Twelve hours later, the party mood was replaced by one of patient acceptance for, at midnight, the sun was still shining. It would continue do so for the next six months.

The team found ways to adapt to the situation. Darkness was simulated with the help of thick, black curtains; eye masks were brought out to induce tired minds to rest.

These and other memories are a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most people. But Dr Anand Koppara, who led the latest Indian expedition to Antarctica -- the seventeenth -- has been one of the lucky few to have visited the icy continent thrice, his most recent trip lasting 16 months.``It was adream come true for me,'' Koppara, who is director of the Department of Meteorology in Bangalore, said here in an interview to The Indian Express.

The first Indian expedition to Antarctica, the southernmost stretch of land on the globe spread over 14 million sq km -- the size of China and India put together -- was in 1981. Then, for India, it was more of a getting-acquainted trip than a scientific expedition; more to prove to the world that India was capable of such an expedition using indigenous materials.

Now, India has its own permanently manned centre, with groups camping there in batches, carrying out research.

Governed by the Antarctic Treaty, all countries that have reached this area are only allowed to carry out research for peaceful purposes. The area cannot be used as a military base, no nuclear waste can be dumped there and no atomic weapons can be tested.

``The main purpose of an Antarctic expedition is to understand the Antarctic better, to feel the pristine atmosphere and ofcourse to understand nature better,'' said Koppara. Though illness was rare, the isolation was the biggest deterrent, he said. People become restless, seeing the same faces for over six months, sometimes a year, and are vulnerable to slight mental deviations, he added.

However, there are no serious problems, Koppara said, adding that the knowledge that the next ship wouldn't arrive for another six or eight months helped the members accept the inevitable that they were ``prisoners with a purpose'' and had a task to fulfill for the benefit of humankind as a whole.

All countries including India carry out global scientific research like meteorology, upper atmospheric research, geo-magnetism, geology, glaciology and biology. One of the tasks of the seventeenth expedition was to set up a weather observatory and monitor weather conditions every three hours, which is part of the assignment of all expeditions.

The team members are allowed to contact their families for about six minutes each month. The line isclear, almost like a local call, said Koppara. ``We normally do not tell them at home about small ailments like, say, backaches due to excess work or something like that. They start worrying about it so much, it is worse than the disease,'' he said, laughing.

What if a British scientist hadn't reported his discovery of a hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctic region in 1985, which made headlines all over the world and is now a major cause for concern? Impossible, said Koppara. ``That we cannot do. One cannot, as a scientist, suppress information or truth''.