was meant to discourage us from joining shipping. The sixty- something dean invoked a certain amount of terror in our minds that was needless. We would anyway be leaving our families and country for months together. As if that wasn’t terror enough. Nevertheless, all of us applauded as the dean left, more out of relief than appreciation.

The ceremony continued with speeches from three more Captains who were the dean’s protégés. It was nothing else but another fifteen minutes of sulking under the sun in ‘attention’ position. Our instructor Shukla
ji
who stood ahead of us between the three groups didn’t even have the courtesy to call for a ‘stand at ease’ position.

I glanced at Joe Singh who appeared equally spent and forlorn and all others except, of course, Priyanka
. He had a bright smile on his face, a smile that was synonymous with pride and honour. I wondered why? Everyone who came here, no matter how lame, would manage to graduate with flying colours. Then why the whole dramatic nod and flattery to every customary sentence churned out by our Captains?

Priyanka had been the most pretentious person I’d known in my entire life. Also, he always
had
to be the best and excel in whatever he did, perhaps, to make up for his feminine image. Then be that in studies, completing his assignments, finishing his meals, waking up in the morning, reporting for the fall-in, and the list was endless. He had this relentless urge to be ahead of everyone which was one of the reasons all of us hated him. The smug look on his face on the day of results was another. And as if that wasn’t reason enough, he’d top in all the subjects in all the exams.

Obviously, for being on all fours, genuflecting to all our professors and instructors got him to that position. But nobody gave two hoots about scoring ranks here; all we wanted was that elusive pre-sea certificate that would guarantee us a job on a ship. Ranks never really mattered, but this basic sense always eluded Priyanka.

After the applause that marked the end of all the odious speeches, it was time for the rankings. Top five among us would be given a ‘Certificate of Merit’ which had no value or meaning. I could sense from a distance Priyanka’s head rise a few notches in anticipation of the first prize. A victorious smile unleashed from his face even before the announcement of the results. He appeared so sure he’d get it. I hate to admit but even I was sure about it and so were all others in our batch. He cocked his head toward his family on his right and their hands were already together. I could faintly see in the distance his parents and probably his sister.

As expected, his name was announced as topper of the 2004 batch. A huge round of applause filled the ground and his sister or whoever she was, frisked all over her seat. I felt like killing the bitch.

He marched toward the makeshift stage where the dean waited to honour his wisest donkey. Shukla
ji
began his rant at the top of his voice – ‘Left, right, left; left, right, left.’ Priyanka’s over-exaggerated, over-enthusiastic, over-dramatic march unleashed a smile on our face.
Seriously dude, get a life!

And just the next very moment, I heard a huge guffaw of laughter. I looked ahead in the direction of our pretty batch mate and it was the best sight in the world. Priyanka was lying on the ground after tumbling flat on his face. Some people came forward to assist him. I couldn’t see his face though, but his crisp white uniform (that once was) was smeared with mud and was a velvety brown colour. His sister’s hands were over her mouth in disbelief. Slowly, Priyanka got up on his feet
, and uncomfortably wobbled his way toward the stage.

And that
, unquestionably, had to be the most delightful moment of my entire stay here in the past one year.            

Over lunch, I met Joe Singh’s and some of my other batch mates’ parents. Joe Singh nodded toward Priyanka who was busy gorging on his food with his family, just few benches across us in the huge dining hall. He seemed to be in hurry; he had to come first after all. We high-fived at the sight of his hair and uniform that were in complete disarray.

‘Come Ronit, let’s have some fun.’ He strode off toward our pretty batch mate.

‘Sure, I love fun.’ I padded behind him.

Looking back the past one year, I’d come to realize that I loved fun, especially when it involved Priyanka. Just few days after we’d joined this institute, everyone had developed an aversion for him, which is what provoked all of us to harass her, I mean him.

I still remember one night, we (Joe Singh and I) tip toed to his room while he was asleep, undid his pajamas, and then well, his panty (yes panty - it was a baby pink colour with cute little bunnies all over). Joe Singh had tooth paste in his hands which he brought close to Priyanka’s
butt while I held a torch in my hand, and man, was it clean. There wasn’t even a single strand of hair…over there, and for a moment, just a very small moment, I thought I got an erection. Joe Singh placed the tip of the tooth paste over his anus and squeezed it bottom to top generously till it covered the entire area.

