Recently from Canada we came to England to attend wedding of my nephew’s daughter Ria Patel and after wedding me and my wife Bhavna took 14 nights of Celebrity’s Scandinavian and Russia cruise from Southampton. While on cruise we had a great time and on second day we met a group of 16 Gujarati people of Wembley, England and slowly got acquainted with them. One thing I admired about this group is that, they have been friends since last 50 years and they all go on different trips to gather and keep their friendship alive by give and take concept. They requested Chef Ramesh Channa Swamy of Oceanview cafe of cruise to cook Khichdi and him and his staff very willingly served three time tasty mouth watering Khichdi and included us from Canada in their group. Also once Chef Ramesh set up special Dosa Corner and served variety of hot Masala Dosa with tasty Sambhar and chutney to enjoy.
There were about 260 Indian crew members working on cruise amongst 1,000 staff and they held in their residence India’s Independence Day party. On Aug 15 our cruise was at Germany’s harbour and we Indians (Gujaraties from Wembley and Canada) celebrated India’s Independence Day by singing National anthem of India by holding India’s flag and some of the ladies wearing beautiful saries which was admired by fellow passengers for our love and respect towards our mother land. Chef Ramesh and his assistant made a big beautiful Taj Mahal cake which was displayed on Ocenview cafe on Aug 15 and all viewers were continuously taking pictures and admiring his artistic work and this cake got best cake award amongst all Celebrity cruises around the world.
On Aug 15 we went for sight seeing excursion of Rostock city and after finishing sight seeing our tour guide took us at big pedestrian market place to explore during lunch time and there I met three Indian students wearing India’s flag sticker on their shirt and they all are from Gujarat studying engineering at Rostock University and when I talked to them in Gujarati, the happy expression on their faces I saw cannot be expressed in words and they felt that they met someone dear to them.
On our way back to Toronto from London in our Air Canada’s flight there were some 30 to 40 students from India coming to Canada to attend college and University as next semester is starting in September 2018. I talked to some and most of them are perusing studies in IT, engineering, business management, Aero space, science and accounting. In Canada occasionally I meet students from India at gas station, parking lot, restaurant, convenience store working part time besides their studies to recover boarding, lodging, school fees and other expanses some times in harsh Canadian winter of snowy and bitterly cold weather. The same thing we as a student did some 45 to 50 years ago in USA and many in other part of the world.
They all are heroes and not that Hardik Patel who didn’t earn a single penny in his life, never paid a single penny as a taxes and upon his instigation destroyed, damaged government properties in reservation protest and wasted hard earned tax payers monies. He is a total loser and zero and taboos to Gujarat. Last but not least on the upcoming holiest Hindu festival of Janmastmi - birth anniversary of Lord Krishna - we extend our warmest and holiest wishes to all.
