On Thursday, the 13th of September 2001 at Paradeep, I signed on the Nobel ship E-Trader, - called by some in those days, E- Terror. I signed on as an Intern. "E-Trader" was a large bulk carrier of some 36,000 GRT.

    On Tuesday the 11th of September, after being fare welled by friends and relatives, I left for my ship! I had been kitted out with some overalls, and some 'civvie' clothes - which I intended to get into at the first opportunity!

    It's a bloody difficult life son. It was the final comment of our brief conversation with the warden. I really didn't know how to respond to such a cryptic, and to me, such a deflating statement, so I said nothing. He didn't say it with any bitterness, but his comment was enough to dampen much of the enthusiasm I had felt until then about what lay ahead for me. Years of training required me not to answer back, nor to express the disappointment I felt in the face of his prophecy. After all I told myself, what did he know of life at sea today? He was an old man, and if he had been to sea, he probably sailed in rust buckets. Things were much different these days weren't they? Life at sea can be hard, but so can life in general.

    Now I was in the plane, at the Mumbai Domestic airport finally! As the plane slowly made its move on the runway, I sat thinking of all the constraints that had governed my every move prior to today, making mental notes of how I imagined my new life would be. I further started imaging that I would have nice big cabin, a good cafe, even have a large ice cream or a cream cake in a cafe! At that moment, the sky was the limit; reality was yet to come!

    I finally arrived at the Bhuvaneshwar airport, where a certain Agent was waiting with a placard of my name. We went straight to the taxi. The taxi itself was a vivid experience. As we were passing through several textured roads, I could imagine the rolls of ship already! We were finally at the Paradeep port & were through with all custom works. Then agent introduced me to a port taxi driver, and left me with a cheery "Best of luck, soldier", a handshake, and he was gone!

    I was finally inside the Pradeep port!