‘Now we’ll see how this slut
is the first to report at the fall-in tomorrow,’ Joe Singh whispered in my ear.

And then, just the way we came, we tip-toed our way out the room.

The next morning was complete hysteria as he hollered and pranced all over the bathroom floor with a hand over his butt.

‘Ooh, aah, urgh, who the hell has put this
paste?’ he screamed. ‘Oh God, this is burning like hell.’

All of us laughed our lungs out.

‘Who has done this? I’ll complain to Shukla
ji
.’

He kept whining but no one paid a heed. Although everyone knew it was us, but no one took our name. By the way, he also knew it was us, we also knew he knew that it was us, but we also knew that he knew that nobody would support him.

At the fall-in, Priyanka was late as expected as he spent a major chunk of his time in…well, cleaning his ass. And then the best part to top it all – he got punished. So with his clammy butt he ran nine kilometers. Watching him suffer like that gave us a lot of pleasure.

And yes, Shukla
ji
didn’t buy his bull shit: ‘Don’t give excuses Priyank, no one can do such a morbid thing, we are all officers here. Learn to accept your mistake.’

Divine pleasure!

And then another time, we’d stolen his shore pass. Once in a month we’d get a holiday in form of a pass to leave our institute in the Nhava Island via a boat to see Mumbai. It was anybody’s guess that Joe Singh and I stole his pass not once but thrice. So while all of us spent the entire day away from the confined atmosphere in Nhava Island and enjoyed sightseeing in Mumbai, Priyanka darling was confined to the four walls of his room shedding tears. Yes, he cried. Again we knew that he knew it was us. And so on.

So yeah, when Joe Singh calls me to have fun, I am all game for it.

‘Hey Priyank, congrats for the prize,’ Joe Singh said as we reached his table. ‘You had a nasty fall there.’ His tone was borderline sarcastic.

I pursed my lips and pinched him from behind.

Priyanka nodded stoically and introduced us to his parents. We knew he hated us from the bottom of his heart. Of course, the feelings were reciprocated. We checked out the odd pattern of mud formed over his shirt.
Why the hell was he not bleeding?

‘Hi, I’m Aisha, Priyank’s sister.’ A perky voice greeted us from behind a minute later.

When I turned, the prettiest pair of eyes on this planet twinkled at me.

I gaped at her in amazement and felt a hundred needles run up the back of my neck. My heart did a little dance and my eyes were locked in hers. Beyond her, the entire world was out of focus.

I’m in love. Oh man, I’m so in love.

3.  PIRATES

25
th
June 2011, Somewhere in Somalia

My thoughts about my graduation day overwhelm me with grief and guilt. Why did I join navy? And more importantly why did I meet Aisha that day?

As I traverse back in reality,
I still can’t get over the shock.
The pirates have hijacked our ship…
It’s been less than an hour since the pirates boarded and they have already taken command of our ship. There are at least a dozen of them with us on the bridge and another dozen all around. The skiffs or boats through which they boarded were actually launched by a mother ship some few nautical miles away from us. No wonder neither me, nor Captain, could figure out from where the two boats appeared. The lone white light that we saw first was of the mother ship itself. And then the two lights were of the boats. So by that time, the mother ship had switched off her lights to catch another prey.

After boarding they asked us to approach
their mother ship from where another dozen of pirates boarded so as to be in complete control. All the pirates are armed with sophisticated and modern day weapons viz. RPGs and AK-47s. The Somalis are insanely dark and ghoulish looking people. Even if it wasn’t for their guns, I wouldn’t mess with them. Most of them are lanky but some of them are stout and massive built. However they all invoke the same amount of terror. I remember the speech of our dean during my pre-sea days some seven years ago. He was so darn right. We are living the most dreaded day of any seafarer’s life.

As soon as they
entered the bridge, they told Captain to follow their route in a smattering of English. Their accent was hard to place, both of us pressed hard. Later, Captain and I studied their route carefully. They were taking us in a south westerly direction to some port in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. No one amongst us uttered a word in retaliation. We knew its outcome. A bullet!