The golden sunrays shimmered on the warm waves that afternoon, in the waters off coast Penang,Malaysia.The ship ‘Fortune Wind’ anchored in the waters had a gentle roll to it.
Chief Officer Krishna was to go offshore that day with the Chief Engineer and his family consisting of his wife,Mrs.Indu and their two kids.
The launch that was to take them ashore, arrived in time and placed itself along side the ship.A gangway platform led people from the ship to board the launch. People lined up to go off shore,waited for their turn .Slowly the water current grew stronger and the launch swayed in impatience.The chief Engineer walked ahead and crossed the platform .As he reached out his hand to support his wife,Mrs.Indu,she slipped and fell into the waters .The chief Engineer aghast,tried to grasp her hair as her heavy body was sinking into the merciless fathoms.Her kids shrieked and tried to reach out to her in horror but were held back by the Captain as they saw Mrs.Indu uttering the holy name,’Ram..Ram’ and vanishing into the waters..
Chief Officer,Krishna who was coming behind,heard the commotion and he knew there wasn’t a minute to spare.He dived into the tepid waters and went down to a depth of 10 feet where he saw the hapless body of Mrs.Indu.Her heavy body was dragging him down.but then he didn’t lose hope.He caught her with one hand and gave powerful downward thrusts with his other hand and propelled them both to the surface of the water and locked his hand on the tyre of the launch.The crew immediately pulled Mrs.Indu and resuscitated her.Even a few seconds more in the depths would have been fatal to her.
The barnacles attached to the launch had cut into their flesh and both needed medical attention.
The Heroic rescue by Chief Officer Krishna was appreciated by one and all and Mrs.Indu always sent a rakhi to him since that day onwards.
Mr.Krishna later became the Master Mariner,Captain in his service.He has the credit of saving the South American Ship LOLA with it’s entire crew when he acted responsibly by responding to the distress signal SOS sent by the ship which was hitting the rocks due to strong currents.
For his exemplary service he is much admired by his colleagues and has also been nominated for the’Rajiv Gandhi ekta samman award 2005’.
Braving the tides and troughs at sea and life ,still sailing the seas,
MY DAD is truly the ‘SON OF THE SEA’
A tribute to my dad who passed away on 27/8/11
