Static Electricity

The static current is a funny problem here. I don't remember if I ever wrote you people about it. Being near the pole, our body develops static current due to movements in closed areas, working in labs with equipments having magnets or electro-magnets, or wearing clothes containing synthetic fibres like nylon etc. The problem gets worse during winter when members are confined indoors most of the time. All the labs containing computers, communication equipments etc have a warning at the door to discharge oneself of charge before entering the lab by touching a copper wire hanging outside. In spite of that the display function of all the phones here with caller ID has been damaged. People avoid a touching or handshake with certain members who are known to carry more charge because of their working with charge generating equipments. It gives a shock to the other people which is audible at a distance; while one is wincing with that momentary shock all other burst into laughter. I too have a one or two pieces of garments that generate more charge than others; esp., my favourite front open black sweater. I am sure to get these shocks many times a day. So on days when I am wearing it, I keep on touching metallic surface periodically so as not to allow more charge to accumulate. I have to be careful when working with my laptop.

Just another blog entry

It remained cloudy throughout the day. It is Sunday and hence no routine work is planned except galley work which has to be done come what may. However, people were on duty for offloading the sorties. But till evening no sorties came this way since it was very cloudy and foggy at the sea shore where ship is parked. When we had given up at 6.30 pm, then announcement came about choppers landing with load. Now it is 11 pm and sorties are continuing. The last one is expected at mid night. That is the difference between foreign pilots and the local ones. Work is worship.

Lot of activities going on now in Maitri. All scientists who are only for summer period are setting up their instruments and planning field visits. Though I have spent 2 weeks with many of them during Auli trip, however, now I feel I am senior to them; I almost feel as if they are intruders on our premises and facilities. I wonder if 26th team also felt that way when we came. May be not, since we came heralding their countdown for departing to India. How soon man starts claiming rights over anything which is not his even by any stretch of imagination.

Last night there was a movie, 'Bhul-Bhulaiyyan' starring Vidya Balan, Akshay Kumar and Shiney Ahuja. It is a remake of a Malayalam/Tamil movie of Priyadarshan. It is about multiple personality and Akshay Kumar plays a psychiatrist. Hence I stayed back for watching the movie. This evening I held an informal and small discussion group on Bollywood and multiple personality. People want me to hold such discussion groups regularly. I am not sure; I may ruffle some feathers.

Additions to Camp

It is excitement all over Maitri station with the arrival of ship yesterday and 2 choppers making sorties bringing people and personal baggage as well as equipment. Till this evening 20 members of the 27th expedition have arrived here from the ship. So right now there are 70 people here. A few more are on the ship but they will come much later when some of the members go from here to the ship for onward journey back home. The most important task right now is to offload the material and equipment for Earth Station. The construction of the platform for it and installation of equipment has to be done in next one month before the ISRO and Space Application Centre scientists leave for India next month. Then it will be made operational from centres in India by end March. It will be major milestone in the history of IAE. There will be 24 hour internet connectivity for scientists to send data every day back to their institutions in India. Currently, such data goes with them at the end of their assignment, that is, after more than a year. At individual levels, people will be able to enjoy web browsing and personal internet connectivity 24×7 from their own computers. There may be a possibility of cheaper telephonic connectivity also.

There are number of people now here with whom I spent time at Auli. They will be with me now till we reach Goa towards the end of March. They are mostly young people, and there are at least 5 of them who have only recently finished their postgraduate studies and are carrying out the project work on behalf of their professors or senior scientists. I shall be recording their interviews about their projects on camcorder. I have also recorded interviews of other scientists also.

I got back the suitcase that I had left at Goa. Every thing in it has been intact. Or rather, the three wine bottles have come unbroken. You know my weakness for buying wine; it was so cheap in Goa at less than half the Delhi price. So I bought 3 bottles of wine and one bottle of single malt whisky. I did not know India produces single malt. All came in about Rs 800/-. Manju Mehta, who was with me when I did this shopping, was surprised. The single malt whisky had come with me. Now I wondering all the time to bring all this back to India, or treat people with it. I don't drink alone, don't drink much, and can't offer to people easily. But people here mostly love Rum (regular use medicine) here or inexpensive brands of whisky. Army and ex-Army men have brought trunk (the real tin trunk) loads to last the entire winter. However, I was waiting for my suitcase eagerly not for wine, but for my towel. The first was lost during my shifting of hut on the 1st Jan.

New Pictures!

Just uploaded some brand new pictures from Maitri and Antarctica. Using blogger's new slideshow feature, you can click on the link 'Slideshow' to the left. You can view the slideshow (in small size unfortunately) directly on this page. Better, clicking on the slideshow will take you to Vasu's Picasa web album where you can watch these pictures kingsize!

Food Fads

People coming here for summer or winter period develop all kinds of food fads in Antarctica. The Indian station, Maitri, has practically all varieties of food suiting every taste. I was surprised to find 'gur' (jaggery) here, though, it does not enjoy any popularity. I am its lone consumer. When ship comes here every December/January, it brings loads of food supplies to last till next one year. However, fresh fruits and vegetables last only for a few months and then it is all frozen stuff. Since the working area, living area, kitchen and dinning area, and lounge all are situated in proximity to one another, people help themselves any number of times with whatever they fancy to eat or drink. Most people go back with some gain in weight, some as much as 25 kg in one year. The members of 26th IAE, winterers, who are now waiting to return to India in mid-February, have not put any worthwhile weight. No one looks obese. However, weight gain is clearly apparent in the members of 27th IAE who have arrived here just six weeks ago. As per their own confessions, some had put on as much as 5 kg within a month.

