"I'am Proud To Be An INDIAN".....??

All of us have invariably seen many patriotic movies, have read about our glorious and strugglefull past, are aware of diversities of cultures which reign together...
... & undoubtedly We are Proud of it.
There have been so many times we have forwarded mails and circulated messages relating Us - Proud Indians.
These quoted incidents mostly make us swell with pride... sprout our skin with patriotism.

But I've never come across any circular reflecting our negetive Indian morality(except those concerning political issues).
Incidents which spilt shame... incidents which are derogatory to our feeling of being an Indian...!!
and I'am feeling extreemely sorry that one such circulation is comeing from my pen.
But it needs to be catered, this incident made me, for the first time inthese 21 yrs, feel shameful... shameful that I belong to this sect... this sect which calls itself 'Proud Indians' - the phrase which suddenly seemed to be a solid expresion of bloated egoes.

..... Life as a seafarer is different - to an extenct difficult.
A senior of mine is sailing as a cadet in a major Japanese shipping company. Its not a very smooth sailing for him. Infact whatever possibly can go wrong... is going wrong with him.
Apart from the general trauma of being away from home, approximately for 6-8 months, which can extend upto 12 months at a strech, the confined spaces of a ship present a very restless atmosphere in front of the bountless Ocean.
I recently got to meet him for an hour, for he was touching mumbai, & to my utter amazement, it was his first shore leave in 4 months - and that too for an hour!!(-given the consideration that it was his home land)... for the rarerest of times i was feeling seconds trickling away !
Watches from 0400-0800 and 1600-2000 (-acceptable) & work on deck in the sandwitch hours, he was putting up an average of 18hrs of work..(-shit..!!)
Food was miserable - curtesy Phillipino crew, but alaas... they were his sole companions with occasional talks like - "how-man?" , "fine" , "you-goin?" , "yes" , types. For he didn't had anybody of his age group or his cader in a compliment of 23 people (-solitude at its prime..!!)
His Captian discarded his mails and didn't forwarded his messages (-sadistic.)
and to add to his misery... he wasn't allowed to smoke (-can you beat this..!!)


So a new guy on the grid, first sailing exparience, still learning his work, only a cadet... being put to test !
+ he ha d a sentence of 8 months left on that ship...!! (-lol)

But the best part is, his Captain, Chief Officer, Chief Engineer, Second Officer &... & even the third officer (-that makes up for almost all the officers on-board) are all - INDIANS...!!

any comments...??