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Sakal Uth Tube Article, March 14, 2011

2011-03-21T14:21:00.002-04:00

January 5-7, 2011... Swimming with Dolphins at Akaroa and coming back to US

2011-01-08T00:20:00.001-05:00

January 5, 2011 was totally packed for me. While Hyomin and Joseph preferred to stay back on this rainy day, I booked a tour to go to Akaroa, a harbor about 75 km away from Christchurch. On my way there, I saw some of the most beautiful, scenic landscapes and loads of sheep.

On my way, I met an enthusiastic German couple. They had been backpacking around the South Island of New Zealand for a week and were looking forward to the highlight of their trip: Swimming with Dolphins. So, as I learnt that, they provide you with a comfortable wet suit etc., I decided to change my Harbor Wildlife Cruise to a Swim with Dolphins experience. In the end, I think the money was worth it. We got to swim with the world's smallest, rarest and friendliest dolphins: Hector dolphins. You are supposed to entertain them, and not touch them or challenge them in their territories. So, while we were swimming in the cold water, we were supposed to make some nice sounds with our snorkeling mask, hands etc. They were swift and shy with us. In our half an hour in water, we had about 5-6 dolphins swimming about 8-10 ft away from us.. But, I heard some nice stories from the German couple. The lady was on the boat and was trying to sing to the dolphins. They did listen to her songs and came close to those swimmers once or twice.

This was a brilliant day, but extremely tiring.. On our way back I bought some cherries. These were the best, sweetest cherries I had so far.. I got together with Hyomin and Joseph for dinner. We had the best kiwi fruits (of course!) Joseph bought us.

The next day early morning, we were at the airport to catch our flight to Auckland and then from there to US. The flights till US were uneventful, except I could not sleep much in the long flight. I did not have a chance to look at the night sky while I was in southern hemisphere. In Antarctica it was 24 hour sunlight. So I could only see the sun and sometimes the moon. In Christchurch, we just had one clear night and that was the night we arrived when I was extremely tired because of the travel and had to sleep early.. :( So, my only chance was on this flight from Auckland to LA. As I didn't have a window seat, I tried to gaze through the 20 sq cm window of the emergency doors. I saw Pegasus, Scorpio, the Southern cross and loads of stars which I could not identify..

On January 6 morning, braving the immigration line, customs and the full body scan-security, I reached the gate and waited there for my flight only to know that my flight was cancelled because of some mechanical problems. Joseph had an earlier flight to Atlanta and it was full. So, here I was stuck at LA airport, desperately wanting to get back to Blacksburg. Mandar finally decided that I needed some rest before I break down of the travel stress and a red eye flight with 10 hours halt was definitely not what I want. January 6 was probably the longest day of my life.. (46 hours as I crossed the date line too.. :o ) So, he negotiated a stay in LA and a next day early morning flight for me. After this eventful journey, I finally reached home on January 7, 2011 just to see a gloomy night with a white blanket all over! In any case, I was glad to be back.. Back home. :)

January 3-4, 2011... South Pole to Christchurch

2011-01-05T23:41:00.005-05:00

The day we were planned to leave South Pole, January 3rd, 2011 was the worst day I had seen so far in terms of weather. It was overcast and really you could not make out the difference between the land (snow) and the sky.. Horizon was totally missing.. I was kind of skeptical if we would even get out. Anyway, after the ARO visit, a hasty lunch and loads of quick bye-byes, I came to my room to wrap up the bedding and keep it outside for cleaning. Every person needs to clean the room and make it ready for the next one. I had done my job nicely the previous night in spite of all the packed schedule.

Right after lunch, we got a call to be ready at the runway for the flight. We took our bags and set out. The flight was on time. LC130 was waiting for us.

I was so drained out that I instantly fell asleep right after we took off, even though it was crazy noisy inside.

We reached McMurdo. The thought of eating peacefully going to our rooms and dozing off happily kept us going through all that waiting at the Pegasus "terminal" and that slow and long "Terra" bus ride from the Pegasus runway to the McMurdo station.

It was 6.00 pm by the time we reached McMurdo. We had to rush for dinner. Just when were were leisurely walking back to the store to do some final shopping, one of us found out that we had to take our bags "bag drag" right then (it was 7.00 pm already and we just had another hour) for a flight that early morning. We were moved a day earlier to fly out to Christchurch. Sure enough our emails said so. Then there was no time to relax, we had to pack our left over things at McMurdo, get everything ready at the check in bag drop place, all we were left with were our carry on luggage. A bigger bummer was that we had to be at that place again at 2.00 am, provided the flight leaves on time from Christchurch. Which means, we had to keep checking the status online till 11.30 pm and then, if things look right, come back prepared, all layered up at 2.00 am. We did fly off at 5.30 am. I don't want to recall our bus travel from McMurdo to the runway and then the wait time.. It was pretty bad considering, we were all so terribly drained out. The flight was smooth and I again slept like a baby.. C17 soon (5 hrs) brought us to Christchurch and we were back on the Earth!

The rest of the day we just relaxed in our hotel rooms, ate Thai food for lunch and a pizza (classic pepperoni flavored for Joseph and Tandoori Chicken flavored for me) for dinner. :)

January 3, 2011... Heading back after two mesmerizing weeks.

2011-01-04T02:59:00.001-05:00

I was trying to get the most of the last few hours at the South Pole, especially since we did not have much free time to see the other science done at this end of the world. There is a lot of astronomy done around here; there is a 10 meter radio telescope, the South Pole Telescope to study the cosmic microwave background, the world's largest neutrino observatory, Icecube etc. The extreme engineering used in many of these instruments are simply mind boggling. In fact,

the new South Pole station is itself an engineering marvel. More details can be seen at

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/livingsouthpole/intro.jsp.

I got an opportunity to visit the Icecube which is a net of 86 -- 2.5 km deep cores drilled in the ice and having 60/well photomultiplier tubes a 1 km below the surface in an area of 1 cubic km (hence the name) to detect neutrinos.. phew.. that's a mouthful, isn't it? They had a very graphical display of the neutrinos being detected almost in real time (half an hour delay because of filtering etc. processes) at the main control building. I also could peep into one of the open wells. The drilling in the ice is done by gushing highly pressurized boiling hot water into a small cylindrical area. It was just thrilling to digest the fact that I was standing on the world's largest detector in ice.

The Icecube visit was right after midnight (remember it is a 24 hour day down there?!).. Early morning, I got up and got ready to visit the Atmospheric Research Observatory (ARO). Surprisingly, it was overcast and there was no difference to be seen between the sky and the snow. The horizon was just not visible. I hiked to the ARO building (just 5-10 minutes from the station). Looked at the different instruments and their research on the Antarctic air. It was nice to finally learn why does the ozone hole exist over this continent especially since there are no human colonies to produce the Chloroflurocarbon (CFC) from the refrigerants. As we know, CFC acts as a catalyst to disintegrate ozone. Well, it is a year round process that creates this ozone hole over Antarctica. CFC from around the world is channeled to the South polar cap with the complicated air flows over the winter. Over the summer, there is enough heat due to the sun to initiate the disintegration of ozone gas with the trapped CFC playing the major role. I learnt that there has to be someone year round to take daily measurements from different instruments, calibrate them, take field measurements of carbon dioxide from the clean air sector. This brings me to the final exciting thing. There is a conical area emerging from the South Pole which is called as the "Clean Air Sector", where for hundreds of miles, no pollution is allowed: no vehicle, plane allowed, no combustion thus no power plants are allowed, not even a soul person is allowed to venture out in that area. Furthermore, it is towards the north side which is plateau side and is towards a higher altitude that South Pole, thus, the air/wind always blows from that region down to the station. In short, the air is not contaminated by anything in that designated area that makes it the area with cleanest air on the Earth. So, I got to fill up my own bottle of the cleanest air sample and seal it to receive probably one of the best souvenirs from the South Pole.