Current fads among many members of 26 Team are maggie noodles and eggs. They are now sick of eating frozen vegetables and daal (lentils) for last many months. So you frequently see them boiling maggie noodles or frying eggs. Packaged fruit juices still remain popular with most of the members. They all believe it provides quality vitamins. So they consume it 3-5 times a day. They are oblivious of the effects of preservatives, chemicals or sugar in it. Most of them have a habit of drying their paratha or poori with tissue before consuming; it is another matter that they would later put pure ghee on their chapaati or in daal.

Many members of the 27th team help themselves with large helpings of butter, ghee, fruit juices and ice cream. They are also quite fond of non-veg preparations. I am a bit surprised that out of 25 members of 27th Team, only 2 of us are vegetarians.

What are my food habits here? Well, when I landed here in mid-November, I thought that I am in an extremely difficult area and I should remain healthy and not fall ill. My body resistance should be at its optimum level and to achieve that I should not lack in any essential nutrients. So I also started consuming things that I normally would not consume in Delhi, e.g., bourn vita, complan, maltova, packaged fruit juices etc. Fortunately, good sense prevailed and I have given up on these already. My fad for honey remains which I take every morning and sometimes in the afternoon too with yoghurt. We have plenty of roasted black grams (chick peas) here. I have managed Ram Das to grind it for me to make sattu powder out of it to which recently I have started adding gur. I take it with my breakfast. And of course I remain steadfast on my taking haldi-milk post dinner.

Art of Saving Water

"Water water everywhere, not a drop to drink" is an oft-repeated quote whenever there is a person stranded in a life boat in an ocean. Sea-water is extremely salty. In Antarctica, the ice and snow are extremely pure, and tasteless, odourless and colorless unlike Delhi water. You can directly consume it without processing. However, to consume you have to first melt it into water. During 3-4 months of summer, things are easier since the frozen lakes melt into water when temperature tends to reach 0 degree C or above from an average of -15 or -20 C earlier. Even then it is not a mean task to transport or lift water from the lakes when you need bulk quantities for a group of 25-50 persons. We, at Maitri, have a pump station installed in the nearby lake to pump water inside the station. Hence water is a precious commodity. At each briefing whether in India or in Antarctica we are hammered repeatedly with the message of saving water and not wasting a precious commodity. For example, take bath once in 5 days, use washing machine in economy mode and only when there is a full load, wipe your dinner plate and other crockery with a tissue before cleaning with detergent and water etc. But when you use tissue to wipe the crockery, glassware etc, aren't you putting pressure on another precious source, that is, wood? For my love of Himalayas, I find use of unnecessary tissue papers as being a direct assault on the trees.

In Antarctica, I have perfected the art of washing my share of crockery and utensils with minimum of water and detergent. Rajasthan where there is perpetual scarcity of water, people use sand to clean utensils. I remember whenever we visited our maternal grandfather's place in Indore (Madhya Pradesh), the utensils were cleaned with fine ash. It was before the era of cooking gas and ash would be produced in abundance since food was cooked on traditional burners using wood or coke. New generation does not understand what ash is, they only know a certain Bollywood actress called Ash. During my Kailash Mansarovar expedition last year, I had perfected the art of taking bath with 2 mugs of cold water in freezing temperatures. Hot water was always in short supply. Antarctica is a luxury where we get 24-hour electricity and running hot water.

Antarctica: Art of Survival

During our pre-induction training at Maitri we were given a series of lectures and demonstrations on how to avoid dangers while in Antarctica and also on rescue operations so as to increase our chances of survival. This applies more for the group which has to spend the winter here; however, for summer team also there are enough precautions to be kept in mind. One such is, for example, while walking on the frozen ice. The frozen blue ice has started melting now and crevasses have started appearing. Many times these crevasses are not visible since they are covered with a thin layer of ice and if you step on it, it will give way due to your weight making you go down. How much and how fast you disappear into it, depends upon how wide and deep it is. But there is no telling it till you yourself have not gone into it. So we have been instructed in not leaving the station alone, to carry a walkie-talkie, and to always inform the station about our destination and expected time of return.

The bottom line of the art of survival is to follow the instructions strictly and by the letter without applying your mind as it is done in the Army.

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In the Army they are advised, "Never ask how and why, always be ready to do or die".

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A Colonel once asked his soldier to buy 10 stamps from the post office. When the soldier did not return for next 2 hours, Colonel sent another soldier to investigate. The first soldier was sitting in the post office. Colonel asked him to be produced in front of him and asked him why he did not return after buying the stamps. The soldier replied that his only order was to buy the stamps; there was no order to return. The soldier's name was recommended for out of turn promotion.

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Once a welder in the Army while on a welding job said to his Commanding Officer, "Sir, I think.", the C.O. interrupted him immediately. He said, "Don't think, you continue working, you are paid for working. I get paid for thinking, hence I shall think".