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 :: The Christmas Report[Tue, 25th Dec, 08:01 PM] 
Ah well, it's Christmas. Joy to the world, peace and harmony to all!

It's been an unusual one for me this year.

After the unbelievable success of FOSS.IN/2007, I went from high-frantic-activity-mode to almost completely comatose in a matter of days. Instead of the planned short and much needed holiday to Goa that I had been secretly hatching, I find myself sitting at home 24x7, dealing with things I'd rather not be dealing with.

(Read the rest of this entry)

 :: Slipping through my fingers...[Thu, 20th Dec, 08:43 AM] 
Today is my daughter Geetanjali's last day of attending classes at the school she has been in for the past 14 years.

We saw her off at the bus stop, just as we did on the first day all those years ago, when she joined that quaint little school in the middle of nowhere, which over the years became the Mallya Aditi International School.

After this, she will be spending time (I hope) preparing for her 12th standard exams (which are in March), but the days of spending time in her school classrooms are over.

Funny how time flies.

When I finished school, I barely felt anything. It didn't even strike me that I was leaving behind a lifetime of protected existence, where teachers took an active interest in you, and that I would be entering college, where lectures lecture and leave, and you are left mostly to your own devices. It was only years later that I awoke to the fact just what I had left behind then.

Just how much is too much when you spend all your time trying to provide for your family? Does struggling to give your child the best of education, the safest of lives, the nicest of clothes, etc. compare to playing with your daughter and her puppy in the garden for an afternoon? Where's the balance?

The sheer mortality of relationships (at least at different levels) is a frightening thought. While she will always be my daughter, she will steadily progress through life (if she puts her mind to it), establishing different relationships, sometimes/often at the cost of a level of relationship with me.

Decades from now, how will she, or I, remember these days that end today? Will there be a deep sense of regret and loss, as I am feeling now, or will time cover the bad spots and let us remember only the good times?

I realise, as I sit here writing this, just how much I have not done, and will probably never be able to do again in this lifetime. That includes the things you'd expect a normal father to do with his family - going to the zoo, the circus, a movie, or just for a walk. I don't think of myself as a bad father because of this, but the sense of loss is inevitable - these times will never come again.

Whatever was I thinking these past one and half decades?


[Video of "Slipping through my fingers"]

Slipping Through My Fingers (ABBA)

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see whats in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by
Then when she's gone theres that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I can't deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didn't
And why I just don't know

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see whats in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers...

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile...

 :: FOSS.IN Posters (and more)[Wed, 21st Nov, 11:29 AM] 
Someone pointed out that everyone is writing about the FOSS.IN posters in their blogs and journals - except me. :P

Well, every year, Team FOSS.IN brings out some promotional posters for the event. This year, we decided to focus on people and a message - the message being that one should contribute to FOSS. And as subjects we chose several Indian FOSS contributors.

Have a look (you can click on the small images to see them full size and download them)

gopal kart karunakar naba
pradeepto shres suparna tejas

All these posters were created by our Graphic Superman - Harikrishnan C.

If you are in Bangalore and would like some of these in printed form to hang on your company or college noticeboard, get on the FOSS.IN mailing list and let us know. And quickly - we have limited stocks, and they are going FAST!

Things didn't end there. The "People Poster" idea caught on, and here are some created by the KDE project! Fantastic stuff! The right spirit :)

And as Sankarshan said - if you want to be on next year's posters, make sure you start contributing to FOSS!

 :: FOSS.IN/2007 Updates[Mon, 19th Nov, 01:11 AM] 
Some updates from the FOSS.IN trenches :)

- Delegate registration is now open here.

- Volunteer registration is now open here.

- Posters released here - thanks, Hari!

And the fun is beginning to escalate - tons of people are actively planning activities for the event. Lightning Talks, BoFs, Corridor Meets, Stickers, T-shirts, FOSS project stalls, hackathons, putting faces to IRC handles, keysigning parties and lots more. This is the real meat of FOSS.IN (and you thought it was only about talks???) - where the community gets together and does what it does best.

Each year, we are amazed at how many people come to the event just to meet with others and to have a good time, and how much they look forward to it every year. We hope that we will live up to your expectations!

BTW - if you want to help make the event even bigger and better, all you have to do is SPREAD THE WORD. Pull graphics from here, add them to your blog entries and websites, grab some posters and hang them on your college/company notice boards, mail internal lists, letting them know the event is happening, grab a FOSS.IN sticker and stick it on your forehead... :)

To find out how to get posters and stickers, get on the mailing list and *ASK*!

 :: How to pronounce FOSS.IN[Wed, 31st Oct, 10:56 PM] 
We just posted this on the FOSS.IN/2007 site, but I thought I'd post this in my journal as well, since not everyone is subscribed to the FOSS.IN RSS Feed:

We simply *have* to put out this post before we go completely nuts! :)

Throughout the year, we run into people who talk about the event, but refer to it simply as "FOSS", as in "see you at FOSS", "when is FOSS this year?", "who is coming to FOSS?", etc.

People - the event name is FOSS.IN, pronounced FOSS (as in "boss") DOT (as in "hot") IN (as in "win" or "I N" as in "eye enn").

"FOSS" alone stands for "Free and Open Source Software", and we have absolutely no intention of being representative of that entire movement in India! We just run an event about FOSS in India, and we focus on FOSS contributors.

Again - "FOSS" is a movement, while "FOSS.IN" is an event - our event.

So next time you want to talk about the event, please do us the honour of using the correct name, ok? :)

Thanks!

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