Kuljeet Grewal - Sailing the High Seas

 Sailing the High Seas

Kuljeet Grewal, Class of 1993

Kuljeet had always wanted to travel the world and saw a degree in hotel management as a means to an end.  She dreamed of a job as an airhostess, but came up half an inch short and was eliminated in the first round of many an interview.  She then decided she would continue her education and did the 4th Year Post Graduation Diploma in Hospitality Administration in IHM Bombay, after which she joined the Front Office department at the Centaur hotel, Bombay Airport.

About a year or so into her job, Kuljeet saw an advertisement in the newspaper in 1995 for the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines who were coming to Bombay to recruit for various positions.  Resigning herself to not being able to get an airline job, she decided to charter her course in cruise lines.  She remembers that the interview hall was rather intimidating, a huge banquet room, filled to the brim with applicants only two of which were girls!  Kuljeet got through the interview and was relieved when her parents agreed to let her take the job.  “My parents were really bold, trusting and open-minded to let me join the cruises in 1995 at a time when it was unheard of for girls”, she says.  Incidentally, the other girl in the interview room also got the job, but never joined.

Life on a cruise liner was a dream job for Kuljeet.  Having heard stories of how hard life was onboard, she was pleasantly surprised at how much she took to the job.  “You work and live at the same place, you sleep in a different country and wake up in a different country every day of your life, you can save every penny that you make if you want, lots of crew parties, crew activities, lots of opportunities for you to move up in your career”, what more could one want?  She couldn’t fathom why many had warned her about the hardships she would face.  The treatment she got on board was the biggest wonder.  Usually, she was the only Indian woman amongst 100 Indian men, and she was treated with the utmost respect, like a princess!  Kuljeet spent 17 years with Royal Caribbean, working her way up from waitress to Marine Administrative Specialist which was like an Executive Assistant to the Captain and Chief Engineer.

Kuljeet is currently settled in Vancouver, Canada, having moved there about 12 years ago.  When she first visited Vancouver in 1999, on a cruise ship, it became her second favourite place in the world, the first being Monte Carlo.  When it came time to settle down, she chose the former purely because she didn’t know how to migrate to Monte Carlo and her brother lived in Vancouver and was able to help her with the migration.  The erstwhile crew member is today a licensed real estate agent and a part-time administrator in the Marine Engineering department of one of the largest ferry companies in the world, BC Ferries (British Columbia Ferries).

The trailblazer’s advice to young girls of today is to “Follow your dreams, don't be afraid of failures or rejections or even to be a trend setter, explore something which has never been explored before and you will find your calling. Don't leave any stone unturned and something will work out!!”