Celebrating birthday in the Royal Caribean Cruise

    We took a trip  to Alaska  in the last week of May  by Royal Caribean Cruise,named 'Radiance Of The Sea' for spending the summer vacation.
I love to watch sky, water, mountain; I enjoyed  all these  three together for seven days in the last week of May,  incidantly my birthday  comes on 20th May..
So  it was  quite phenomenal   at this age my Birthday  was celebrated in the cruise with warmth and luxury (that too,for two days!);  boarded on a  ship floating in the dark blue water ,watching azure sky and snow -covered mountain through the view-glass- roof and window, simply amazing!We boarded from Vancouver on 18th may. In the cruise  there were different events and programs other than movie music dance, from 11 AM upto midnight 2 Am.On 19th May,after dinner as I entered  to sleep after 12 AM, I was charmed to see the room was decorated artistically with coloured paper-works, festoons, flowers, fruits, wine with ice, nice B-greeting-card and a gift of photo-frame!Also figure of babe infront of a huge layered cake, all made out of towel,created novelty to decoration.On the night of 20th may also  some new figures like Ship, elphant, and a funny  swinging- monkey clinging the string of festoon from the roof were added. I took snaps from every corner of the room.
On 20 th May when we finished dinner inthe hall, the servers along with the crew manager came with  chocolate cake decorated with fruits nuts, surrounded by lighted candle sticks. On the center of the cake was written "25 " years.They  and the other diners of the adjacent table wished me with the song, as I blew  out the  candles.
The manager said jokingly," you are 25 years old, right?
I replied in the same tone,"Let me hope to be sweet sixteen next year, if my birth-day happened to be celebrated in this cruise in the same way with you!"
....As I am diabetic,I gave the cake to share among them.
The lustre spread from the 'Radiance of the sea' made my birthday memorable;not for the grandeur only ,but because for  the warmth of heart from the entire Cruise-Team, right from the participation of the captain in dance party, room-service, resturent service,variety of event-managements--everything superb!
 Cruise dis-emberked at Seward on the 7th-day. We felt sad and something missing, as we became close to the same team of room-service and dine service continuously for 7 days!
Like many others we decided to chose Royal Caribean Cruise  for the next year- vacation- trip:may be to Mediterranean or caribean.

 1.Photo in-           room                     2.In dining -hall.

Poetry ;; I lost my heart......

   I lost my heart in Alaska!

  For the NativeAmericans, it was 'Aly-eska'
 Which means 'the great land'!
 I wonder how visionery
were the ancestors by instinct
 To imagine such a potential name!

 Eon after eon the yellow metal remained
 Hidden under the glaciers
 unknown to the universe!
 But alas! as the river Yokon
 Carried some flakes in her bosom
 Flocks of greedy bees jumped upon.
 Some of them made fortune
 While  the most were burried in avalanche;
 Remained as martyrs in quest of gold-rush
            Without any trace.

To view White pass and river yukon
We, the eager tourists, were all aboard
On the narrow excursion railroad
Under which the  nature laid
 The frozen sepulture of thousand dead
Who once came from far and dared
To pave the way through this pristine land!

While we shared that tragic  part of history,
 offered by the crew guide,
Relishing with snacks and coffee in hand!
                               -0-                            

When trapped in Failure.....!

  Failure can never be pillars of success;
  It only consoles one who frustrates.
  Alaska ,the great land-
  Charmed me so much
  My mind spinned around it
  and swam like a fish- in -aquarium!
  Since I came back my own home.

So I released my feeling
In ink, and in internet
To share with audience
 some exciting moments with photoes
Along with my blog but failed.
I struggled hard  to attach
The photoes, but in vain!
 At last I surrendered to give in!
                                                                                                                                         

Sipra'sDiary: New York (2)

          Every afternoon during my stay in New york ,it was a visual feast for me to sit beside the window facing to the west, and to drink the  beauty of the sunset in the river hudson; gazing at  how the setting sun sprayed magnificient colours with his enormous pastel throuhtout the sky; how the multicoloured floating clouds of different shapes flew gently  in one way by the wind, as if,carrying the message of the sun to some other corner of the earth!Gradually glare of colour began to  be dim to dimmer and  at last turned grey near the horizon; the sun ,perhaps unwilling to leave his beloved consort earth, kissed the horizon with  his last rays to disappear under the bosom of the Hudson,waiting for the next morn.

Sipra's Diary::NewYork ( Part-1)

I r

      I emember I landed to stay in  New York on the very  historically tragic  day of the nation ::   on 9^th sep,2011.  Right from the airport up to my building I was ruminating the horror of that inauspicious day inside, while outside gazing the ‘city with lights {that never goes off!}and the  flowing noisy cars and crowds on the road; Looking at the automated blue and crimson rays of light circulating over the city from

 WTC in memory of 9/11,I was thinking what was that divine power to be able to forget that sad day so quickly!  Did the circulating light penetrate to some hearts?  How much?...

