Hi Everybody. This is my first mail to FSF-Friends ml. I am trying to nerrate an incident which took place today morning when i was travelling to my college by my motorcycle.

Situation: It was a double road, with a partition in the centre. It was early morning and the weather was really cold. I could see many young students waiting on the road side for their school buses to come and some were waiting for the city corporation bus. All the vehicles were just flying in a hurry. ----------- x ------------

When i was riding, i suddenly saw a old man with a bicycle on the middle of the road struggling with lots of tomatos (it seems he had bought some tomatoes from the market early morning and taking them to his retail shop located somewhere in the city). The problem was, he had 2 huge baskets on both sides of his bicycle and hence could he could not get off from the cycle easily(and he was also a short guy). There were lots of tomatos on the ground, spread. And thank god there was not much damage (to the tomatoes). By seeing the poor man struggling to get those tomatoes, i just parked my motorcycle on the side of the road and i took tomatoes in my hands and helped to get them to the baskets. Roughly it was about 150-200 tomatoes. When i started picking them, one more guy who came that way started picking and helping. The problem was, it was a really busy road, and vehicles were just flying. I thought i should also direct the traffic so that the other person can continue picking the tomatoes. I did exactly that, and the whole mess got cleared in just 8 to 10 minutes. The tomato guy thanked me and the other person *whole-heartedly*. Then i started my journey to the college.

Moral of My Blog: ------------------

I would like to associate the incident with the Free Software movement or the idea of free s/w.

The first thing is, the tomato guy is now way connected with me (ofcourse he is not my boss or i am not a boss to him) and i'v never seen him before, in simple words, a stranger. But what made me to help him????

The following could be the reasons..... 1. The tomato guy was an obstacle to the traffic and i thought of helping the traffic to get cleared 2. I am really a soft hearted and could not see the preson struggling on the middle of the road, hence i helped. 3. It's my duty to help the one who is struggling... 4. or just thought of helping... thats all

etc......

Well, in all the above said, one word stood still like concrete, that is *helping*.

Ok. What do i get, by doing so? My Answer :- Peace of mind.... and self-satisfaction.. or what ever one may call this as

As we see the above lines, there is no word like Money or Rupee or Cost or Price or dollar or ......

Can this be associated with free s/w?? My Answer: Yes.

How ? Ans: It is not that you should help your neighbour alone... but you (and we) can also help strangers...I hope Free Software does exactly that...

Why am i making a blog like this ??

Ans. That again sharing my thoughts and hence *Freedom* to share thoughts..... :)

PS: There were many people on the road side waiting for bus to come. But no one can blame them for not helping the poor guy. B'cause, they will be under trouble if they miss their bus.

Cheeeers Vishravars.R

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