I jumped over the North Pole on April 20, 2002, becoming the first Indian woman to do so. I began planning quite late, around January end, and until April 7 ? I was due to leave Delhi on April 8 for Moscow en route to Siberia ? I hadn’t got any sponsorship.

Articles about my plans to skydive had appeared in a couple of Delhi newspapers, mentioning that I was looking for sponsors but no one came forward. I work for Northern Railway, so at the last minute, the railway ministry contributed 75 per cent of the cost and the Northern Railway Women’s Welfare Association, the rest.

I also got other help ? Aeroflot allowed excess baggage free of charge. The then defence minister George Fernandes made arrangements for me to get the warm clothing, a sleeping bag and boots that the Indian army uses in Siachen.

Over my ordinary thermals, I wore the army thermals made of nylon, which looked and felt like fleece. Over that I wore trousers and a jacket. Last came a white windcheater. But I couldn’t use the windcheater trousers. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask for a bigger size because they would have to be worn over the down trousers!

In our group of skydivers, the only other woman was a Russian. The suit she wore was more like the down suit used by mountaineers. She wore just one warm layer inside and a thicker jacket. There was a French army man who wore a suit specially designed for his North Pole jump and tested for -60?C. Under it he wore only shorts and a T-shirt. And there was an American, in another client group, who did a record jump. He moved in a circle on the circle of the North Pole, which no one had done before.

We were part of the commercial International Complex Arctic Expedition organised by Evgeny Baklov, whose son (about 15 or 16 years old) was the youngest person to have jumped over the North Pole. The ice base over the North Pole is open only four or five weeks every summer, April 1 onwards. An An-26 flies from Khatanga in Siberia to Barneo Ice Airport on the 89th latitude. They prepare the runway for the An-26 by scraping snow off until they reach the ice. The flight was over eight hours with a halt on Srydney Isle to refuel. This island is not on any map because it was a strategic point during the Cold War.

But we were forced to stay put in Khatanga for three days owing to bad weather ? zero visibility and winds of 25-30 knots. On the fourth day, it was clear and we flew to Barneo. We landed and the weather packed up again. This time we had to wait for six days. But I enjoyed the stay at the ice base. Usually, people land, set up their flags, board the helicopter and jump. Then the chopper lands to pick them up again and they return.

I was fascinated by two things: the scenery and 24-hour daylight. The landscape is a white expanse with little humps of snow, whose shape keeps changing because they are formed when spindrift blowing in the wind gets frozen. We climbed these little ridges and sat on top. The Pole has no distinguishing feature. You have to look at the global positioning system (GPS) to know that this is point zero. The temperature was between -40?C and -50?C. The wind was so strong that it made walking easy. If you let your body go limp, the wind pushes you along! We stayed in tents put up on the ice. We had a box for a loo and you had to take off your gloves in the freezing cold, otherwise you couldn’t hold the box.

We had a Man Friday to look after us. He was a local and he knew where to get the snow to melt for our water. You couldn’t use any of the snow all around, it was salty! One day, I saw him go out wearing his briefs. He rubbed snow all over his body, came back and wiped himself dry, then put on warm clothes.

Our prolonged stay made us run short of rations. Though they organised some supplies, we had no bread. Breakfast was muesli. Dinner was the one good meal. I ate the local food ? slices of raw fish dipped in salt and smoked reindeer meat. I also had some Indian dishes like readymade palak paneer. But the excitement was so high that, though we didn’t eat or sleep much, we had enough energy.

Finally, I made my jump at 4.30 am on April 20. We were back at the ice base by 6 am. On our way back, we spent some time in Siberia because they don’t have daily flights to Moscow. We met the Dogans, related to Inuits. They live in wooden houses covered with reindeer skin, that can be transported on sledges.

The entire trip lasted 21 days and the rest of the experience equalled the magic of the jump itself.