IMAGINE A WARM, summer day at Juhu Beach in Mumbai. Ocean waves crash along the shore; a balmy wind brings sea spray upon your face; the sun glimmers on the horizon. But what if the sun sets in Juhu and doesn't rise again for months? It's pitch dark all hours of the day and the sea freezes over? And you can walk, run or even drive your car across the frozen beach floating on top of an ocean. Sound surreal? Well, this is the kind of place where I've spent long stints of my professional life over the last decade or so. As a sea ice remote sensing scientist, I overwinter in the 24x7 polar darkness and frigid temperatures of six month-long nights in the Arctic and the Antarctic.
Living and working in the one of the most extreme and remote parts of the world was a happy accident. Like many middle-class Indians my age, I trained to be an electronics engineer and, after graduation, was placed in an IT company. It was dreary work and before long, I resigned. After a year-long struggle attempting to crack various PSU exams with no success, I ended up pursuing a Master's in Earth Observation Sciences from the International Institute for GeoInformation Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, ISRO. That changed my life. I finished my degree in 18 months, and moved to the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany as a research associate and started working on the Antarctic ice cap. A PhD in Geography from the University of Calgary, Canada, three more post-doctoral fellowships and 15 field seasons at the north and south Poles later, I am proud to be an experienced research scientist.
Bu hikaye Reader's Digest India dergisinin March 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Reader's Digest India dergisinin March 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Calendar Girls
After Molly Baker’s husband died suddenly, her friends organized a year’s worth of support
THE GREAT WILDEBEEST MIGRATION
It's a spectacular sight when countless ruminants cross the Serengeti in search of greener pastures
Soumitra Chatterjee's Tryst with Destiny
The encounter that led a budding actor to a legendary filmmaker, and sparked an iconic creative partnership during the golden age of Bengali cinema
Frozen in Time
The life and work of Vittorio Sella, a pioneer of early mountain photography and the man behind some of the very first images of the Himalayas
HALLUCINATIONS
There was a monkey perched on the IV drip stand to the right of my hospital bed. It scowled at me, but I wasn’t afraid: A brief simian visit was part of my daily routine. I never questioned why there was a monkey in the hospital. I wasn’t lucid enough to recognize that my mind was playing tricks on me.
Music in the Air
Cuba is bursting with sound, and each region moves to its own defining rhythm
SHOULD YOU TRY A DETOX TREATMENT?
It's a popular new-year health habit. But science doesn't support it
Ringing True
He thought his late parents' wedding bands were gone forever
14,000-FOOT MIRACLE
The skydiver fully expected to die when her parachute failed to open. Instead, she's writing the next chapter of her life
I SURVIVED!
THREE UNUSUAL MEDICAL EMERGENCIES, AS TOLD BY THE PEOPLE WHO NEARLY DIED FROM THEM
