A Visit to the End of the World

Antarctica: 10th May 2008 By Priyanka Mittal

It will remain an awe-inspiring event in my life to have a visit to Antarctica in the company of 25 students. The programme was sponsored by M.D. University. The journey began from Chennai by crossing nine time zones, six check points, three bodies of water and at least as many eco-spheres. It was a 100 hours journey. When we reached there the atmosphere was the coldest, driest and windiest. It was a long day of 24 hours. It was learnt that 650 million years ago, there existed a giant southern supercontinent called Gondwana. For 500 million years Gondwana flourished and the landmass was forced to separate into continents. Our country is the part and parcel of this continent. The place was devoid of human markers-no trees, bill-boards and buildings. There were microscopic insects like widges, mites and mighty whales. The ice bergs were as big as countries like Belgium. Antarctica is a perfect place to know how little changes in the environment can have big consequence. Before turning back we wedged into a thick white stretch of frozen ice. It was stark whiteness that seemed to spread out forever. Under our feet was a metre thick ice pack and before that was 180 feet metres of salt water with sea-life. It was a rare-experience.