My journey to the south

Even while i am writing about the coldest experience of my life i still shiver and shudder. I was born in India and i had spent 25 years of my life there. In Indian planes temperature never dips below 5 degree Celsius. It was my first encounter with such nasty and biting cold. One cannot even think of sleeping in a small sleeping bag in the open air on a vast expanses of snow, where temperature at night dips down below -10 degree celsius. Moreover if one wants to piss at night one has to walk for almost half a kilometer through 2 feet deep snow. It was a calm blue sky dotted with stars all over.The white expanse of snow was mesmerizing at midnight. The call of penguins still keeps haunting me and transports me back to that enchanting night. I worked very hard to dig a place on snow to save myself from the stormy Antartica winds which regularly hover over you. I discovered a queer fact about the human body in that night. When you know it is tough to go out of bed and you do not drink even water whole evening just to avoid going pissing, you feel even more prone to going out to piss. I remember it took me almost half and hour to decide whether to go out piss or not. It will remain one of the toughest decision that i have ever made in my life. After such a squeezing night, people came at 6 in the morning to take us back to the ship. I was relaxed to find out that i had survived that night but didn't know that worst was yet to follow. We went to the ship and as soon as I was about to take a nap, an announcement startled that some whales had been noticed in the sea and those who wanted to have a look could go for zodiac rides. Within 15 minutes everyone found themselves on zodiacs. It was very cold and whale splashed water all about our zodiac. I was so elated to see whales that i remained extremely attentive for one and a half hour. I was shouting like a small child wondering at the ecstatic creation of god. we were not tired of watching whales but they had their own schedule.
The moment we decided to take rest an announcement was made that the weather was clear so we were taking polar plunge. I was completely exhausted but i felt i was one of few lucky ones who had opportunity to explore such a fantastic place. My name was called and in a few seconds I was in the sea. Numbness gripped me and my mind stopped working. Anyhow I touched the marked point. It was a remarkable achievement for me. That is how the coldest 24 hours of my life came to an end.