The Experience of a Lifetime Draws to a Close

That’s it folks!! The longest and most exciting journey I will ever undertake in my life has finally ended. We leave Antarctica on 28th Jan 09, pending some good weather. The ALCI flight was supposed to arrive on 26th Jan, but has been delayed due to some really bad weather. We expect a clear weather window on 28th and might have to leave at short notice if that happens. As usual, our travel plans remain a big if due to the Antarctica weather.
The station has been handed over to the leader of the 28th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica on 26th Jan following the Republic Day celebrations. Our packing is complete. The stuff which is to be sent by ship has been segregated and locked, and the luggage we take with us has been packed up. I am now living on rags, which I intend to leave here. We are free of all our responsibilities, including galley duties. All of us are having last minute anxiety.
We have a long journey ahead of us- Antarctica- Cape Town- Dubai- Delhi, taking about 5-6 days. I am reaching Delhi on 4th Feb. Most of our journey time will be spent in Cape Town. That will be our port of entry into the civilised world after a gap of almost 15 months. I wonder how I will react to the sudden transformation, the heat and the dust, people and greenery. That will be another experience altogether. Therefore, though my Antarctica trip may be over, but the adventure will continue for probably a few months.
The end of my stay in Antarctica does not mean the end of stories from this icy wonderland. Tales from the coldest and remotest continent will continue for sometime till I get it out of my system and get caught up in the rigmarole of everyday life.
Till then, keep watching this space. It will soon be loaded with pictures and videos from Antarctica soon enough. So don’t forget to see the older posts. They are going to be mind boggling. Take my word for that.
See you all in India…………………

A Royal Visit II

The big day was finally here. After about a month of exhaustive preparations, with contributions from the entire team, the station was all spruced up to receive the first ever Head of State to visit any Indian Antarctic Station in 27 years of India’s presence in Antarctica.

Prince Albert II of Monaco arrived at Novo on 18th Jan 09 late at night, ahead of schedule by one day because of inclement weather expected on 19th. Since then we were in constant touch with Novo regarding his plans. We were told at 9 AM on 19th Jan that he would be arriving at 3 PM and Novo asked for our vehicles to pick him up from Sankalp Point, where the Russian vehicles would drop him. The reasons for such a move were unknown to us. Mr Jamwal and Mr Hukum Singh were deputed to go to pick him up. But after they left, we got the message that the Prince would be walking it down to Maitri, given his love for adventure sports. Hence, Mr Ganapathy was stationed in the newly renovated greenhouse (now called the East End Lounge) to keep a watch on the route from Novo.

When the Novo team lead by the Novo leader, Yuri Mizin arrived we all rushed out to meet the Prince and have ourselves photographed with him. After endless rounds of photographs (I was the official photographer for the imperial visit), we realised that none of the guests was the Prince and that he would be arriving in our vehicles. That was an anti-climax. Soon, a Russian vehicle carrying some Russian team members and ALCI officials arrived and were ushered into the lounge.

Finally, we saw our vehicles arriving and we all rushed out to greet the prince. There were a horde of officials from Monaco and Russia, members of the Russian Dumas and journalists and photographers accompanying him. Another important dignitary was accompanying the Prince- Dr Arthur Chilingarov- the Special Representative of President of the Russian Federation. He was on first name terms with Prince Albert.

The welcome address by our team leader and speeches by the Prince and Dr Chilingarov were followed by 6 scientific presentations on India’s work in Antarctica, along with snacks, wine and champagne. The Prince appeared to be listening with rapt attention, though I don’t know how much he understood. He expressed his customary inquisitiveness by asking a few mundane questions about global warming and appeared satisfied with the replies. He then inaugurated the ionosonde experiment at the newly installed NPL hut and understood the various nuances of space science from Dr Rupesh Das. This was followed by a visit to the labs in the summer camp and briefing by various scientists.

The prince was in no mood to leave and posed for group photographs on the helipad and the lounge. I managed to take autographs of both, the Prince as well as Dr Chilingarov. I was lucky to be carrying an autograph book with me to Antarctica. The Prince was then dropped off at Novo by our vehicles after exchanging gifts and souvenirs.

Thus culminated a period of furious activity at Maitri. One positive outcome of this visit was the massive clean up operation carried out at Maitri. Our station now bears a neat look.

The Lake Melts …… Finally!!!!!

What was to have happened in November, has happened now, in the middle of January. The Priyadarshani Lake has finally melted completely. It was a painfully slow process this year, taking 4 months. The first signs of melting appeared in October, when tiny moats could be seen around the stones and boulders in the lake. The next event was the deformation of air bubbles trapped in the ice. They were arranged in a linear formation during the winters. But now the formation was highly variable, giving rise to interesting shapes. Then small pools of water could be seen on the ice. Priyadarshani Lake was now unwalkable. The cracks widened and soon the ice broke up into blocks, like pack ice. These blocks grew smaller and smaller very gradually, and now on the 13th January, they can no longer be seen. Priyadarshani Lake is now completely ice free. But not for too long. It will start to freeze again by the end of January, when the summer season ends and the temperature falls drastically.