January 2, 2011... South Pole: The day before leaving the Pole

2011-01-03T02:14:00.000-05:00

After the new year celebration, the station was lazying out on Sunday. We had a late brunch, grabbed our "Race around the world" T-shirts (although we really didn't participate in the race, we did go around the world at the Pole. So, it was fair enough for everyone at the Station anyway). It was time to finish up our remaining work. That was probably the chilliest day so far (Check out the galley temperature scroll) and we also were all drained out with continuous physical exertion.

Well, we did finish our job for the day, came back to the station to pack things up, see as many things around the station as possible (as that was the only chance we would probably get in this trip), and bid a farewell to everybody around..

I have an interesting little fun to share with you all. I met loads of interesting people at the station. May it be because of my outgoing nature or may it be because I was one of the very few Indians, probably the only girl, the ladies at the station have seen, they had been requesting me to show and possibly draw some henna tatoos. During my endeavors in the Arts and Crafts room for the New Year poster and while fixing my damaged gloves, to my pleasant surprise, I came across a henna tatoo set in the stuff there. Those ladies were lucky.. :) We managed to get together that night, and had a henna party with some nice Bollywood music. :D

January 1, 2011... Beginning of the new year at an amazing place

2011-01-01T22:37:00.000-05:00

This is the first day of the year 2011. We at the South Pole, were probably one of the first people to get the new year’s sunlight. Well, we had the sun all the time up in the sky. The way we celebrated the New Year was to go to the pole at midnight. Well, of course it was bright and sunny. Before we bundled up and left, I made a quick poster in the arts and crafts room to wish everyone “Happy New Year from the South Pole”. I had also drawn a map of Antarctica with South Pole marked on it. It was basically made for my folks back home, but it turned out to be a poster representing the whole South Pole wishing the world a happy New Year. The plan was made between 6 of us to go to the pole and have a toast at the midnight. We got a nice surprise when almost 50-60 people came out in their red parkas to the Pole at around 11.50 am. At the new location of the South Pole, there was a temporary marker as the ceremony of “Moving the Geographic South Pole” was supposed to take place at 10 am on Jan 1, 2011. We all stood up near the new marker. Our leader in this endeavor and the NSF representative at the Pole Vladimir Papitashvili had a GPS. He did a countdown and we all cheered “Happy New Year” at 12.00 am. Then there was a big photo session. The crowd was all bubbly and we all had a great time. My poster was extensively flashed everywhere.. ;) I am glad I had an idea of doing something like this. It was quiet windy and cold (-39 deg C with wind chill). As the cold started overpowering the enthusiasm, we decided to continue the celebration inside the galley, our dining place. Before I left the pole, I managed to get a picture at the pole with my sign and the Indian flag. I also went around the world in the shorted circle i.e. around the South Pole... :D We came inside to continue our celebration. At 1.15 am at night, in Antarctica, I had two helpings of strawberry and pecan ice cream. It was just an awesome feeling to see an enormous white landscape from the window and eat ice cream with a chill running down your spine just with the excitement. I think this was by far the best New Year celebration I had.

Early morning, I got a wakeup call from home wishing me a Happy New Year. Yes.. we all have individual rooms here with a personal phone. So, when the satellite is up, anyone could call us at this US number. It was pretty convenient. :) Charged up with the warmth of talking to my people, I got up and got ready again to brave the cold. Put on just 3 layers instead of 5 or 6 and went out to the pole at 10.00 am. It was the time for Pole moving ceremony. An experience of life time and a high honor because, everyone present there at the ceremony actively participated in the transfer. Every year, there is a new pole with a new marker. This year, the marker is shaped like a sextant used by early Antarctic explorers. We made a human chain in a shape of ‘U’ from the old pole position to the new position. The new South Pole traveled from each and every hand in the chain to its new location. I felt greatly honored when I handed over my pole to the next person.. This was indeed an experience of life time.

We brunched and set off to finish our work. It had been pretty windy today. Wind speed ~ 10 knots, temperature with wind chill -40 deg C. But, for us, the main attraction was to finish up the work as soon as possible on the New Year and get ready to come back home on 3rd Jan. :) Although, I love this place, I can't wait to be back to civilization.

December 31, 2010... The last day of the year 2010.

2011-01-01T02:40:00.000-05:00

Our field team was lucky to get back on December 30. I learnt later that they were very depressed when the weather went pretty nasty the previous day and the plane had to return back midway without getting them on board. If the weather were bad the next day, our field team, would have been held up there at least till Jan 3, 2011 because of the yearend holidays at the South Pole station.

Bob and I worked on our Iridium antenna. We experimented with it by designing a ground plane for the same and installing it with a slight tilt away from the GPS antenna to avoid interference.

We had a nice dinner and then was a time for a movie. We watched Star Wars 6, Return of Jedi. This movie reminded me of the fact that we at Antarctica, are staying at a colony which resembles a space colony, except the gravity part. This station is designed in a very modern way with parts which can be detachable under fire or any other disastrous extreme conditions. The whole construction even the names of the doors (Destination Alpha, destination Zulu) etc give it an appearance of a space colony.

There is another interesting fact I would like to mention. Antarctica is an amazing place. It’s dry, windy, and chilly. At the South Pole, it is even higher. And the amazing thing is this is such a harsh continent that on the plateau and the Pole, there is no living thing other than humans colonized here. I realized there is not one insect in either McMurdo or South Pole station.

Later in the evening, just before the New Years, I had an idea to create a poster wishing everyone a happy new year.

December 28 - 30, 2010... Braving the wind and cold while working on the ice.

2010-12-31T21:55:00.000-05:00

Almost every day, I wore 4 layers at the bottom, 6 layer on top including the big red parka, 2 hats, 4 layers of gloves with hand warmers, 3 layers of socks with a pair of toe-warmers, goggles with a customized fleece nose protector, and white big bunny boots (resembling the big boots Mickey Mouse wears).

This picture is taken in a still decent weather. Most of the times, it would be so bad that the whole nose and mouth my cap would be white.

At this altitude (South Pole’s pressure altitude is about 11000 ft), one slows down a lot. Short of breath especially while climbing up anywhere is pretty common. When you walk, you walk very slowly. You can hear a funny noise your bunny boots make on the loose, fluffy, and freshly blown in snow. When you walk, your breath sounds as if you are in a space suit and breathing through an oxygen mask or something. Your breath freezes as it leaves your nostrils.. It shows up as a frost or snow accumulated on your nose cover and parka collar. The air is so clean and dry, that you feel like a searing pain in your lungs every time you inhale without some kind of cover on your nose. You take your outer gloves off, you will start feeling chilling numbness in your fingers. If you ignore this and don’t start warming the hands by keeping them in your inner pockets, you are likely to encounter a throbbing sensation and pain in your fingers. The same goes for toes. If you stand still in snow for long time, toes will just start hurting. You need to make sure you keep moving your fingers and toes because you don’t want to have them frozen and dead.. :P If your breath goes inside your goggles, they will fog. The worst part is, if you take your goggles/ glasses out to clean this fog, you will see a frost instantly developing on the glasses. This is indeed a very harsh continent. But, there is a different excitement and fun of actually being here. With some experience and trials, one learns the best way to keep himself/herself warm (with different combination of clothes, different number of layers etc.) You start reducing the dressing time eventually. I am now ready to head out within 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes. Eat, drink water, sleep and work is all you do when you are here. But, trust me it is fun.. :)

The other thing I would like to mention here is the satellite availability. Phone and internet worked only during these satellite times. We had limited availability during early mornings and afternoons. So, during my work days, the only time I could log on to the internet was right after I get up. This added up with the physical exertion everyday made me take a long time to get my blog updated.

Satellite pass at South Pole.

So, all we did for the next three - four days was work, sleep and eat. With the help of a couple of general assistants, Bob and I made a great progress working with the second system. However, we started having some or the other problem with our instruments on both the systems: search coil magnetometer, flux gate magnetometer and dual frequency GPS receiver. We started debugging and experimenting with the help of people back in US.

