It was supposed to be a two day cruise and we were expecting to come back to Mumbai on Monday. The idea was to enjoy the pool parties and concerts that the cruise ship lined up.
As per the itinerary, the ship was to depart at around 4 pm on Saturday. Most of the passengers had checked-in by 2 pm.
We were told that the concert would start as soon as the ship left the port at 4 o’clock, but we were all a little surprised when the ship didn’t leave the port on time or even hours later.
We were getting restless, and around 8 am one of the ship’s crew came and told some passengers that the NCB had raided and two people were detained as drugs were recovered from them.
There was talk on the ship that the son of a famous superstar has been caught with drugs. We still had no idea who it was. We tried searching online for news reports and found out that some people were arrested from our ship.
But during the entire time there was also a sense of normalcy, as if nothing had happened on the ship. Restaurants and food counters were open on the ship. People were eating, and music was playing.
When people came to know that Aryan Khan had been arrested, there was a panic among the guests. Many said they wanted to get off the ship because they didn’t want to get involved in an unnecessary dispute.
However, the ship’s officials assured the people that there would be no problem and the ship would be sailing soon. When people insisted they wanted to leave, they were told they could do so, but would not be entitled to a refund because the cruise was not responsible for the conduct of the arrested passengers.
After this, many decided to stay back.
The ship finally left at around 5 a.m. on Sunday. The delay was because there were many people who had not checked in and left only after boarding the ship.
As told to Devendra Pandey
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