Himalayan Adventurer

Guest column by Leela Latheef


(Leela read the "Nesting on no man's land", stories on Antarctica, in the New Indian Express and shared her following experience with me over email. I am reproducing her experience and photographs with her permission)




I am Leela Latheef from Trivandrum, Kerala. In ‘The Hindu’ dated 11-1-09 I read your article on extraordinary Antarctica, a place which has always fascinated me! And your article did quite fill up my never dying inquisitiveness on the South Pole. But more than other things, your story caught my attention because of Shiv and Uma who held your perpetual attention while you were there.
Not only because of your description of the South Polar Skua but also for the fact that on July 3rd 2007 I had received a call regarding a bird caught at the beach by some people when it was on its way to be killed and sold off by some fishermen. We run the Trivandrum Chapter of People For Animals [PFA] here and went i…

The New Indian Express dated 11.01.2009 on Sunday carried some stories of Antarctica penned by ‘yours truly’ on its centre-spread with photographs. You may like to see the link at http://epaper.expressbuzz.com/NE/NE/2009/01/11/index.shtml

The Indian Antarctic Expedition celebrated its 27th birthday on 9th of January this year. It was on this day that M.V. Polar Circle brought the first ever Indian Antarctic Expedition to the shore of Antarctic continent. The Expedition comprised of 21 members, with 13 of them scientists and rest logistic staff. They all had undergone snow and ice training in the upper reaches of Himalayas. The Expedition was led by Dr S.Z. Qasim, the eminent scientist from the Deptt of Environment. The team had left Goa on the 6th December, 1981, after leasing Norwegian ice breaker, M.V. Polar Circle, and took 33 days to reach Antarctic ice shelf traversing 11, 000km. Its objectives were, establishment of an Indian base camp in Antarctica, initiation of scientific work in different disciplines of Antarctic science, and assessment of the logistics requirements for future Indian missions. After reaching there, it successfully established a base camp and hoisted the Indian flag. It initiated work on geolo…

I should have put this post quite some time ago. Was it my modesty that kept me away from putting this post, or just laziness, or was it because of inertia set in motion by Delhi’s cold wave? Mampi, the prolific blogger (www.manmahesh.blogspot.com) chose to bestow a ‘butterfly award to this blog. She cites the reason for giving away this award to Himalayan Adventurer for ‘bringing to us the cold of Antarctica first hand’. I really feel priviledged in receiving this award since it has come from none other than Mampi who herself is not only a brilliant blogger, but is recipient of many awards from other bloggers who are fans of her blog. Some such awards conferred on her are like butterfly award, certified honest blogger award, Proximidade award, million dollar friend award, Brilliante Weblog award, etc.
Why do bloggers give award to other bloggers? She offers reasons you can not disagree with. Well, let me quote from her only, “When these same friends remember you on their own blogs fo…