December 27, 2010... Field team and Pole team

2010-12-28T02:39:00.000-05:00

Early morning, Hyomin and Joseph along with our mountaineer Julian left to the remote site PG2 in a twin otter. They will try replacing an Iridium cable and see if we could communicate with the system, if not, instead of debugging in -40 deg C, they will pack and bring the system back.

There was a nice surprise awaiting me at the galley. We had Indian lunch that day: naan, masoor daal, chicken curry, palak saag, flower-pees subji. :D I was extremely thrilled to have Indian food at the South Pole.. :)

Me and Bob started to get our cargo together on the other site for our second system. The cargo people here with their huge caterpillars, helped us move our heavy instrument boxes.

December 26, 2010... Sunday: Still a work day for us

2010-12-27T02:18:00.000-05:00

I was ready to go out again with my team and work on our first system. We almost finished working on it. We had to revisit it later to fix some of our instruments after we heard back the status from our engineer and our Steve from Ann Arbor.

What was more tiring during this day was changing the clothes every time I head out or come back. For the coming few days, I decided not to go through this hassle and keep all my layers except the parka (even though you sweat a lot inside the heated station) when we return to the station for lunch etc.

Later in the evening, we dressed up again and went to the Pole to take some pictures. I held our Indian flag high and was a proud Indian to put it next to the South Pole. Just a reminder, Antarctica is a free continent and doesn’t belong to any nation.

We could not start our work on the second system. It was necessary to finish building the two systems at the Pole before our departure date on 3^rd Jan, 2011. So, amongst four of us, I decided to stay back and help Bob set up the next system at the Pole while Hyomin and Joseph were going to fly towards the remote camp on the Eastern Antarctic plateau about 650 km from the pole to retrieve a system that stopped working in a month after it was deployed 2 years back. In a way, I was glad stay back in the warmth of the station at least at nights instead of sleeping in cold tents on the plateau. I also had a loads of good food available all the time at the station!

December 25, 2010... Merry Christmas

2010-12-26T02:55:00.000-05:00

I stayed back on the Christmas day and along with the whole station enjoyed the holiday. My other team members worked even that day. In the morning, we had some gifts to exchange. The later part of the day was slow and relaxing for me when I tried to catch on my blog. At 10.00 am, many enthusiasts at the station took part in the “race around the world” which was a 3 mile-long lap around the station starting and ending at the South Pole.

Race around the world starting at the South Pole.

The whole day, our galley scroll was showing Santa Claus’s North pole to South Pole flight status.. We finally learned that the flight was delayed due to Ornery reindeer. :D

Later in the evening, we had a Christmas special dinner. The blinds in the galley were down to imitate night (we were already getting bored of too much light, this was a welcome change) and the TVs showed fire. Everyone was dressed nicely and we were served an amazing dinner and wine. After the dinner, we had a small social where we were filled in with loads of exciting stories by the polar research veterans: Bob, Vladimir and Don.

Christmas fire on the Galley TV.

A nice Christmas special dinner.

December 22 - 23, 2010... Getting Acclimatized at the Pole

2010-12-24T16:22:00.000-05:00

On December 22, 2010, we just surveyed places to decide where two of our Space Science systems are going to be. We stopped by the South Pole and took some pictures at Southern end of the world. This was the highlight of the day. More excitement followed with our snow mobile training in the afternoon. A snow mobile is a pretty cool and useful vehicle. We used two machines for four of us for the coming days, to go to our farthest site, move stuff around etc. We got our stuff moved to our work place. A cherry on the cake for me was I got to see sundogs that day.

Sundogs. The picture is not that great though.. It was just too bright, I could hardly see my camera screen.. I do have a video on my flip. I will upload it on youtube once I get back to US.

Me riding a snow mobile.

December 23 was the third day at South Pole and we were already in on the ice shoveling, setting up our stuff. While your body is trying to get acclimatized, i.e. while it is already working hard to settle up oxygen level, heart and respiration rate, you need to take it a bit easy by not giving the body extra muscle work. I learnt a tough lesson that day. My body could not take the strain. That resulted in shortness of breath, high respiration and heart rate, and dry cough and fever. I had to stay back for next couple of days to avoid any medical complications and high altitude sickness.

December 21, 2010... Heading further South

2010-12-22T02:28:00.000-05:00

I don't think we did anything constructive on December 20 apart from getting ready to go to the South Pole. We had to take our bags to the check-in place that evening. This event is called "bag drag" in Antarctic lingo.

We left McMurdo on December 21, 2010 around 9.00 am. LC 130 was like a huge hippo with a belly full of cargo and a couple pf snow machines probably caterpillars. Our carry-on bags were strapped in the center and about 15 of us sat on the side seats. I was the only female in the group and I got a seat at a very end on one side, where it will be convenient for me to go to the back of the plane to use the ladies toilet if I want to. For men, there was a urinal at the other end with a big curtain around it.. :D Remember, it is mainly a military cargo plane..

It wasn’t really comfortable take off for me as everybody was sliding towards the tail end where I was sitting or rather falling off from the seat. The take off time was quiet longer as the plane takes off from the ice and thus needs a longer runway to comfortably get in the air. Once we were up, I changed my place to another empty spot and dozed off for a while. The bunny boots have a small valve for altitude pressure control of the air inside the boots. That air acts as a good insulator but needs to be controlled at different altitudes. So, we had to leave the valve open. It was so loud inside the plane that we had to use ear plugs. Slowly, everyone started moving around, taking pictures from the two small windows available on the plane. Some of us visited the cockpit as well. It was an incredible view from up there.. We crossed the trans-antarctic mountain ranges, some glaciers etc. and then we saw all white flat landscape. I got the worst seat while taking off and the best seat while landing back. I got to sit in the cockpit during the landing. It was just breathtaking experience. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole station getting bigger from a tiny little spot on horizon was one of the scenes I will never forget. The landing on the ice was pretty smooth. In fact, it was so smooth that we really didn’t realize when we were on ground.

Me in cockpit

When we landed, I locked the valves on my bunny boots, stepped outside and had a blast of cold, clean air hitting my lungs instantly. I had to be very slow while walking towards the station from the landing place. We had an orientation, lunch and then enough rest. The first 2-3 days are very crucial while acclimatizing to a high altitude place like the Pole. I saw the South Pole from the galley, our dining place but I was not ready to venture out in the cold right away. That was a wise decision and thus, I could go out the next day.

I will never forget this day because I had one of the most amazing flight experiences, I landed on the South Pole on a special day: Summer solstice of the southern hemisphere and winter solstice of the northern hemisphere. It was literally the biggest and longest day of my life. :D

December 19, 2010... McMurdo: Kiwi base and Discovery hut

2010-12-19T16:08:00.000-05:00

Sunday was a lazy day for everyone else but I got up at 6 am to talk to my parents back home (India is 7:30 hours behind). After a good full brunch, we all scattered to do whatever we want. Some went to attend the Service at the church, I went out to the Kiwi base: Scott base about 3 miles from McMurdo.

In the afternoon, we went on a small tour to the Discovery hut near McMurdo station built by Robert Scott in 1902. His team was surviving on the last bits of 800 or so gallons of rum, 800 pounds of steak and some oatmeal, cocoa, seal meat they gathered here during their expedition.. When the help arrived, the members had to leave in a hurry, so you could see half cooked meat, half eaten cookies, an opened seal (the smell was atrocious).. Everything is preserved like it is and esp. in the cold weather down there, all food items are still like they were 100 + years back.

On our way back we saw some seals lying around..

December 18, 2010 ... Wrapping up work and some fun time

2010-12-18T15:43:00.000-05:00

We met our mountaineer in the morning got all our work, food collection checked. The next task was to get the cargo properly packed ready to ship. We got each and every packet with its contents registered in the McMurdo Cargo system (We had 27 packets in our list!)

