A *spark* has ignited!

My first association with open-source software, though unknown was in the summer of my 7th grade. I was spending my summer holidays in my cousin's place. At a time when smart phones weren't so popular and Pokemon cartoons were still a rage, my knowledge of the computers was minimal. My cousin, who was doing his engineering at that point had this archaic desktop at home and I wanted to catch up on my favorite songs over the internet. So I thought it's just another PC and powered ON the system. Well, what happened next was the shock of my life!

Kubuntu
Courtesy: KLab

Instead of the traditional Windows symbol and its trademark start up sound, there was some weird purple color text saying "Kubuntu". And on the desktop, there was nothing. No icons, no task bar, literally nothing. Most importantly, no start button either. I had no idea what it was ! Moreover I thought I had messed up with the system and entered my panic mode. I didn't know what to do, whether to tell my cousin about this or just let it go. Like most of us in our pressure situations, I took a deep breath, switched OFF the mains and returned to my room. Later in the night, I peeked into my cousin's room. The comp geek was coding away. I was relieved that I hadn't messed up with his PC! Well that was my very first peep into the world of FOSS. though I didn't know it then.

Ubuntu
Courtesy: wikiUbuntu

Time passed and I never bothered to ask my cousin about what Kubuntu was or to look it up on the net. On the third day of my 2nd semester at college, I was in for a huge shock. It was my C language lab session and I was expecting the blue Borland Turbo C compiler in my lab which I was very fond of! I power on the my PC and it gave me 5 versions of Ubuntu to boot up with. I was completely lost. Then started the barrage of terminal commands, vi editor commands and the like which mostly went over my head. Even then I didn't understand the essence of open-source software and took it as another bag of load to learn! I wanted Ubuntu on my laptop and was very apprehensive that Windows7 might take a beating if I didn't install it properly. Then there came up the *Ubuntu Installation Fest* in my college, organized by Plug-In. Trust me, before that I hadn't even heard of the glug in my college. It was the day when I was exposed to Free Software Movement Karnataka and about FOSS in general.  The event was a huge success and Ubuntu 12.04 was finally up and running on my system. So far, so good! That day was just the start for many more good days to come!

I was curious to know more about the FSMK and free software technologies in general. The opportunity presented itself in the form of Swataha - 13 (a national level fest) in the month of April this year. I attended the inaugural sessions where people spoke with passion and I could see their commitment to the cause. They were truly inspirational I should say. And the activities undertaken by the GLUG-PESCE within 3-4 months was remarkable and surely deserves an applause. The Drupal workshop I had registered for was my first software related workshop and it was really interesting and inspiring to work on. Well, we don't really like to do the hard work do we? After the workshop, I wanted to set up Drupal on my laptop but failed to do it. And thus my experiments with free software were shelved for two months. Nevertheless I was still using Ubuntu, exploring and compiling my lab programs.

FOSS
Credits : LinuxForum

One fine day I got an update from FSMK saying there was a Summer Industry Orientation Workshop during the last week of my second semester holidays. Since I didn’t have any plans and was genuinely interested to learn something, I signed up for it! This was before the exams began. During the exams I got a reminder call from Raghuram saying that I’m yet to pay the fee.  All my friends were making vacation plans – tours, movies, sleepovers what not! I called up a few of my friends to see if they’d be interested in attending and thank god, one of them readily agreed. I needn’t really tell what happened at the workshop cause some of my new-found friends have illustrated that very well on their own blogs. But I will say this one thing for sure – The 9-day session literally changed my perception of life! I learnt what it means to share, to help and contribute to something worthy not just because you gain money out of it. There are more important things than money, and I’m pretty sure money can’t buy you that. Credit, selfless service and recognition are some of those. I needn’t mention the dedication of the core members and the volunteers over there. The energy they bring into the movement deserves a standing ovation. When I look into each of them, they give me hope to achieve something worthwhile in life. Moving further, I’ve become an integral part of Plug-In GLUG in my college. Meeting like-minded people, putting forth your ideas, sharing them, and in the whole process, learning again! The start to this journey has been incredible!

Yes, the *spark* in me has ignited and this time I'm very sure it won’t die.   

 

Adiós maestras

Namaste everyone!

It feels great seeing all the "akkas" (that's the way teachers are addressed at TVSA) together after almost a month and a half. And friends, though we keep seeing each other and having fun every other day, its always a pleasure to be midst you. Well, today the roles have been reversed. For a change the akkas are listening to me and I am here facing everyone. This doesn't happen very often and so, let me tell you something interesting. (Smiles)

TVS Academy, Hosur
Photo courtesy : Vidya akka

It was June 2010 when I was formally inducted in the 11^th Grade of our school. The 10 years before that, all of our school education had fun and studies in equal proportion but the two years after that, I knew that school life would be more purposeful and focused. For a change, all extra and co-curricular activities had to take a back seat and studies would eat up a major portion of time, both at school and home. Though the change was for our own good, we seldom realize that fact then. We've all heard such phrases, “Crucial Point of life”, “Career-defining point”, “Turning point of life” so many times over the past year and a half that they have become more monotonous than the cliches of our English books. (Smiles)

With all the peer pressure and sweet distractions mounting high on our backs, we somehow did pull ourselves through. The journey wasn't a bed of roses neither was it an epic struggle. Let me just say that there were some tough times which were complemented by some happy ones, which made it al the more special!

During this journey, we almost spent 6-8 hours a day with you. Its another story if we listened to you or not. 'Physically present, but mentally absent' was the usual trend most of the times. Despite all the pranks we were up to and the troubles we got into, we always had you to scold us, support us and finally get us out of the trouble-spot. Well, its just sad to realize that from now on we are on our own. Not entirely though. If need may come, I'm sure you'll lend a helping hand to whoever asks for it. Its really been a pleasure getting tutored, not only about academics but also about the more important lessons of life from all of you. "Thank you" is too small a word to express our gratitude. 

Now to my friends, I would like to dedicate this quote by George Elliot.

"Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love." 

We may have fought over petty things, had our share of misunderstandings and ego issues, but out there in the huge world there's one bond that unites all of us and that is "TVS Academy". On the contrary, we could have made our best friends here, grown fond of one-another and who knows? May have even found the love of our lives too ! These bonds are those which make memories and memories make up a lifetime. I do hope that, we will surely be rewarded for whatever effort we have put in. And almost every one of us will be relieved that the all important exams have ended, or in my words, “The Tornado has subsided!” From now on, we may take up different paths or may end up in the same college & in the same hostel room. Either ways, one thing is more or less sure – Life will be way different from the school life we've been having for the past 14 years.

Farewell !

On a concluding note, to all my friends I say this – “There are means, other than Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch” (which is meeting, personally )  and to all my Akkas here, “I will always remain Yours Obediently ..!” (inspired by the many leave letters written).

WE PART, ONLY TO MEET AGAIN . . . 

Namaste!

Author's note: Now that you've read this you might be wondering this. I had written this down for the farewell party of my 12th Grade ( Pre-University). Well, I wasn't able to make it on that day. Reliving it here !