Reflections

( This is the second part of the article by Shamala Marimuthu .) When we still 1000M away, the ice- breaker was unable to break the ice any more. Therefore, we were flown by a helicopter to the base. That was the most exciting moment. First time out of the country, by air-plane, ship and helicopter. What excitement!!! Antarctica is incredibly white, pure white. Casey station is located in the Windmill Islands, just outside the Antarctic Circle. It is the third Australian station to occupy a site on Vincennes Bay. We experienced the contrast of warm sunshine, snow squalls and fog whiteouts and up to 20 hours of daylight. Each and every day we admired the beauty of the scenery. Amazing scenery! Even though it was the summer season, the temperature was between 0 to -20oC. It was freezing cold. I can’t imagine anyone surviving here without the proper clothing with multiple layers. I was so surprised to see the station. The station was fully equipped with an accommodation dome, scienc...

I have been working with Shamala for 5 years now. I knew that she is a capable girl, hardworking, intelligent and with a sense of fun. I also knew that she was deeply caring for people less fortunate than herself because she organizes the charity work for our company. However I am ashamed to say that until a few months back I had no idea that she had participated in a research trip to the Antarctica. This was when she was a graduate student at the University of Malaya when she had the opportunity to visit and stay at the Icebound continent as part of a research group. It has been my dream to visit Antarctica. I remember hearing Sudipta Sengupta of the Jadavpur University speak about it in the early nineties just after she had returned from one of the first trips made to Maitree, the Indian research station by Indian scientists. I remember the projected slides of the penguin colonies, the drifts and the huts in which they had lived. I have not (yet) had the chance to visit Antarctica...

The Duchess of Cambridge has had a son.This is no ordinary son, but the future heir to the English throne. I have no doubt that this was a joyous occasion for the family to which he belongs, as any birth is to the family in which it occurs. However this birth was preceded by long and intense speculations about everything from the unborn baby's sex to the size of the would be mother's baby bump and its implications. While Indian newspapers were to some extent restrained in their reporting, the Malaysian newspapers and TV were nauseatingly feudal in reporting the event as if it was an earthshaking event. It amazes me to relapse how well the English upper classes have sold themselves to the world. They are in actual fact, a parasitic set of families which have looted the world's resources for well nigh 3 centuries until the Second World War ended their depredations,but they still rule a significant part of the world's imagination. It is amusing, but also a trifle irrita...

When I travel by public transport or wait at airports, I see young people and some older ones as well absorbed in their mobile phones, playing all sorts of games that I find entirely incomprehensible. Earlier I used to wonder why they waste their time in such pursuits, until I remembered some of the games we used to play in our younger days. Those games were necessarily technologically challenged, but even so, I can recall being absorbed extremely in them so completely that I could easily forget my homework and in extreme cases even my dinner while I played. Take for instance, book cricket. Book cricket was an absorbing game. It was played alone or against an opponent. You needed a fat book: Wren and Martin’s grammar book used to do fine. You needed to set up two teams, and open the book at random. The even numbered page used to count: so if there was a number ending in 2: 2 runs, 4: boundary, 6 : a sixer, 8 meant 1 run and 0 meant that the batsman was out and the next player came ...