I attended a 2 hour communication class to know in detail about the VHF, HF and Iridium communications in Antarctica. These communication modes may get some interruptions. The GPS navigation system always works fine even in Antarctica with visibility of at least 10 satellites all the time.

The work was done and now was some time to relax. There was a "Women Soiree" that evening. It was a small charity function cum talent show arranged by women in McMurdo. We thoroughly enjoyed it..

December 16-17, 2010 ... Preparing our camping gears and Food Pullout

2010-12-17T16:25:00.000-05:00

Even though we were extremely worn out due to the time intensive drills at the happy campers, we had to take care of a lot of things to prepare for our field camp further away from the South Pole.

So, we have two systems to be set up at the South Pole and we have another system to fix or pull out from a place which is quiet remote.. The site is about 650 km away from the South Pole and about 2000 ft higher (an altitude of 12000 ft). Some of us will stay and finish the work on the systems here at the pole and some of us will go to the remote site. A twin otter plane will drop us off around 27 th December. We first need to set up our own camp near the system at the remote place. Then work on the instrument, if required, pull it down and bring it back with us. Now, here is a catch. We will be ready to be picked up in 2-3 days. But, there is just one twin otter in this area and several such groups to be dropped off and picked up from various places. The weather plays the most crucial role in deciding the flights. So, in worst case, we can be there waiting for the plane and praying for the bad weather to calm down for about a week extra.

For the two days, we were simply trying to get all our cargo including all camping gears such as sleep kits, tents, shovels, kitchen box, survival bags, Gamow bag, toilet cans etc. at one place. We also had a food pull out where we took food for 4 people (including mountaineer) for four days and 7 days worth emergency food (dehydrated meals). Food included breakfast items such as cereals, instant oatmeals, lunch items such as energy bars, soups, trailmixes with loads of dry fruits and nuts, and dinners including rice or pasta and meat.. I might have to pass on steak etc... but we do have veggie soup options to go with rice.. Powdered energy drinks and hot cocoa was of course included.

December 14-15, 2010... Happy Campers

2010-12-15T23:34:00.000-05:00

Finally I got some peaceful time to write more. This post is probably going to be a little bigger because by far what I am going to update you with is the highlight of our stay.

On Tuesday December 14, 18 people including three of us gathered for a Field Safety Training Program (FSTP). They call it "happy campers" here for either because some people do get happy at the end of the camping or the training is so excruciating that they try to make you feel good by giving this program a happier name... :P Well, for me to start with it was not so happy experience but later it was.. :)

We were on a very tight schedule from the minute the program started. We first had a classroom training on risk management as camping on the ice in the middle of no where involves great risk. Negligence or poor handling of risky issues from your side may get your life as well as lives of people around you in danger. We then learnt about some medical issues encountered because of high wind, cold, sun etc. Sunburns are most common, in fact, with the Antarctic ozone hole, UVA and UVB radiations are extremely strong. There are direct UV radiations as well as those reflected from snow. Sunblock is a must to avoid any sunburns, skin cancer etc. The other issue is snow blindness. If you take out your sunglasses/ goggles you are sure to get a temporary or longer lasting blindness caused by snow. When we were flying to McMurdo, I briefly experienced it while looking out of the flight. This is similar to when you look at the sun for sometime, later when you close your eyes, you can still see a sort of negative image of the sun. This itself is annoying. The aftereffects of snow blindness are almost the same but just replace the sun's small disc by an extended white sheet all over your view. The next things we were told about were frostsnips and frostbites (due to cold winds on exposed body parts) and hypothermia (drop in body temperature). These can get pretty dangerous at high altitudes if neglected in primary stages. Let me not scare you all anymore. However, I can assure you is that we were made aware of these issues and asked to take enough precautions to avoid them.

So, with this knowledge, we all were taken to a remote location for camping on the ice. It was not too far away from McMurdo. Even the Kiwi base (NZ station) was in our visibility. There was some traffic around as well, since we were also close by the balloon launching (BLAST - an astronomy program) facility. Anyhow, the idea was still to simulate the field experience. So, Megan and Julian our instructors planned our training such that they will let us know what all to do and then will leave us on our own on the ice for the night. We had a beautiful view of Mount Erbus (an active volcano) and Mount Terror. The site was on sea ice (McMurdo is itself a part of Ross island), but we were not directly on the sea ice. We were on a glacier. There were interesting structures close by called pressure ridges where a part of sea ice tries to push the glacier in other direction. In fact, this region has some thin ice and seals can make their way out on the open. We saw a couple of them very far away probably sun bathing.. :D

We reached this place where we were taught how to work with special stoves, how to put up tents etc. We then built a 'snow wall' to protect our small tents called Mountaineering tents from the wind. We set up our kitchen which was mostly making hot water only.. :) All the food was either dehydrated where you simply add hot water and let it stay warm inside your jacket for 10 minutes or so to cook or it was just nuts, chocolates and energy bars. The drinks were hot water or hot chocolate. As the day passed, the sun and a lot of physical work were making us too warm. People started to enjoy their "beach vacation" by building fun structures like a dining room for all 18, snow trenches to sleep in for the night. 8 snow trenches which resembled small tombs gave that area a look of a graveyard. We knew that the place where we will be going to field camp is going to be nowhere closer to this one. It will be all flat, with no direction bearing (compass doesn't work near South Pole effectively), windy, cold (25 to 30 degree below what we were experiencing here) and at least 3000 m above this sea level. So, this indeed was just a beach vacation.

We did have unlimited supply of water. Just scoop fresh snow nearby and add it to the pot to boil.

The next day morning, we were taken back to an on-the-field classroom which was a small hut- a little permanent structure compared to the tents. We were taught how to use VHF, HF radios, their protocols etc. HF radio had variable frequencies (by varying the length of the dipole antenna) from 4.77 MHz to 11.33 MHz. The protocols were way easier than that HAM radio protocols. I am not sure if you can use these radios for hamming though.. Anyway, we setup and made test calls with HF.

After this we had a real life scenario training. They gave us a situation: "Your flight has crashed while going to remote place. The plane is burnt. You manage to just get one survival bag and HF radio. You are 9 people and one of you has a broken leg. There is a condition 1 storm coming from the horizon. (Condition 1 is the worst condition: windy, stormy, white everywhere, you loose all orientation, while Condition 3 is the best condition with clear weather.) How will you handle this situation?" We had to use our classroom knowledge from our risk management class. Set up HF antenna quickly to request help. In the mean time, set up the tent, secure it with snow wall, boil hot water, tend to the injured person etc.. We actually did this all as if we were in that situation really... We were later told that this is probably one of the worst case situation thrown at us. This part of the training was good. We used every bit of knowledge gathered during the whole camping time.

The second scenario was "We are inside a tent. One of us went out to use the toilet and never came back in 20 minutes. It is condition 1 outside. How would you go an rescue that person before he/she gets hypothermic." Well, we failed this test. We spent too much time planning and probably had lost that person by then. Finally when we got out making a human chain with the help of a rope and with buckets on our heads to simulate the stormy condition where we can't see/ hear anything and have no bearing, we were all so disoriented that we had to break the chain and come back. The lesson learnt was: not to go out in stormy conditions!

We were so tired and exhausted with the two day continuous drills that by the time we got back to McMurdo we all were drained out. We still had to sit through a helicopter rescue video and learn things without dozing off.. :P The three of us: me, Joseph and Hyomin going to the actual field camp, had to still drag our humongous sleep kits to the cargo cage provided to us (will write about that in the next post) for our next big adventure. The day ended with a nice shower and an amazing meal which we really appreciated after that dehydrated dinner we had at the camp site.

At the end of the day though we were all happy campers!

