Indian Independence Day

Indian Independence Day

15^th August 2011

Our AMP, Ritesh, had been going on about the Indian Independence Day party for weeks and the day has finally arrived. This is supposed to be a huge party on Back Deck… and he was right!!

The night had been slightly complicated and not many people knew what they were doing. At the last minute a studio was erected on Back Deck to take portraits of the crew who attended the party. Camila and Ritesh were taking it in turns to shoot. This wasn’t something that had been put on the schedule. 

Leandro, Hernan and Fabio were all photographing an event in Studio B for the Italians on the ship. This was expected to go on until about 01.30. Alex the new hire was shooting in the Casino – yes, we are obviously desperate for counts! 

Sandra and the rest of the team were hanging around in the gallery waiting for the Italian guests to come out from the party. This was all apparently last minute until we looked at the schedule and saw we’d all had a much longer break during the day than usual. It’d obviously been planned but we hadn’t been told about it until the last minute.

I was doing a crew sale down on the I-95 which is something I look forward to. Tonight wasn’t the case. I’d pointed this out before the crew sale and no one had paid any attention. Due to cruising within the European Union we have to charge tax which depends on our home port. In this case our home port is in Italy and their tax is 20%. For seven weeks we have to include 20% on all prices whether it’s to crew or guests. We have three more weeks of charging tax before we go back to being a tax free haven. The question is, if you were crew, would you buy something with 20% tax when in three weeks you can buy for much less? No, unless you have shit for brains, that is!

I had two cameras to sell on the crew table sale. A blue Canon 100HS and a red Nikon S1600. The price was $175.95 but with the tax it went soaring to $211.14. Notice the slight difference? I managed to sell one camera to an Italian guy. It actually hurt me to ask him to sign the receipt once I saw just how much tax he was paying. $51!!  

 In total I managed to sell one camera, two camera cases and one memory card. Most of the time I sat around (luckily enough I found an old bar stool) with nothing to do. A few members of crew were making snide comments about the prices and tax but, what could I do? In a way, I don’t blame them but at the same time, don’t take it out on me! A couple of the guys from laundry went past and kept me company for a bit.

Sandra came down to help me pack up. She wasn’t surprised by the results. It rankled a bit. My first camera sale was a massive success. Luci was permanently running up and down the stairs with handfuls of receipts. All the cameras except for the one on display got shifted along with endless amounts of memory cards and camera cases. So in comparison, the second camera sale was a major disappointment. It was a stupid time to hold a camera sale.

Back in the office Paco said the guys no longer had to stay in the gallery until silly o’clock in the morning. I was done for the night and left the others closing the gallery. We were all supposed to meet in the corridor and head up to the Indian Independence Day party. 

I must have dozed off because when I woke up Sandra was back in the cabin and speaking to Fede over the phone. A few had congregated in the cabin and were all speaking to Fede over the loud speaker. It was great hearing from him again since he’d got home. Once again I managed to fall asleep. Sandra woke me up at 2am once she’d finished talking to Fede. Quickly changing my clothes we headed up to Back Deck.

The place was going nuts! Half Back Deck was lined with Indian food while the other was choca-blocked with free drinks. All the Indians working on the ship were dancing away in their traditional attire. A couple of crew members were trying to teach Hernan typical Indian dance moves which mainly consisted of waving your hands in the air. He was enjoying himself though and the atmosphere was pumping. There were quite a few non-Indian crew members trying to learn how to dance “Indian Style”. The alcohol was in full flow and everyone was having a great time.

An hour later Sandra and I were ready to leave. We were both shattered after a long day’s work and we had to be up early the next day. Grabbing a couple of free cans of Fanta we headed down to the cabin and were tucked up in bed within 5 minutes flat.

The next morning I found out that the party carried on until 04.30. Normally the latest a party will go on until is 03.30. Would the Indonesian Independence Day Party rival the Indian’s? We’ll see!