Journey to the End of the Earth by Tishani Doshi
Quick answer: Journey to the End of the Earth by Tishani Doshi, CBSE Class 12 Vistas chapter 3: the Akademik Shokalskiy, Students on Ice, Gondwana, Antarctica and climate, exam answers.
A hundred hours after leaving Madras, across nine time zones, six checkpoints, three bodies of water and three ecospheres, a writer steps onto the Antarctic continent and feels relief, then wonder at its isolation.
Tishani Doshi's account of a voyage aboard the Russian vessel Akademik Shokalskiy is chapter 3 of Class 12 Vistas.
The chapter in brief
Doshi explains that 650 million years ago Antarctica was part of Gondwana, a supercontinent that later broke apart. Antarctica holds most of the world's ice and, in its ice cores, half a million years of climate record. It has no trees, billboards or buildings. Doshi travelled with Students on Ice, a programme run by Geoff Green, who believes the future's policymakers should see the continent while young.
Small changes matter here. Phytoplankton, single-celled plants that feed the ocean's food chain, depend on the ozone layer; damage to them would ripple upward. The most vivid moment comes when the ship is wedged in ice and the party walks on a metre of frozen sea over 180 metres of water. She ends by asking whether Antarctica offers hope or warning about what human beings have done to the planet.
The people and forces in it
A traveller, a teacher, and a continent.
- Tishani Doshi: a writer converting geological time into felt experience.
- Geoff Green: the Canadian who founded Students on Ice to educate the young.
- The students: future decision-makers.
- Phytoplankton: the tiny plants whose fate stands for everything.
Themes and meaning
Exam readings include human impact on climate, the value of studying the past to understand the future, and education through direct experience. The sharper point is Doshi's scale shift: she moves from 650 million years to a metre of ice underfoot, teaching that the planet's story is legible in a single walk.
The craft: numbers, then wonder
Doshi opens with an itinerary in figures and closes with a walk on the sea, so the chapter travels from arithmetic to awe. The turn is the ship wedged in ice, when the plan fails and the best scene begins. Writers can steal the scale shift, big history to small footfall, and the honest closing question in place of a lesson.
For the exam
Quick material for the Class 12 exam.
- Word meanings: Gondwana, ancient southern supercontinent; ecosphere, region supporting life; phytoplankton, microscopic marine plants; ozone, atmospheric layer blocking ultraviolet light; circumpolar, around the pole; expanse, wide area.
- Character sketch of Geoff Green in 60 words: A Canadian educator, Geoff Green founded Students on Ice to take school students to Antarctica after tiring of hosting celebrity passengers who could only give back in a limited way. He believes that young people who see the continent and its retreating glaciers will grow into policymakers ready to act on climate. Doshi presents him as practical, hopeful and persuasive.
- Q: Why does Doshi call Antarctica the place to go to understand the earth's past and future? A: Its ice holds half a million years of climate records and it belonged to Gondwana, so it shows both deep history and present warming.
- Q: What is the role of phytoplankton? A: They feed the ocean's food chain; ozone damage that harms them would disturb every living thing above them.
- Q: What is the aim of Students on Ice? A: To give students first-hand experience of Antarctica so they will respect and protect the planet as adults.
- Summary in 100 words: Tishani Doshi travels aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy with the Students on Ice programme, founded by Geoff Green, to Antarctica. She explains that the continent was part of Gondwana 650 million years ago and that its ice preserves half a million years of climate history. Its emptiness of trees, buildings and noise disturbs the sense of time. She stresses that small changes, such as harm to phytoplankton through ozone loss, can affect the whole planet. The high point is walking on a metre of sea ice over 180 metres of water. She closes by asking whether Antarctica is a warning or a hope.
What writers can take from this
- Quote the figures of the trip: 100 hours, nine time zones, six checkpoints, three bodies of water, three ecospheres.
- Explain Gondwana and 650 million years in one sentence before discussing climate.
- Use the phytoplankton example whenever asked about small changes and large effects.
- Writers, move from a table of figures to a single sensory scene; the shift is the emotion.
- Close on a question you have earned rather than an answer you have not.
Try it yourself
Write a story about a traveller who reaches a remote place for reasons of study and is changed by one unplanned walk. Begin with the trip in numbers and end with a sensory scene, and let the final line be a question the character cannot yet answer.
Questions
What is the theme of Journey to the End of the Earth?
The chapter uses Antarctica to show the earth's deep past and threatened future: its ice preserves climate history, its emptiness sharpens perception, and small changes such as damage to phytoplankton can affect the whole planet. It argues for educating the young through direct experience.
What is Students on Ice?
A programme founded by Geoff Green that takes school students to Antarctica so that future policymakers see the continent's fragility for themselves rather than only reading about it.
Why does Doshi mention Gondwana?
Antarctica was part of Gondwana 650 million years ago, before the supercontinent broke into today's landmasses. The reference shows how much of the planet's history the continent holds.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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