Arun wrote:
RMS should be in india from Jan 16 to Feb 2nd. Will be participating in WSF.
As per our Tamil Calendar, Pongal, the festival of harvest, when the sun is thanked, falls on Jan 15, 2004. It is remarkable that RMS, the Sun who heralded the Free Software movement will be visiting India at about the same time. The Sun shines on its own, and is the source of all life and energy. We all have more reasons to celebrate the harvest season the forthcoming month of Thai, and the popular tamil proverb goes "Thai piranthal vazhi pirakkum" - Thai is the harbinger of good tidings. We can hope that the visit of RMS to India, and the WSF meet will make a difference in all our lives.
I am sure the FSF would have its prorammes and plans for the visit, but I would like to stress, that there should be more focus on presenting RMS and the activities of the FSF, to the media and to the public, so that there is a wider awarness about the value of the free software movement, that is being grossly unutilised in India. Newspapers have given excellent coverage in the past - I still remember an article by Satish Babu in the Hindu that was titled something like nothing is more appropriate for India, some two years ago. There was another article about the free software option last month in our papers.
There should be a good built of an electrifying excitement over the visit of the chief guru of free software. I never knew that RMS had visited Chennai twice in the past, until recently. Even with my own limited knowledge, I know that RMS has travelled widely in India addressing the student community in several Indian Universities and colleges, and has visited culturally significant spots like, Mahabalipuram. RMS wrote that Belur-Halibedu took his breath away. There are several interesting facets of RMS that would connect him well with the common public of India, and it is high time that we make optimum use of his visit to promote use of free software as extensively as possible.