Year in,Year out

MV Silver Ocean is sailing to Amsterdam. In its hold is a huge
quantity of iron ore. The ship is carrying its cargo from Rio de
Janeiro in Brazil to Europe. The ship is owned by V. Shipping
Corporation which is based in Monaco. The captain of Silver Ocean is
Simon Sen. He is from Calcutta. That is to say, he was born there. He
has spent most of the last thirty years sailing in various ships.
Trained on the training ship TS Charnock in Bombay, Simon was the only
gold medallist in his batch. He has been captain of Silver Ocean for
the last five years. He is an amiable man and his colleagues love him.
Sailing over turbulent, unpredictable seas is a tough job and the
captain is the boss in a ship. He must not only possess sound technical
knowledge but also be good at man management. Captain Simon is due to
retire very soon. Today is his fifty seventh birthday. Though he never
shares his feelings with his colleagues Captain Simon misses his family
very much. He had been expecting a phone call or a greeting card from
his family in the past five days. At least a phone call. His children,
two sons, are all grown up and settled. The home visits have ceased to
be exciting for Simon Sen. His wife treats him like an annual guest and
the sons are busy with their own families. There was a time when each
visit was like an unending party. He would take home loads of gifts
purchased from various ports. Though Captain Simon has much more money
now his family cares very little for the things he buys for them. Both
his sons often go abroad on work and they are able to buy much better
things than what is available at obscure ports. You see, a ship is
obliged to take the shortest route available between any two ports.
Whether the intervening halts are at fashionable cities or not does not
matter.
Captain Simon woke up at seven thirty today. As usual he directly went
to the bridge. There were no messages from the company. He checked the
satellite feed and determined that the ship was well on course. As he
was going to meet the chief engineer in the engine room he nearly
collided with the chief officer Arin Roy. The captain reminded him that
there was some problem in the hold. The loading schedule needed to be
checked thoroughly. Captain Sen was disappointed when the chief officer
did not greet him. You see each time a ship sets sail all information
about its crew is made public. This includes the date of birth of each
member of the crew. In fact you are expected to throw a party for your
birthday no matter who you are. The reminders and requests start months
in advance. There is very little entertainment on board a cargo ship
and a birthday is an excuse to make merry.
The second officer spoke to the captain during lunch. A boy who had
just joined as fifth engineer had been making too many overseas phone
calls. It was normal for new recruits to behave thus but headquarters
was worried about clogging of the telephone line. Captain Simon noticed
that everyone was eating less than usual while he alone had a big meal.
The Captain summoned the cook and asked what was wrong. The cook said
that some of the officers were having stomach problems. Having said
this the cook flashed a mysterious smile and went back to work. This
left the captain even more depressed than before. Not the least because
there are no doctors on board a cargo ship.
There was a big argument between the engineers and the third officer
just before sunset. A lifeboat that had been used by the engineers the
night before for repair work had developed a leakage. Since the third
officer was in charge of safety equipment he took the engineers to task
for damaging the only lifeboat MV Silver Ocean had. After the sun set
everyone went back to their cabins.
Captain Simon was feeling very low. He felt that no one wanted him. He
decided to watch a movie on DVD. Instead of using the DVD player in his
own room he went to the dining area. As he moved along the corridor he
was humming a favourite tune to make himself happy. The dining area was
dark. He struggled to find the switch.
Beautiful white light filled the dining area. It was decorated with
streamers, balloons and tassels. There was a huge, pink and white
three-tier cake on the long dining table and all the food that Captain
Simon Sen loved lay before him. Before Captain Sen could react his crew
started singing "Happy Birthday to you?" The chief officer, chief
engineer and the second engineer(the three people who had the power to
organize an impromptu celebration) and others stepped forward with
gifts. The sound system, brought in from the Smoke Room by the
Electrical Officer started playing the captain's favourite music. He
was happy, the happiest person in the world.