   AS I reached and entered my one room rented  in high-rise building, my eyes caught the panoramic skyline view of New york along with the river Hudson through the huge glass-window, better to say glass-wall, which was just opposite to the entrance door.

“Wow!” Voice sounded simply, automatically  All   these days uptill now I did not put any curtain to   have the enchanting view   throughout the  day!

Then I rushed to the window and leaned towards road: The line of lighted cars looked small as (big) ants ; and I was elated to think me as if I were in the abode of heaven.

       A-ha, Just then, blue-crimson-light surged from the WTC bounced back touching from my window-glass with a silent  message,’ ‘All that glitters is not  gold!’

I could not sleep well on that night because the room was not dark enough as there was no window-curtain; Secondly because of the howling sound from the fire-trucks and ambulance running frequently to the Roosevelt hospital  which was in the same street of mine.

Every time I opened my eyes startled by those horrible sounds I looked amazingly that  the moon was gazing  at me, moving  from corner to corner of the sky, from east towards west.

           Simply thrilling, amazing!

 So long I needed to raise my head upward to view the moon and now the opposite! I relished  that sleepless night   on my moonlit -flooded bed ,blinking and playing with the moon romantically until it said “adieu!”

                                                                                              (Continue)

A Romantic News!

What a good news! NorthKorea and South Korea both agreed  to be bonded in friendly terms .We have to wait  to see whether  this is a long-term-peaceful marriage or short-term fake  and fussy clandestine  drama!
The news flashed  a photo  in my mind....  so  someday snake and frog also can embrace each other  to start a new family .                                                    Most of we hold the idea that frogs  are innocent and docile which is not true.There are some frogs which are not less poisonous than  the snake .They also enjoy to savour  snake   as delicacy in their menu.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                  NB :photoes are taken from google.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Sipra's Diary : 2018- The City With Good Hearts

… …                                      City with good hearts

On14th Feb I went to Doctors clinic by a cab.  By mistake I left my woolen hat in the cab. After returning home I felt bad for missing my favorite hat;  not for the reason that it was expensive, but it was one of my keepsakes. 

Next morning I dialed 3-1-1 and reported about the lost item and my feeling about it;  though I had least expectation of getting back such an insignificant thing. They asked the details of taxi, my address and the time of hiring the cab .To my surprise, within two hours  they informed me  the name and phone number of the driver  who is the owner of  the cab.The related staff of 311   informed me that the particular cab   didn’t belong to their  company and told me to contact the driver directly .

 I did accordingly. To my surprise , the driver received my call  and replied  me   promptly that  he was not far from my address; so he would reach to me within 15 minutes , so please to come down in front of the building as  he won’t be allowed to park his car.  

 I was very much impressed with the honesty of the driver. I wanted to give him with something instead of mere money. I remembered I had some woolen cap with muffler set  which I bought from the    Broadway fair for my son and it  was still left with me .I was so happy to think that it would  be  a perfect ‘memento’   to remember me whenever he would use it. In a hurry I started to search all the shelves of cupboard but  before I found it the driver’s call came.  With unhappy heart I picked up quickly some soup-cans coffee-pouches biscuit packets , and some other food-staff which were lying on the kitchen counter and rushed towards the lobby. From the opened window  of the cab the driver greeted me by waving my woolen cap in his hand. I handed him the plastic bag containing food- staff with lots of thanks for the lost cap. After coming up I still felt sad for not finding the thing I wished to  award  him.  Just then the phone rang; it was of the driver’s  call. I picked up the call. it was the voice of the driver:

“Mama, I took the swedish cookies you gave, It tastes awesome …I never tasted such in my life before…Thank you mama……You have my phone number and name ….though I live in New Jersy , any time you need ,please give me a call,…I will come surely for you.”

I replied “It is my   great pleasure that you have enjoyed the cookies!

I am now feeling blessed to leave my hat in your cab by mistake, as it has opened a chance to know each other .Hope I will call you when ever needed and introduce me  as ……

    ‘mama getting back her lost hat’, so that you can recognize me easily.’

..”Mama ,I will recognize you without any reference; Only give your address  and one hour time before you need  the cab, I will remember you for ever; you are a nice person, mama.”…..

”OK, God bless you bye!”

I was really impressed of 3-1-1 for this incident; the city must be proud of the dedicated employees like 3-1-1. I am thankful to them. I doubt any other megacity in the world other than New York will take care of a missing  woolen  hat!

        I was little emotional about the driver for addressing me as ‘mama’ which bears a genuine touch of warm feeling! His addressing me as 'mama'  seemed to me sweeter than my own son ...Perhaps he lost his mother in early age or has not met her for a long time!

  

Coming back to kitchen, I remembered it was 15^th Feb ;I had invitation to go New york City Hall for celebrating the “Black American Independence Day’  at 5:30PM.   I regretted  to  miss the chance of hiring  him as  safe and trustworthy companion to  attend  the event.  

 By coincidence the cab- driver was a black American!

We are fortunate to live in this city with good hearts and dedicated employees of 311!!