December 13, 2010... McMurdo: More Trainings and Briefings

2010-12-13T03:59:00.001-05:00

Today's day was really hectic. We had an environment conservation briefing. Antarctica is a protected place and to conserve its natural habitat (yes! there are abundant species living in the sea) all countries have a treaty to take back what they bring here. Basically, Antarctica belongs to no one and that's why, you cannot take anything out from this place and you cannot bring anything that might contaminate the surroundings here. They ask you to dust off your shoes, camping gears, throw all the fruits, veggies that might get any fly or insects. Even whatever waste is produced here is supposed to be shipped back to your own country to dispose off. So, here at McMurdo, they carefully separate all the waste, package it and send it back to USA to dispose off.

After this briefing, we had to go and meet several people to arrange our field camping gear, food, science instruments for project, Iridium and HF communication equipment. We sort of got started on this, checked items on our list, requested stuff we might need so that they can arrange by the time we are back from our happy campers course or snow school day after. Although this was a lot to do in a day, the whole process is made a lot simpler by organizing things before hand. People here work over many seasons and thus are trained to take care of these things efficiently.

In the afternoon, we had a 2 hour course on altitude sickness. So, there are some interesting facts. When we are going to be at the South Pole the physical altitude is 9300 ft. But, with thinner air, less oxygen and thus lower pressure, altitude felt by the human body is around 11000 ft. We will be higher up at around 13000 ft pressure altitude at our remote work site. That means, the body tries to work hard to get more oxygen to the brain and the blood. In other words, it tries to ''acclimatize" by increasing respiration, heart rate, red blood cell production, pulmonary artery pressure and also diuresis (urinary output).

If the body is not well rested and hydrated at high altitudes, altitude sickness may occur at varying levels. There is something called as Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) which is more common with symptoms like headache (or even mild brain swelling), fatigue, nausea etc. Severe AMS or High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) may even cause loss of muscular coordination, severe headache (severe brain swelling), decreased mental status and even death sometimes! Well, they say if you have a big head a smaller brain, you are less susceptible to HACE.. Jokes apart, this is a big deal here as it is very difficult to carry out any emergency rescue operation on a short notice because of the harsh weather conditions. The more serious version of altitude sickness may cause leakage of fluids in lungs and the only way out is an emergency evacuation to a lower altitude. Well, so we learnt about all this how to prevent it by taking it easy for the first couple of days. It takes a month to get acclimatized in these extreme conditions. But, we come on a time limited mission and get only a couple of days to 'feel better'. So, I will have to remember drinking loads of fluids to avoid following condition.. :D

December 12, 2010, A Special Day

2010-12-13T03:40:00.000-05:00

12/12 is a special day for many reasons.. It is special because of now two pretty girls who have their birthdays on this day..

Anyway, it was a day off here. So, I just wondered around to see the sun going round and round the whole day.. We also had Crary lab tour where I saw and touched a sea version of touch-me-not plant (लाजाळूचे झाड). It was a sea cucumber from the Antarctic sea which retracted when touched.. :D I loved playing with it in that special touch tank.. I then went out on a small stroll and took a lot of pictures at 10.30 pm at night..

The mountain on the left is called Mount Discovery.

December 11, 2010... C17 Flight to the Ice

2010-12-13T03:34:00.000-05:00

We were scheduled to be on the US air force flight C17 to McMurdo leaving at 7.30 am. A shuttle took us to the same place where we did our clothing. We were required to wear the Cold Weather gear. After the security check in they showed us film about Antarctica and the dangers involved in this adventure. We were then taken to C17 by a bus. This loud hippo (Airbus 330-200) can land on ice (of course it needs a longer runway). We enjoyed the five hour journey in its enclosed belly at the end of which we were treated with the breath-taking views of this end of the planet..

December 10, 2010... Gearing up for Extreme Cold Weather

2010-12-13T03:31:00.000-05:00

The next day, our main task was to get cold weather gear from USAP's Clothing Distribution Center (CDC). We went there and tried all those different clothes. There are at least three layers and it is necessary to have pretty much all of them when you enter this cold continent. Here is a poster showing what you need to wear on the flight to McMurdo, Antarctica..

December 9, 2010... In the land of Kiwis

2010-12-13T03:18:00.000-05:00

We arrived Christchurch pretty late in the afternoon after a 36 hour journey. But, the beauty of this place just dazzled us so much that the fatigue of travel simply vanished as we entered. It was so pleasant, green and bright that for a second we just forgot the worst weather in Blacksburg (the night before we left, we touched -20 degrees C!)

We had a wonderful afternoon at the Cathedral, downtown of Christchurch. It was not so difficult to keep being jet lagged when there were so many things to do.. My brain simply started jumping around with joy to even allow me to try hand at a life-sized chess. :D

That evening we had a nice Indian dinner at "Little India", heard a Scottish band practice in a garden, and even saw a statue taking a shower!

December 7, 2010... On our way to the South

2010-12-13T02:50:00.000-05:00

It has been my dream to go to the space one day. I was always fascinated with the poles, especially because of the auroras, and several other astronomy related reasons such as the sun is either up in the sky the whole time just circling close to horizon or the whole sky rotates around just one point. But, I never really dreamed of being at any pole, especially the South Pole. Here I am.. Close to one of the poles. In fact, if you know, we cannot really go to the North Pole as there isn't one on land. It's somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. South Pole can be physically visited and more interestingly it physically moves by about 10-15 feet each year. The continent is not just a mammoth iceberg. It actually has land, live volcanoes. Apparently, the plate on which this continent is situated moves a bit every year, physically moving the South Pole.

Anyway, as a part of my space science project, this year I got a chance to be deployed in Antarctica, visit South Pole, work there on two instruments and the go to a remote place to fix a previously deployed instrument. This is a once in a life time opportunity and I realized this only when I was on my flight to Christchurch, NZ from where we were will be set to McMurdo, the largest base station on Antarctica under the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). After a rigorous physical examination, NZ Visa process, and a number of drills to set up our equipment, I was on my way to the South with two other colleagues: Joseph and Hyomin...

Beyond the horizon -- क्षितिजाच्या पलिकडून

2010-12-12T20:33:00.001-05:00

When I looked at the sky from India, US, I have always seen the Pole star depicting the North, Cassiopeia and the Great bear pointing towards it always.. Once having a glimpse of Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC) was all I could experience of Southern sky. Well, here I am at the opposite end of the Earth from the North. If I go further South from the South Pole, I would fall off the Earth! :P Just kidding.... My point is, I am at a place which is way beyond me-- Kshitija i.e. horizon.. :) I am in Antarctica, the highest, driest, windiest, coldest place on the Earth. I will be at the geographic South Pole. I will be at the Pole during the summer solstice of the southern hemisphere and winter solstice of the northern hemisphere (December 21), when Santa Claus travels down all the way from the North Pole (close to December 25), and even when the South Pole on the Earth physically moves (as the glacier drifts -- pole moving ceremony around January 1)! So, here is the diary from this heavenly place on our planet.

I will try to update my blog as and when possible depending on the internet availability here in Antarctica. I am also making a picture story simultaneously. You can find it under Destination Antarctica on my blog..

I would like to dedicate this whole story to four people. Baba and Mandar because of whom I am writing this in public instead of just my diary and to the two most beautiful girls in the world: Shreya and Parirani whose birthdays falls on 12/12 (the newest parirani arrived in this wonderful world only on 12/12/2010.. :) )

आहे माझ्यावर माझं प्रेम!

2008-08-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

एक खूप सुंदर लेख वाचायला मिळाला आज 'सकाळ' मध्ये...
खरच स्वतः च्या प्रेमात पडून पहवाच एकदा तरी... सगला जगच सुंदर होऊं जाता मग... हा आहे माझा अनुभवही!
पहा तुम्ही पण हा लेख वाचून... आणि पड़ा प्रेमात तुमच्याच...

आहे माझ्यावर माझं प्रेम!
(आरती कदम)

स्वतःच्या प्रेमात पडणं म्हणजे आपल्यातली अमर्याद प्रेम करण्याची ताकद ओळखणं. एकदा का ही ताकद ओळखली, की आपण स्वतःवरच नव्हे, तर सगळ्यांवरच प्रेम करू लागतो. .......
तुम्ही स्वतःच्या कधी प्रेमात पडला आहात? स्वतःच स्वतःला खूप आवडला आहात? विचित्र वाटतोय प्रश्‍न, की असा कधी विचारच आला नाही मनात?

