I was surprised when Baishampayan told me about Ubuntu and Fedora Core CDs being sold on the footpaths near Mumbai CST station.

We were on our way back from the TIFR campus in Colaba to HBCSE in Mankhurd, and had just stopped to buy some books and have a drink. It was then that I saw it. Amidst a sea of 'unauthorised' audio/video CDs and pornographic movies was a blue coloured packet with white bubbles floating on it: a Fedora Core 6 (Zod) i386 DVD. For Rs 120 it was probably the only legal merchandise that he was selling.

Unfortunately he did not know it. Excerpts from our conversation:

BG: "CD ka key kaha se milega?"
Man: "Puch ke ata hun..." (goes away) "Andhar sare chiz milega, crack kiya hua hai."

DR: "Yeh kya cheez ka DVD hai? Movie?"
Man: "Ekdam latest hai."
DR: "Lekin hai kya?"
Man: "Linux hai."

BG: "XP me chalega?"
Man: "Bilkul chalega."

I spent a week at home from 1 October, 2006 to 8 October 2006. Most importantly, I saw Durga Puja after a gap of 1 year, although I could only get a glimpse of Nabami and Dashami. But something is better than nothing, you see.

This vacation was a rather unique one. Baba was not home, since he was somewhere in Andhra Pradesh and later in Madhya Pradesh, pursuing his new job in Joy India. Although the places he visit are very remote, with often no landline and mobile connectivity, he does get wonderful food there- lamb sausages, bacons...! Back in Kolkata Ma, Riti and myself were all busy in getting our new temporary house ready for moving in. This was necessary since our house in Kankurgachi is going to pulled down, and a new one built in its place.

Other than that I had to get certain jobs done, which were hitherto taken care of by my father. Must say that I gained some valuable experience, and visited strangely interesting places.

Amidst all these household chores, there was precious little time left to catch up with friends. However I could manage to meet Sourish, Chaitali and Mayukh on Dashami evening. Met Rathi after quite sometime on Dashami morning, when we (Ma, Bonu, Dimma, Rathi and myself) went to Amritadeep to enjoy the food they serve for breakfast and lunch. I accidentally came to know from Rathi that Sayamindu Dasgupta (a.k.a. unmadindu), of ILUG-Cal, is his class mate and good friend.