The day was 28th Feb 2008 and the time was 11:00 PM. The night time movie show had just ended and we were preparing to retire for the night. There was a bright moonlight outside. The night had begun to fall just a month ago, after the end of the polar day (24 hours sunshine). So we were still getting used to the darkness. The peace of the station was suddenly shattered by shouts of "aurora aa gaya..". Most of us did not realise what the issue was all about. But still we rushed out into the biting cold of the polar autumn in our night suits. There was a lot of confusion around.
Outside, we were greeted by the most awesome sights we are ever likely to see in our lives. It was the sight that made the Herculean task of wintering over in Antarctica worthwhile. The southern part of the sky had beautiful, colourful waveforms floating around like plumes of smoke. They were predominantly green and blue in colour and had a ghostly appearance. They reminded me of the ghosts in the movie 'Ghostbusters'. There was no doubt in our minds now that these were the most eagerly awaited phenomenon of the polar winters- the aurora australis. These were dancing waves of colourful lights, floating towards the eastern part of the sky and weakened behind a hillock. They changed their shapes and colours frequently. Their intensity fluctuated rapidly- just when we thought that it was over, they reappeared again. One wave followed the next. It lasted for about half and hour. Then there was darkness again. It was a truly celestial event. We felt blessed that day.
The auroral activity occurred every now and then throughout the winter period, sometimes of great intensity, sometimes so weak that they appeared like clouds. The weak ones could be distinguished from clouds by their constantly and rapidly changing shapes. The most brilliant aurora during our expedition occurred on 22nd July 2008 at 10:30 PM. They were emerging from behind the glacier, towards the southern side of the station in bright colours and moving towards the north-east. The reds, yellows, greens, orange- all were there. The colours were so intense that they gave the impression of a laser show in the sky. That was the same day that our dog, Nuts passed away. Our team leader had dragged me out to help me overcome by grief. It was a very poignant moment for me. While looking at the aurora, I felt as if Nuts was waving goodbye to me, taking the shape of the aurora. I took some of the most beautiful photographs of my life on that night. It was a parting gift to me from her, and a very precious one at that.
When I am able to browse the net, I will post some of my own photographs of the aurora and many more.
I got this address through your father. I am Anjali working as an Associate Fellow in Observer Research Foundation, Delhi. being a researcher myself, i know how to analyse things and put them in right perspective.When i go through ur blog, I like it because of its way of presentation.u use the words so graphically that i can imagine the things happening in front of me. A very well written piece of first hand experience.
ReplyDeleteAnjali
I have been fascinated by the Aurora Lights ever since I read about them in Misha , my monthly Children's Mag. Would have given anything to exchange places that day with u - just to watch the beautiful melodrama of lights... Will be really looking forward to ur new pics...
ReplyDeletep.s - sorry to hear about ur dog , though - but , she left like a divine being - lights n all!! :-)) must hav really loved her...if it helps to knw -- thn there is dog heaven too - guess she went there n the Aurora Lights were indeed a grand welcome for her..tc.
@Anjali: My parents told me about you. Thanks for visiting my blog and appreciating it. Keep visiting for more. There are a lot more events about to happen now and a lot more adventures still left.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Ruchi
ReplyDeleteThanks for such encouraging words. I like travel, though I cant say much
about being an adventurer. I had never planned to be here in the first
place, it just happened.
As far as being a writer is concerned, this blog is my first attempt at
writing. I am just starting out and I hope I make sense. You call me a
blogger, but you will be surprised to know that I had not seen the blog that
I have been maintaining for the last one year till 12 dec when we got
internet connection.
The pics that you saw of the pisten bully are not mine. My brother put
them on from the net. Now that we have internet access at Maitri, I will be
able to put up the pics slowly.
You will be sad as well as happy to know that my return will be delayed
by a few months. I will come either in feb or in march by ship. the only
reason I can give for the delay is that this is Antarctica. nothing is
certain here.