Solitude is mostly a subject matter of discussion under philosophy and spirituality but you might be wondering what is this topic doing at a site related to marine engineering. Well you will find out soon as you know that life has different aspects interwoven into one and nothing is separate actually.
Solitude: Curse or Boon
This is a question which is not easy to answer though most of us used to the hustle and bustle of city life, the answer is surely in the negative, means that we view solitude as a curse or at least something which is avoidable and not desired.
Actually we confuse solitude with loneliness and you can learn more about the power of solitude in this post. But let me get across quickly to the point now that mariners and those connected to similar jobs are not unfamiliar with solitude. People who work on ships, belonging to any category namely marine engineers, navigation officers or seamen all know how wonderful it is to be in the lap of mother nature in total solitude for days together
The Extreme Job
If you think that is the height, just think again. Today we will tell you about a man who may not be exactly a mariner but he does a very similar kind of job. His name is Vyacheslav Korotki from Russia and we will call him VK for short in this story. He was a sailor and worked on ships for over 30 years and is also a trained Polyarnik. If you do not know this term, well it means he is a meteorologist and specialized in the north polar region. You can compare him to cosmonauts who live in isolated space for months together doing their job although he is on Earth but totally alone for months.
Currently he works for the Russian met department who have posted him at Khodovarikha, an Arctic outpost, where he was sent to measure the temperatures, the snowfall, the winds. The outpost lies on a fingernail of a peninsula that juts into the Barents Sea. Even the nearest town is one hours flight by a chopper.
Lifestyle of VK
He stays away from his family and is now so used to live in solitude that he feels uncomfortable in town with traffic and noise. He feels more at home in this region and enjoys his stay. Infact once a local journalist went to stay with him for a couple of weeks in order to see how this person survives in such isolation. Rather on return, the person said that VK is not as lonely as he seems to be. Rather he enjoys the company of nature, snow, tundra and everything and can be compared so some hermit in the Himalayas.
Given below are a few pictures of VK showing his place of residence and should be good enough to give you an idea of how different is life must be as compared to us who are used to live in the hustle and bustle of cities never bothering to look within.
Vyacheslav Korotki
Isolated Workplace @ North Pole
Images Courtesy: The New Yorker
Extreme Jobs: Weatherman @ North Pole,
