Antarctica: India’s Journey To The Frozen Continent - Book Review

Gunvi Rattra, OP Jindal Global University

This book is about the first ever expedition of India to the frozen continent: Antarctica. Dedicated to the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who first had the ambition and dream to showcase and take India’s potentiality to new heights by exploring the ever-frozen Continent. It is describing the journey, the initiative, the preparations and most importantly about establishing India’s prominent position in the international community and proving the scientific capability of India in the world. It enumerates the true beauty of the continent and the origin of it all. It describes beautifully various anecdotes from their journey and enumerates on the different emotions felt by the voyagers at every step of the way. The centre piece of the book are the first-hand experiences of two celebrated persons: a leader and the founder of India’s Antarctic Programme and the other a student and a research scholar from an Indian University. It keeps the readers hooked as to what shall be coming next and highlights the achievements of our nation, invoking in every reader a feeling of patriotism. The review starts by introducing the authors and giving a background of how the mission to reach Antarctica starts, then it moves on to the summary of the book highlighting the various high points in the book, followed by a critique and analysis. The review concludes by elaborating on the effectiveness on the readers and some remarks as to how the overall mark it leaves. The book being very engaging and informative, gives us two perspectives about the adventure, both charismatic and evocative.