THE RADIOS....

The ship was in port.. pretty cold then in end of september... not iced up yet as we were still hopefully in mid autumn....we were loading and then came the final part of loading the cargo in such a way to keep the ship upright.... my first cargo watch was was in progress...i was taking regular rounds ...(i was familiar coz it was my 4th day on the ship).... for the first time in my life ... i was given to operate anUHF-two way-common channel-half duplex transission radio handset..  (hey... come on thats just a walkietalkie operating in the uhf frequency range.) it felt like i had been given some rare gift... i cud contact the ship's officers from the spot i was in... i cud hear all the conversation goin on between the heigher ranks... it just felt great..... but that lasted for only a few hrs....i then realized.. it was more of a headache than a boon coz people keep calling u all the time for minute details ( technical wrt ship only)...cud not stand in a place peacefully for 15 minutes... u give them the details... then think... phew... ill take a break....and there cracles the set.." shriram come in"ooooohhhh!!!!! "yes sir come in" being my immediate blast for a reply... then shri gimme this... gimme that value.... and so on....an as time passed i started dreading the radio set .... u never know when u r goin to be called (of course not in ur rest time unless in an emergency but thats on ur cabin phone over the intra communication system on board).... i remember more than once of having dumped it into someone elses hand at the first opportunity i got..( say when someone needed it temporarily) and just boooshh vanished from yhat place just hoping that that person wud not return untill he finds me....but... people, u see, are smarter than that...they just leave it in my cabim or give it to one of the crew on duty to FIND ME!! and return it.so there comes a new phobia for all the juniors in shipping "THE RADIOPHOBIA".