The Arguments within

Character sketch of Captain Vaz Captain Derrick Fernandes Vaz. This is his full name. Supposedly the most awesome and formidable of all the nautical surveyors in MMD, Mumbai. He is also seen as one of the most knowledgeable persons around. Very much up-to-date and thorough with the procedures, legislations and ship knowledge. His name has often given scares and sweat to candidates. He is known for asking highly ultra-syllabus questions which are instantly perceived as never-answerable. Though I myself never had any opportunity of facing him for my oral exams, I have always got intrigued by his charisma after hearing people’s reports of experiences with him. Hence my psycho profiling is based on the same along with just one write-up I have read, written by him, and a couple of encounters I had for other works. Most of time he puts up those subject questions only for which the candidate appears to be least prepared. For those who emanate a feel of thorough preparations, there are alw...

The Orals That’s how we popularly know them. The popular name gives an innuendo of that pleasure act equally popular in our MMS-crazed generation but, here, is actually a short form for Oral Examinations conducted by the Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) of Ministry of Shipping, India, for certification of merchant naval officers. The final steps towards acquiring any grade of licenses involves a face-to-face interview with examiners of MMD, known as Surveyors as per the provisions of the MS Act, 1958, and entails examination of our technical and managerial knowledge. The results of all MMD exams are best described by a well-known maritime adage –‘Sea yields out whatever goes in it; it does not eat away anything.’ Yes, that’s right, one day or the other we all pass. But then like all humans have a need for some challenge to give them reasons to live, we have devised the challenge in passing the exams in ‘first shot’. Over these years of revampe...