Annamalai Gurusami wrote:
But then the WSF 2004 is to be held in Mumbai. Is he travelling down to Karnataka or Tamil Nadu during his visit?
Someone has already asked for the itinerary of RMS and I am sure Arun would post it when ready. Please note that I only wrote about the spirit that prevails in India at that time of the year. For a long time, I thought that pongal in Pongal was just what we eat after the rice is cooked with milk and jaggery in a new pot until it overflows and offered to the sun along with sugarcane. Please read what Chantal Boulanger & Tom Dawber had to say about the Pongal, in their book titled "In the Kingdom of Nataraja":
<quote> ... their belief impregnate every part of their lives and come from the depths of their being and history. Pongal, the most popular Dravidian ritual, is a "boiling-over", a symbol of life and fertility, and a way to thank the divine energy which swallowed their ancestors for millennia. Here the pot contains the Energy, it means the over-flowing plenitude rather than the void." </quote>
The day before Pongal, we have Bhogi, when, by tradition, all unwanted pots are broken up, and used clothing and others are burned up, to pave way for the new pots and things. Life is seen as a continuous renewal.
What better occasion could there be for doing away with proprietary licences, that could be given a disposal at the time of Bhogi! RMS in this free sofware song has sung:
<quote> [To the melody of Sadi Moma]
Join us now and share the software; You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free. /x2/
Hoarders may get piles of money, That is true, hackers, that is true. But they cannot help their neighbors; That's not good, hackers, that's not good.
When we have enough free software At our call, hackers, at our call, We'll throw out those dirty licenses Ever more, hackers, ever more.
Join us now and share the software; You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free. /x2/
</quote>
Visit: http://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.html
We have enough free software now. People don't have to wait until Bhogi to throw out those dirty licenses, but it would be a good symbolisation, and pave way for free software.
BTW, where is FSF India located (any office?).