At last, an Indian cruise fit for tomorrow

Tom is the shortest Cruise. But the longest was inaugurated on Friday. Setting off from Varanasi, India‘s first domestically made cruise vessel, MV Ganga Vilas, will be reaching its destination in Dibrugarh, Assam, via Bangladesh and 50 tourist spots after chugging along 3,200 km across 27 river systems over 51 days. This aquatic luxury experience, as all good things do, comes at a decent price – about Rs 20 lakh per passenger. No surprise that the inaugural trip, then, is carrying 32 Swiss passengers – Rs 2 million in current exchange would be about Rs 22,707, not bad for the upkeep of the ship.

Cruises in other parts of the world usually mean fun, frolic and an open bar. Summer journeys for the swish set translates into the Beautiful People decked down on the deck to catch the sun. What Ganga Vilas has in store will be decided in the initial runs. (Will the bar be shut while the happy vessel passes through the prohibition state of Bihar? Will deck-level romance be allowed to bloom without a different kind of prohibition?) Riverine tourism, especially of the luxuriant variety, has always been missing in this riverine country of ours. Mosquitoes can’t be fully blamed for this near-complete absence. We landlubbers wish Ganga Vilas and its lucky yatris a lovely, limb-stretching, water-lapping trip. The journey, truly, should be the destination.