हा काही आध्यात्मिक प्रश्‍न नाहीए. साधा सरळ विचार आहे. आपण आपल्याला आवडणे यासारखी सुंदर गोष्ट नाही. आपण नेहमीच इतरांशी असलेल्या आपल्या नात्यांविषयी बोलत असतो, पण आपलं आपल्याशीही काही नातं असतं, याचा अनेकदा विचारच करत नाही. आपण आपल्यालाच काही देणं असतो. आपलं आपल्याशीच काही मागणं असतं. कधी मनाच्या या आवाजाचा विचार केला आहे? इथे आतला आवाज (सोनिया गांधी आठवल्या असतील) म्हणजे आपली विवेकबुद्धी अपेक्षित नाही. तो तर मनाचा एक वेगळाच कप्पा आहे... आपल्याला अंतर्बाह्य सच्चा ठेवणारा. हा आवाज आहे आपल्याला आनंददायी जगणं शिकवणारा. आपल्याला आपल्यावरच प्रेम करायला शिकवणारा. कारण एकदा का तुम्ही स्वतःच्या प्रेमात पडलात, की जगणंही सुंदर होऊन जातं.

स्वतःच्या प्रेमात पडणं म्हणजे आत्मकेंद्री, स्वार्थी प्रेम नव्हे, तर ते आहे आपल्यातली अमर्याद प्रेम करण्याची ताकद ओळखणं. एकदा का ही ताकद ओळखली, की आपण स्वतःवरच नव्हे, तर सगळ्यांवरच प्रेम करू लागतो. कारण आपल्याला जग होकारार्थी भासू लागतं. जगातली प्रत्येक गोष्ट आपल्याला हवी आहे तशी घडू लागते. कामात आपण जादा ऍक्‍टिव्ह होतो. मग त्याच्याशी जे जे संबंधित असतात ते खूष. समोरचे खूष की आपण खूष. विन विन सिच्युएशन!

म्हणूनच म्हटलं, तुम्ही कधी स्वतःच्या प्रेमात पडला आहात? नसलं तर पडून बघा. हे प्रेम म्हणजे काय, तर आपण आपल्यावर खूष असणं. तुम्ही कधी तुम्हा स्वतःला गिफ्ट दिलं आहे? म्हणजे कपडे, बॅगा, इतर गरजेच्या वस्तू या आपण गरजेच्या वस्तू म्हणून घेत असतो किंवा आवडलं म्हणून घेत असतो. (पैसे आहेत ते कुठे संपवायचे, म्हणूनही अनेक जण घेत असतील) पण एखादी ठरवलेली गोष्ट केली, किंवा बराच काळ रेंगाळलेलं, रखडलेलं काम पुढाकार घेऊन पूर्ण केलं म्हणून खूष होऊन स्वतःला बक्षीस देऊ केलंय? देऊन बघा. इथं फक्त एखादी वस्तू स्वतःला प्रेझेंट करण्यापर्यंत, किंवा आवडती खायची वस्तू घेण्यापुरतंच हे मर्यादित नाही. तर मनाला आवडेल ती गोष्ट करायची. कोणाला जर संपूर्ण दिवस लोळत काढायचा असेल तर यथेच्छ काढावा (इथं स्वतःचं घर हवं किंवा घरातल्यांना ही गोष्ट पटवून द्यायला हवी. सॉरी!) पण उलटंही आहे बरं! एखादी गोष्ट नाही घडली मनासारखी तर खूप वेदना होतात. अशा वेळी लोकांच्या भिडेस्तव दुःख मनाशी दाबून टाकतो. नकोच करायला असं. मनाचं ऐकायचं, मनसोक्त रडून घ्यायचं. मन स्वच्छ होऊन जाईल. मोकळं मोकळं!

आयटीच्या विद्यार्थ्यांसमोर बोलताना "तरुणांचा" लेखक चेतन भगत यानेही याचाच वेगळ्या शब्दांत उल्लेख केला आहे. त्याने या भावनेला तुमच्यातला स्पार्क जिवंत ठेवणं, असं म्हटलं आहे. हा स्पार्क जिवंत असला की तुम्ही भरभरून जगू शकता. एकदा का तो स्पार्क धूसर झाला, की जगणं साचलेलं डबकं होऊन जातं. म्हणूनच हा स्पार्क कायम ठेवण्यासाठी त्याने अपेक्षाभंग, नैराश्‍य आणि एकटेपणा या बाबी आयुष्यातून काढून टाकायला हव्यात, असं सांगितलं आहे. यात एक उदाहरण देताना त्यानं लिहिलंय, "मी नाही ऐश्‍वर्या रायसारखा सुंदर, पण म्हणून काय झालं! माझी दोन मुलं तिच्यापेक्षा सुंदर आहेत!' चेतनचा हा दृष्टिकोन, आणि अर्थातच त्यामागची भावना म्हणजेच स्वतःवर प्रेम करणं!

Hello, Anybody There?

2008-07-29T02:48:00.000-04:00

The recent series of bomb blasts in two major cities in India made me rethink a lot of things I have already been worrying about.. We need to think about the safety issues concerned, after all, with our own country.. Well, I came across this TOI editorial, July 29, 2008, addressing these issues and much more.. It ignites a thought in the minds of the readers about personal responsibilities.. If we call ourselves the biggest democratic country, why don't we act as a part of it?

Have a look at this:

TOI EDITORIAL: Hello, Anybody There?

India is under siege. With two serial blasts that killed 50 people and injured many more, live bombs defused in Surat and Ahmedabad, and bomb alerts in Kerala, Chennai and Delhi, fear is ruling the minds of people across the country. We wonder every day where terrorists will strike next. Make no mistake, this is a cunning, low-intensity war against the country, aimed at wrecking its social and economic fabric. Regrettably, the response of our governments — state and central — is hardly reassuring. The sheer incompetence of our security mechanism can only serve as an incentive to continuing attacks. We, however, should not turn into cynics or merely shrug at the failure of our administrators to meet the challenge posed by the merchants of terror. A hard look at India's experience in dealing with terrorism is urgently necessary to analyse why our institutions have failed to check the onslaught of terror.

There are multiple agencies to fight terrorism. They generate a huge mass of data. But how much of it is actionable intelligence? Very little, it appears. Take the Gujarat blasts. The attacks in Ahmedabad took place a day after Bangalore was targeted and when the state was already under a high security alert. In other words, the information from intelligence agencies was not sufficient to prevent the attacks or nab the attackers after they had set off the bombs. Of course, these terrorist groups choose their targets and execute the attacks after a great deal of planning with precision. But why are they almost always a step ahead of our sleuths? Over 550 people have died in various terrorist attacks since 2005. How many of the attackers have been arrested and prosecuted?

Security agencies have made arrests after terror strikes, but how many of these cases have withstood the scrutiny of the law? Obviously, there is something seriously inadequate in our security apparatus. Citizens of this country have the right to know where exactly the deficiencies lie. Are the intelligence agencies not adequately funded? Are the personnel improperly trained or not equipped with the latest technology? Surely, the Union home minister can find time to answer such questions.

The prime minister and the home minister have talked of setting up a new federal agency to counter terrorism. We have supported the suggestion in these columns. Law and order is a state subject. There are federal agencies — like the CBI and the IB — besides state police and local intelligence networks. The CBI has no mandate or resources to gather intelligence and its role as an investigating agency is subject to state governments' requests. In fact, a multiplicity of security agencies probably hampers any real crackdown on terrorism unless there is proper coordination among them. The US experience may be worth examining to help India relook at its security system. After 9/11, the US brought various government agencies under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, a new cabinet department in the White House. Coordination became much easier and information sharing between agencies became the norm rather than the exception it was.