Last year, the lake had melted fully by the first week of November, due to a rapid and probably early rise in temperature. The temperature last summer went up to 10ºC, whereas this year, it has not yet touched 5ºC. We also had a blizzard this summer, close to the Midsummer Day. Most of the other lakes hardly show any signs of melting except at the edges. The lakes behind the station fall under this category. They should have been overflowing by this time, causing the annual recharge of the Priyadarshani Lake. Usually, one can see beautiful ice formations and ice caves sparkling with unearthly colours during the summers. But that is missing this time. The only waterfall in Schirmacher is not yet functional. For some reason, we are seeing penguins in droves this year. All of Schirmacher is teeming with them. They even visit our station frequently. Once we saw a group of 20 penguins right behind our station. They can be seen basking in the sun, chirping away merrily.

A Royal Visit- I

This is something very different from what we have seen so far in Antarctica. We are expecting royalty here. Prince Albert II, the head of state of the Principality of Monaco is visiting Maitri on 21st Jan 09. Actually, he can visit Maitri any time between 15th and 21st Jan.
The Prince is visiting 26 stations in Antarctica all this month. Currently he is at the south pole, visiting the US station, Amundsen Scott. The purpose of his visit is to raise awareness about global warming and to gain first hand knowledge about the effect of global warming in Antarctica.
This visit has us all in tenterhooks at Maitri. Though the prince is visiting us for just about 2 hours, but everything is being planned to perfection for the last one month. Gifts, eatables, wine and champagne for the prince and his entourage have arrived from Cape Town and India last month, so have the national flags. The projector bulb that was lying dysfunctional has been replaced overnight. It was purchased from Cape Town at exorbitant cost.

Scientific presentations are being practiced and refined everyday. Every minute of the prince’s stay here and his every move is being planned meticulously. A massive cleanup drive is underway. The rocky area is being cleared and paths are being made to make the walk to and from the station comfortable for him. The greenhouse has been cleared and bears a new flooring. This is a welcome change from the earlier storehouse appearance it bore. The team has been divided into groups to streamline things. Not everyone will come to the lounge to avoid overcrowding. Only 3 people have been authorised to take photographs. There will be no individual photographs with the prince, just one group photograph. The newly installed ionosonde experiment of National Physical Research Laboratory will be inaugurated by the prince. Therefore, the hut has been renovated fully and is being constantly upgraded.

All this is really painstaking stuff just probably a few days before our departure.

The Onslaught of the French Fries

Maitri is under attack by a new disease. The french fries have struck and struck us hard. Few have been spared its onslaught. They usually strike past midnight, but a few are struck so badly that the time of the day or night is immaterial.

They were our refuge in the absence of potatoes during the winters. Few were consumed in the manner they were meant to be consumed. But now, with tonnes of them still left over, they are being consumed by kilos everyday. When the rest of Maitri sleeps, the french fries creep out of the deep freezer and into the microwaves in the kitchen. Both the microwaves are occupied with spinning plates of french fries. Nothing else can be prepared at that time. Given the “health consciousness” of the Maitrians, they are not fried, but roasted not withstanding the fact that they come pre-fried. They have assumed the tag of “health food” despite all reasoning. But Maitrians are traditionally not open to reasoning. Internet surfing is now unthinkable without a plate of french fries before us.

The record till date has been 3 kgs consumed by 5 people in one night. Crispy, crunchy french fries. They are truly a delicacy. I wonder why we did not discover their potential throughout the winters.

The Last 31622400 Seconds

The above is the time I have spent in the remoteness of icy Antarctica till 7 AM UTC today, the 3rd of Jan 2009. That was the time in my watch on 3rd Jan 2008 when I was rudely woken up when I felt our ship jolting badly. It was banging repeatedly against the fast ice in order to make mooring space for itself. We had landed on the Princess Astrid Coast of East Antarctica. It was a dream come true for me. I could not believe that I was actually in Antarctica, a land that I could only dream of visiting. Around me was a huge wall of ice surging many meters above the ship. Behind us was the open ocean with hundreds of icebergs standing guard to the continent. The ship was trying to make its way inside the fast ice as far as it could go to moor itself and begin the expedition tasks.

One year later, this is still a dream. I still cannot believe that I am actually here, forget about completing an year. The only difference was that last year I was full of apprehension about what lay ahead. Now I am a lot more relaxed as the time for our departure is just a few days away. As the day of departure draws close, our emotional attachment to Maitri also grows. After all this is the place where I have spent the most memorable days of my life and this is also the place I am least likely to visit again.

In the days gone by, crossed another landmark- one year inside the Antarctic circle. That was on 31st Dec 2008. We realised that we had crossed the Antarctic circle when the sun did not set during the New Year celebrations on board the ship.