This is not about the lone escape trek across George.V.Land to my base at Commonwealth bay. This is not about how I lost my two best buddies. This is about how I survived? How I managed to walk 318 miles in an ice-desert continent?
We can’t explain our happiness when our research proposal was approved by NATIONAL CENTRE FOR ANTARCTIC AND OCEAN RESEARCH. This approval and the following journey has always been our life’s ambition.
I am Karthik Paramesh. Myself, Naresh Chauhan and Ashok John became best buddies, rather a group of best nerds or best geeks among all other students in METRO POLITAN UNIVERSITY. Because we shared the same dream, ANTARCTICA!!! White carpeted desert for the others, Ice filled dream land for us. After four long years of hard work, our dream came true.
We were instructed and equipped at Indian research station MAITRI located on the ice free rocky base of the Schirmacher Oasis. Our jaunt began there. We had our backpacks full of survival goods and research items and got our sledge on the way with three dogs Alpha, Beta and Gamma ,scientific expedition dogs, had to be named that way.
- 1981 -
- DECEMBER -
- ANTARCTIC CONTINENT -
I lit my last log and I had it fixed in a corner of the cave. I was shaking and shivering. My temperature ran high. My three weeks beard snatched some credit from my mental ability. Alpha had a quite same situation like me. Sometimes we groaned in chorus. I can’t describe the pain I had and neither Alpha. Alpha developed affection towards me for the past three weeks as we’re enjoying some common problems, mourning for our dead companions.
He was grieving for Beta and Gamma while am for Naresh and Ashok. So Alpha turned out to be my best buddy after those tragic incidents. We need each other’s affection. He quickly understood that and acted accordingly. He would have told the same thing about me.
The next common problem we shared was hunger. I wonder why we called Antarctic as our dream land. I watched my friends die in that dream land and I was dying in that very same dream land without having anything to eat . Alpha had been trained for situations like this and his stamina persisted longer than I thought. There were many situations in which I thought Alpha would die. But then, next morning his puffy tail would wake me up and he’d look at me in a more affectionate way and I’d reciprocate the same. I guess that the looks are the one which kept us alive.
When we came into this cave for the first time, three weeks ago Alpha was more likely to run away from me. It took me time to tame him and make him understand that there’s nothing out there except death and I am the only fellow creature that he can rely. I knew that if the same situation continued for another week, death is what is going to rescue me.
I have my symptoms now. I was living in extreme level of hunger. I tried to think of my home, my wife, my children, my sex, even masturbation! But nothing worked out. Believe me, I reached the boundary, the world’s worst death is the death by hunger. Alpha’s bones were visible then. The spark that his eye had before has dimmed. I heard my painful groans even when I was asleep. The next day proved to be an usual one, started with Alpha’s puffy tail. We spent the day by sitting in the edge of the cave which is situated at the top of a high hill. I don’t know why I expected that thing to happen. I was expecting a rescue helicopter and a team. I mean, blind faith.
A rescue helicopter for me and a pathetic dog? I was laughing out loud. At a moment I thought that Alpha laughed too. We were alone in that magical white land. Then I realized that it was just a beginning to an end. I thought that my end was nearing. I hugged and kissed Alpha. Tears dropped from my eyes. I was afraid to face the end. Alpha whisked his tail for a long time. The day slowly passed away and we were watching the moon, star filled sky and the deserted white land.
That’s when I experienced this flash thing. My lips were dry up. I felt that. I was conscious for one second and unconscious for next. This happened like a loop, like a flash. My head was paining and my stomach was killing me. I heard some weird sounds. I knew that I was panting. I saw Alpha coming near me by whisking his tail. The next moment I heard my children laughing. I was playing football with my little one in the park. I was making out with my wife. She bit my ears passionately. I saw Alpha still whisking. I saw my marriage. I saw the corn fields I used to play, the laughing sound of my friends. I was laughing, I was groaning in pain, shaking and my temperature reached its maximum. I was hallucinating. My shivering had stopped and that’s not a good sign for a man fighting survival in a cold killing desert. I heard me uttering some broken words, I smelt food, I saw a pure lake. Ashok and Naresh were laughing and I heard choking. I knew … I knew that was I going to die. So I decided to see Alpha, for the one last time. He was standing besides me. I starred at him. His whisking didn’t stop. I continued starring him, but not in the same usual affectionate way, but as a way for my survival.
— KARTHIK —
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