Even though India has been one of the earliest victims of cross-border terrorism, our security apparatus has remained largely unchanged. Terrorism has changed a great deal in the last decade. Today, it is a globally-networked phenomenon and its highly motivated foot soldiers do not respect geographical boundaries. And their concerns are not always local grievances. In such a situation, standard methods of policing may not be effective though the international dimension of today's terrorism does not diminish the role of local intelligence.

On the contrary, there has to be more emphasis on local intelligence to spot and monitor radical tendencies in society. Intelligence agencies may have to recruit more personnel from under-represented sections of the people to gain dependable awareness of complex undercurrents in our polity. And the political masters should allow the agencies a free hand to focus on their core job, which is dealing with the security of citizens. A new internal security doctrine, that is in tune with the new circumstances and takes careful note of international experience, needs to be worked out. The time for it is now.

While the government revamps the intelligence gathering apparatus and investigation mechanism, it should act fast on the legal system. When charges of terrorism are pressed in court, it takes years before they are settled. Suspects are jailed for inordinately long periods, often only to be cleared of charges. Such miscarriage of justice adds to the general suspicion that public institutions like the police and the judiciary are prejudiced. The judicial process not only has to be fast, fair and firm; it should appear to be so. More fast-track courts to try terror charges should be set up, more judges recruited.

A case is often made for draconian laws in the aftermath of terror strikes. However, there is no evidence to back the claim that laws like POTA help the state machinery to contain terrorism. Terrorists simply take advantage of the incompetence of the existing security apparatus and not of our allegedly liberal legal framework. Bad laws only undermine the democratic foundations of the country and create social resentment. There are no alternatives to effective policing backed by inclusive public policies. To achieve that, the government must wake up to the gathering storm of low-intensity conflict and act on a war footing.

I hope we will soon have a realization! India needs an awakening movement..

Progress towards ....?

2008-05-27T16:54:00.000-04:00

"पुणेकरांचे आभार :
पेट्रोल व डिझेलच्या मागणीत देशभरात सर्वाधिक वाढ पुण्यात होत आहे. राज्यातील काही जिल्ह्यांमध्ये इंधन टंचाई निर्माण झालेली असताना पुण्यात तशी स्थिती निर्माण झाली नाही."
This is what I read in Pune's leading news paper. I am highly surprised to know that someone congratulates Puneites for polluting the air more.. Well, this is an utter shame on us. Probably, even I do not have a right to say anything about pollution because even I owned a bike sometime..

There was another news regarding a proposed hike Rs. 10 hike in petrol, Rs. 5 diesel and Rs. 50 in cooking gas prizes. With this rate, I can picture us-common people spending a considerable amount of our incomes on gas.. And still, we will not be able to compensate on this expenditure since otherwise we will feel impaired!

I am pretty sure many wise people have already understood that the world is indeed heading towards its destruction at a faster rate than expected.. Global warming and exhausting resources may soon even cause wars, if the trend continues.. Is there any way out? Do we have any hope left?

Customer Care (?!)

2008-05-23T10:11:00.000-04:00

"ग्राहक: देवो भव|" seemed to have the new motto of the industry. We see numerous products coming out in the market oriented specifically to satisfy the customer needs. But, to sustain in this highly competitive world, the major part of the industry is the post-sell service. The customer care section is the one which is expected to do this job. Well, they do it, but not always in an appreciated manner. I should say, some call center employee simply scare a customer away! No need to mention that companies with very good customer care are highly popular even if the product is not so competitive.

I had some bad experiences with the customer care one of the companies very recently. I was completely exasperated by the rudeness of the call center guy. And that's when I got into a debate with one of my friends on 'why they do this job'. His argument was they don't like the job but for supporting the family they do it. My argument was, if they are not happy with the job, they should leave it or continue doing it as a responsibility. Otherwise, they are neither being honest to their employer nor to themselves! If they want to have the money, they should follow the work ethic and morality. Well, I was baffled by my friend's response. He said, "You see, not everyone has ethics and morals". Hmmm.. So, is that what happens at most of the workplaces? I guess that's why job satisfaction comes as the first priority when you expect to get the most out of people..

Fantasy and reality

2008-05-15T01:16:00.001-04:00

I am writing a blog after a long long time... Well, it is kind of difficult to decide of which thoughts I should pen down in my diary and what should I write here..

There is a nice subject I found to resume my blog writing.. Fantasies of youngsters.. I recently came across this book called "Into the wild" by Jon Krakauer. A book about a guy of almost my age who 'walks into the wild..' to have a better conversation with himself. He comes to a tragic end in his 'Great Alaskan Odyssey' which allowed his critics to curse him to be a feckless slacker, adrift and baffled, racked by existential despair. To the contrary, as the author researches and puts forth from this book:

Christopher J. McCandless's life hummed with meaning and purpose. The meaning he wrested from the existence lay beyond the comfortable path: McCandless distrusted the value of things that come easily. He demanded much of himself - more, in the end, than he could deliver.

No wonder he could survive on minimum resources for 112 days in Alaska.

Well, surprisingly enough, I was reading a lot of myself in this book, in this guy and other adventurous people mentioned in this book.. I am sure many of the young people will feel the same while reading the book.. But of all romantic people, McCandless was on a spiritual quest. Simply the way he was seeking answers was his own way.. Kind of reflecting the wilderness originated by the passions and longings of youth..

I liked a few paragraphs from the my read.. They are mostly excerpts from the books McCandless was carrying with him in the wild..

It is true that many creative people fail to make mature relationships, and some are extremely isolated. It is also true that in some instances, trauma, in the shape of early separation or bereavement, has steered the potentially creative person toward developing aspects of his personality which can find fulfillment in comparative isolation. (But this does not mean that solitary, creative pursuits are themselves pathological...)
[A]voidance behavior is a response designed to protect the infant from behavioral disorganization. If we transfer this concept to adult life, we can see than an avoidant infant might very well develop into a person whose principal need was to find some kind of meaning and order in life which was not entirely, or even chiefly, dependent upon interpersonal relationship.
--Anthony Storr, Solitude: A return to the self.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, an obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices.
--Henry David Thoreau,
Walden, or Life in the woods.

For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.
--G.K.Chesterton

Now what is history? It is the centuries of systematic explorations of the riddle of death, with a view to overcoming death. That's why people discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves, that's why they write symphonies. Now, you can't advance in this direction without a certain faith. You can't make such discoveries without spiritual equipment. And the basic elements of this equipment are in the Gospels. What are they? To begin with, love of one's neighbor, which is the supreme form of vital energy. Once it fills the heart of man it has to overflow and spend itself. And then the two basic ideals of modern man - without them he is unthinkable - the idea of free personality and the idea of life as sacrifice.
--Boris Pasternak,
Doctor Zhivago

I don't understand much about sacrifice as yet.. But this book makes me rethink about my fantasy land I had been dreaming about since childhood.. I used to long for a small equipped place in deep forest with ample supply of food. A well connectivity to the outside world with a cell phone say and just me alone in the company of lots and lots of books.. Well, now I think about this to be a sheer fantasy. Reality is, I have to live in this world amongst humans, not off the land...

Verses from Geetanjali..

2008-01-22T01:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I just finished reading Geetanjali.. I loved the book.. Tagore is a great poet and a great philosopher as well.. His poems have intrinsic meaning.. probably n number of meanings.. it depends on the way one takes.. I read it in completely non-scientific and non-spiritual perspective.. I took a hell lot of time to read that tiny book of just 103 verses.. Anyways, I am writing down 2 verses here.. The first one is pretty common but it is still very close to my heart and the second one touched me a lot and I think, from my tiny span of knowledge it is by far the best, concise way of putting the whole philosophy of one's life..

Here they are ..
Verse: 35
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Verse 96:
When I go from here hence let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable.
I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus am I blessed --- let this be my parting word.
In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.
My whole body and my limbs have thrilled with his touch who is beyond touch;
and if the end comes here, let it come --- let this be my parting word.

spreading smiles..

