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Journalism of Courage
Sometime in 2006,Akhil Bakshi,Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society,led a team of 10 Indian scientists in a journey back to Gondwanaland that primordial supercontinent that comprised Antarctica,Africa,South America ,Australia and India to study the workings of tectonic plates,and work towards a better forecasting of tsunamis and earthquakes. The 25,000-km expedition,from the Indian Himalayas to Cape Agulhas,the southern tip of Africa,lasted three months. The thrilling,often rib-tickling account of that journey through some of the most volatile regions of the world is the subject of Bakshis latest book,Back to Gondwanaland (Rs 395,Odyssey Books).
The book goes beyond mere geology,as Bakshi and his team encounter angry ayatollahs,navigate pistol-wielding Kurdish wedding processions,survive a bird flu-stricken Turkey and witness the ravages caused by decades of famine,civil war,banditry and AIDS in Africa. Bakshi leavens his account with telling anecdotes and shrewd observations and commentary of local customs: paranoid Israeli soldiers who spend hours examining a corpse at the check point; a shrivelled Ethiopian displaying a carefully preserved Indian currency because it has a picture of Mahatma Gandhi.
The scientists also saw the fault lines and rift valleys and collaborated with their counterparts in other countries, says Bakshi. They can use that knowledge in their individual scientific discipline and researches,he adds.
Bakshi,who had earlier organised road trips across Central Asia and Southeast Asia,is,however,not one to put his feet up and rest. His next project,expected to begin in September 2011,is ambitious the Pangea One World Expedition,which aims to cover 35,000 km from Dead Horse Creek in Alaska to Cape Horn,the southernmost tip of South America on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. This time,the team will contain meteorologists and climate scientists,as we try to understand the impact of climate change in these countries, says Bakshi.
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