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The Loneliest Place


Point Nemo is the loneliest place on earth. It is a point in the Pacific Ocean, about 2,688 kilometres from the nearest land. If you can get a foothold in Point Nemo, what you see all around you will be water and nothing but water, leaving aside the sky above. Water, sky and you. What greater solitude can you ask for?

Maybe Henry Miller would be happy there as he could ponder his ‘shame and his despair’ in seclusion. He wanted to do that, according to his Tropic of Cancer, in the vacant sunshine, without companions, without conversation, face to face with himself, with only the music of his heart for company.

Maybe Virginia Wolf could be her own real self, sitting by herself “like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake.”

Lord Byron can find his bliss there. Though it is not the “pathless woods” that he longed for. But the rapture he wanted so much on “the lonely shore” might come by. “There is society, where none intrudes, / By the deep sea, and music in its roar.”

You will get solitude at Point Nemo, the place named after Captain Nemo of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. But the remnants of Nemo’s submarine will keep floating around you to haunt your solitude.

Yes, Point Nemo, the farthest place on earth from human habitation, is in fact the cemetery of spaceships and manmade satellites. Alas! You have no escape from manmade pollution!

Some 300 spacecraft have been intentionally deorbited and directed to their eternal rest in Point Nemo. You will have the company of Russia’s 120-ton Mir Space Station which was buried here in 2001. China’s Tiangong Space Station lost control and fell right here. Elon Musk also has made significant contributions with his many rockets.

There are about 4000 manmade satellites orbiting around the earth. All of them will eventually find their resting place in Point Nemo. On top of that, Space X will be launching 4425 satellites in the future. NASA’s international space centre will die in 2030 and come to rest here itself.

Something worse! You will have the company of plastic too here. 320 microplastic particles were found per cubic metre of water in Point Nemo.

We, homo sapiens, are a disastrous species. No wonder, you want to leave. But don’t go to Point Nemo, the farthest place from human habitation. Maybe, you need to create solitude in your own heart.

 Related Post: Gods Out There

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Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 28, 2023 at 7:34 AM

    👍🏻👌🏻

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pandian RamaiahSeptember 28, 2023 at 12:25 PM

    Interesting. We’ll make trash handling as a market in the future and spend taxpayer’s money over there 👍

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 28, 2023 at 2:57 PM

      That's it. Our nationalist leaders might even go to the extent stretching #AkhandBharat to that area.

      Delete
  3. Yamini MacLeanSeptember 28, 2023 at 2:49 PM

    Hari OM
    Solitude as attainable even in the most populated cities, if one seeks it rightly.

    Point Nemo is the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility - there are other such poles, defined as being points on the globe which are furthest from any coastline and can be applied to land as well as sea. Would they be less affected by the this overpopulated, wasteful race to which we belong? For now, perhaps... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 28, 2023 at 2:59 PM

      Yes, of course, Yam. Where else will get solitude than in one's own heart? Like God.

      Delete
  4. DawnanddewSeptember 28, 2023 at 3:27 PM

    Brilliant one! Informative!

    ReplyDelete
  5. magiceyeSeptember 28, 2023 at 7:49 PM

    Solitude and loneliness are not the same. I dont think anyone seeks loneliness, and the solitude seekers get it wherever and whenever but maybe at the risk of social abuse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 28, 2023 at 8:27 PM

      No sane person seeks loneliness. And solitude is available even in the busiest shopping mall.

      Delete
  6. DragonwheelSeptember 29, 2023 at 12:25 AM

    RE: "We, homo sapiens, are a disastrous species"

    Not just "a disastrous species" but THE most disastrous species, especially "conscious" species, EVER --- https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html (that essay also explains WHY we are such an abomination).

    ReplyDelete
  7. marietta pereiraSeptember 29, 2023 at 5:04 PM

    Interesting read. I just became a little more knowledgeable.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Harish P ISeptember 29, 2023 at 6:15 PM

    Great read... Loves the references particularly.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Swati KhatriSeptember 30, 2023 at 1:34 AM

    Great read.... yes we need to create solitude in ourselves

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 30, 2023 at 3:53 AM

      Solitude is a mental state rather than a geographic place.

      Delete
  10. CareenaOctober 2, 2023 at 9:36 AM

    Wow. I learn something new on your blog everytime! This point is one Nemo I dont want to find!

    ReplyDelete

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