2007-11-08T20:36:00.000-05:00

I can sketch people on a drawing paper better than I can with a pen and paper.. But this time I am going to give a try to sketch one personality here..

... You are rushing for the morning classes.. You manage to barely catch this bus.. But when you enter the bus, you are greeted by a broad smile and a "Good morning!.. How are you doing today?! ".. I smile back.. And there I know that my day is going to be as bright as that smile! You must have guessed whom I am talking about. There is this BT (our college bus) driver I am speaking about. I am fortunate enough to travel most of the times by his bus and that's why I could observe him in detail..

I would like to mention here that my conception about social attitudes of people with different colors and from different places completely failed when I came in proximity of this person. I found a lovely zephyr in that elderly smile. This was indeed soothing while I was surrounded by hypocrites in a foreign country.

I would like to tell here an incident because of which my reverence for this man reached a point where I started seeing a fatherly image in him.. It is 9.40am.. Not everyone is in a rush for the classes.. We reach some place where two grannies (80+) get in with a 'gifted' lady. (I have adopted this word from one of my friends. It is the best way to tell everyone who the mentally challenged people really are.. ) There comes one more 50+ lady with one more person in wheelchair. The man in wheelchair hardly can make any movements. You look at the group and start thinking about how a human can be challenged by life and start feeling sympathy about the lot.. But before you even realize anything about the lot, our driver uncle gets up from his chair.. Greets them with his broad, cheering smile and helps them get in the bus one by one.. Welcomes all with a number of "Good morning!.."s, even to the gifted one without getting exasperated at all.. While helping the wheelchair secure on the bus, humbly tells them "I am so glad to have you all today with me!..." .. This is the first time I saw someone doing so much for others in this country.. When other students were getting irritated because of the slight delay and the humdrum going on, this person was doing his duty with a heart full of love! That incident made my day!

There are more people in the world who face everyone with a grim or a straight face.. there are a few who greet people selectively.. and there are very few who spread smiles contiguously that is irrespective to whom they are smiling at.. It is said that one simple innocent smile can make significant difference in someone's life. I am sure I found at least one person from that category here in USA... :)

Finding Answers to Life's Greatest Questions..

2007-10-11T09:16:00.000-04:00

I recently attended this talk on 'Finding Answers Amidst Life's Greatest Losses' by Dr. Ravi Zacharias at the university. It was basically arranged in response to the April 16 shootings, as well as some other human suffering. I was aware of the speaker's main area of interest, issues of faith from a Christian perspective, but still went to attend the lecture hoping that I would hear something relevant to April 16 as well.. I was not disappointed completely. I got an interesting answer on how to reduce the pain.. The answer is: 'It is extremely difficult for a stranger to feel and try to remove your pain due to first point because it is 'your' pain and second, if the cause of suffering was inexplicable..' The man behind the massacre at Tech had his own relative frame of mind. He did what his thinking lead him to do.. No one could have stopped him because, for us (and I feel even for him) the reason for his did was unknown. Today, as science and/or spirituality cannot explain the beautiful phenomenon of 'falling in love', obviously enough we are ages away from reading minds and seize people from destroying peace in others' lives..
This is just a stupid cartoon I drew when I was writing this blog.. Thought of putting it here! :D It just expresses futile efforts of a saint to 'reboot' the mind of a psycho killer.

Aah, if at all this was possible, wouldn't the earth be a paradise? Human beings living peacefully with no suffering at all? I think no.. Unless we get rid of the 'Shadripus' (six enemies of man - Kama (Lust), Krodh (Anger), Lobha (Greed), Mada (Intoxication), Moha (Delusion), Matsara (Jealousy)) from each and every human mind, we will not be able to lead to a truly peaceful life.. To restrain oneself from these enemies, our saints and sages had shown us a light of getting engaged in praying.. God is nothing but this concept with which if you occupy your mind, you will simply not get any time to look around other things and to give reign to those six hostile things mentioned earlier.. What have we made of this God now? A Jeanie who will give us everything we want, an open book where you go and write 'sorry' for all your sins and innocently (!) hope that your character gets cleaned, a diary where you reveal all your secrets and expect the diary to be as quiet as calm lake and an omnipresent energy the existence of which you selfishly recall when you need something badly!

hmm... I remember, at one of the musical programs, a poet expressing the concept of God in a very outstanding way. According to that poem, an atheist is the best friend of God.. why? because, that is the only person who doesn't rely on God, to whom the God can talk at equal level at the end of a tiresome day answering all the prayers and who can assure God that he can take care of himself without troubling God anymore..

Why do we need to ask anyone (even God) for support? Can we not figure out things ourselves without bothering Him? Even the greatest quests of life will then be solvable.. Yes, indeed, every problem has a solution.. Even Life's Greatest Questions become answerable if we realize this and if we realize who we are.. Even while writing this, honestly, I am trying to find who I am.. I am hoping I will get my answers some day.. Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? I definitely know there are answers and I will figure them out some day.. I hope you will find yours too!

An Inconvenient Truth

2007-10-07T13:29:00.000-04:00

This is not a movie review.. This is just a long awaited chain of thoughts being written here.. Since my childhood, I had been thinking about the 'non-childish' issues like the pollution around, the population explosion and ways to reduce the global warming/ climate crisis.. The public awareness lectures, discovery channel programs and the long discussions with my father were probably responsible for this.. I had been taking active part in some programs regarding environmental issues at school and college level. I could have even pursued it more seriously as my career if some other passion would not have been more dominating..

Now, while pursuing my career, I shall also keep up my work on environmental issues for sure. But I am wondering, if there at all is any solution to the problem of global warming.. Have we gone beyond repairing the global warming issue? Can't we do anything? My dangerously optimistic mind does not let me lose hope. I love this blue planet and am sure there are more such people.. We will figure a way out..

By the way, before I saw this movie, a few days back, I went to a presentation by Anousheh Ansari, a private internet explorer and a co-founder of the Ansari X prize. It was a good trigger to my sleeping thoughts on the issue of 'saving our planet earth'.. Doesn't the blue globe look beautiful from outside? As Anousheh rightly said, one won't see any boundaries from out there.. Just the calm, gorgeous blue ball.. Our 'only' home.. We need to protect this place. With the current rate of exploiting resources on the poor earth, I guess in near future, we will have no option but look for a new place to stay. It will be definitely millions of miles away from our current location.. (Ha! Is that why I am doing Astronomy ;) )

Coming back to the movie, the graphs and real life evidences shown in 'An Inconvenient Truth' are definitely astounding and give a wake up call! I don't care about anything else in the movie but the vivid pictures.. We need to take measures.. Oh well, why do we at all need to save energy, live a thrifty life and worry about the future of the planet? I think all the young minds in the whole world must realize that this is a combined responsibility on shoulders.. If we refuse this right now, we would be cursed for a horrendous future of our next generations..

Now, where do we need to start? What do we do? Any easier way to do it at individual level? Indeed there is.. First and foremost is digesting this very 'Inconvenient Truth'. The rest will follow.. Once a person decides to do something really important in order to save his life or if not that at least his home, the earth, eventually rest of the things will follow.. (I presume so!) Remember, where there is a will there is a way.. :) Educating thyself on this issue, careful use of resources and finally a sense of ethical/moral burden should help solve this problem in due course of time.. I wish more people will find out their own ways to contribute to this global movement of saving the planet earth..

First Blog

2007-10-07T01:32:00.000-04:00

Well, this is my first blog on internet.. I have this habit of writing a diary. And I am maintaining it now for more than ten years.. I had always been looking for like minded people, rebellions and mavericks.. I have a good collection of such friends around me.. Eventually, I figured out that even this blogging could be a good way of sharing one's thoughts and gathering people.. So here I am..! I will not stop writing my diary as I believe that I can talk to myself the most through this diary.. I will also keep writing letters to those with whom I loved talking for hours back in India.. This is just a new addition to my writing list...