An Iceberg Right Ahead!

It’s almost midnight and I have just come to the deck of the ship, I am traveling. The night is cold and windy and there is no one around except the guard posted at the ‘Eye Post’ who is standing behind a glassed cabin. From time to time he takes his binoculars and watches the sea like he is searching for something.

Don’t think I am with any ‘Rose’ here; it’s just me and the starry night. Most of my fellow passengers must be asleep by now but there might be few people around busy in the Ballroom enjoying the party.

I was feeling choked inside so I came out to breathe in fresh air. But my sense of relief was short lived as I noticed that there was chaos inside the Sentry’s Cabin. He was looking at front and from time to time taking his phone and calling someone. I tried to read his lips and was still wondering when I just saw something right Ahead.

“Iceberg right ahead”! It’s clear that the words he was shouting behind his glassed cabin were these. I can see at a distance, a piece of large ice over the surface of the sea. A ship like ours must not be in danger due to that piece of ice, I muttered to myself. But, I know, these icebergs are deceitful in appearance. They are much bigger than they look and may turn things unexpectedly.

Let me tell you about the ship. It was built five decades ago. Made up of solid steal, it is expected to withstand any danger. Besides, it’s not Titanic and it’s not her maiden Voyage. It has faced serious threats before, thanks to its steal and determination of its crew and passenger. The present Captain of the ship is in charge since last 8 years and he is as confident as his day 1. Perhaps, now he has ordered to change direction of the ship but it seems it’s too late and I think we will hit the iceberg from the side if not from the front. However, nothing has been informed to us yet.

I am bit concerned, not due to the structure of the ship but due to my fellow people. The ship is large and huge number of people is on board. The ship has various decks, starting from Upper, Upper Middle, Middle, Lower Middle and Lower. There are two more decks: one is Bottom Deck and other is Royal Deck. The decks are divided according the size of pockets of the passengers. Upper class passengers have big pockets and they enjoy most of the facilities while lower ones have small pockets and few facilities. Royal and Bottom are extremes. Bottom Deck passengers are the largest in number and they run the engine and burn coal to generate heat. On the other hand, Royal Deck passengers help the Captain and the crew to make journey rules in their drawing rooms and Ballrooms.

There is nothing common between them except that all are riding the same boat. The problems are as different as are these people. The bottom deck passengers are usually talking about their ordeal and hardships like lack of food and water while Upper Deck people are heard complaining about lack of civic sense among lower deck passengers. They get extremely worried when their Puppies stop eating imported Swiss biscuits. Rest is in between. Captain’s Corner is situated next to Royal Club. He usually remains indifferent and impartial to these conflicts within the decks unless the ship’s engines gets slow or if there is some challenge to his authority. But he is competent enough to know that there are not enough life boats to take each passenger out of ship safely.

Since there is no equality, and sense of injustice, there is constant conflict and struggle going within passengers. The lower deck occupants want to get Berth in upper class by any means while the upper class passengers defend their position by using nothing but force.

Now, standing at the ship’s front in the open, while seeing the ICEBERG, I am wondering whether we will cross it or hit it. I have heard, the Captain has ordered us not to speak or write. I think all I can do now is to go inside and sleep on my Berth to wait for my destiny to unfold.