Royal Caribbean ignores India’s Republic Day

Letter to the Editor:

We thoroughly enjoyed our recent 11-day Sydney-New Zealand cruise from 17-28 January except for an incident on India’s Republic Day that has left a bad taste for me and several other Indians on board the cruise ship. We look at our national days with pride and in that jest looked forward to spending the 26th of January on board with some excitement and celebration. That the day coincided with Australia Day, it made us all the more spirited to acknowledge the day with fellow travellers and a large number of staff who were from India. In that spirit I requested the cruise director if he could make a simple announcement recognising the special day which India shares with Australia. I had thought it commonplace as even birthdays are casually announced at most gatherings. It would not have caused any offence to anyone anyway. But as no announcement came through for quite sometime, I reminded the cruise director a few times and he assured me that they would follow it up. But to my chagrin it never materialised although a BBQ was held as a gesture for Australia Day. I felt dismayed that a simple courtesy by Royal Caribbean to acknowledge a national day was not extended to India.

Disappointed
Rishi Jamdagni

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