English, August. From City to village and back

After reading catch 22. The most nasty comment I received was that this  book should have  been ready earlier, ie, I should have read it at younger age. I think it is not about the age at all. It is just that you should be in the know of it and the book should attract you. It could happen in a myriad number of ways. Any how, this post is about an English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee.

I liked the book. It is well written. It is just a coming together of jottings kept over a period of one year. The Indian sub-continent comes across in all its glory. The author travels from a hard core India city to the deepest of the forests possible. The society varies from rich, to the tribals to the lepors, to the beggars, to the helpers, to the public administration offices and the officers, to the most beautiful churches in the remotest parts of the country where drinking water is not available. The book definitely has the spread. The different hues of the sub-continent is nice. The language used is simple and straight forward. If "sex" sells then the word is used freely and profusely through the book. Lots of stoned situations, by the river, by the railway tracks, on the top floor of the house, in dark rooms, with friends, with colleagues, with unknowns. There is plenty of booze also, if you liked it. The point of view is from a well to do Indian. So you may tell that the narrative doesnt have the depth. But, yes, the book does scratch the surface and does     it well.

The most beautiful depiction is the bureaucratic setup in the country. It brings out aptly how the government resources which are to be distributed gets concentrated in few hands just by the manipulation of papers. It also bring out the monotony of a government official.     The constraints under which a bureaucrat works are also nicely portrayed. There are a few situations in the book where the protagonist goes deep about his real purpose with sayings from the Bhagavad Gita interspersed between. The novel has an unexpected ending. I was     expecting some other way. The individual coming out of the dilemma is nicely brought out. It is like ready reckoner for all the aspiring public servants. Of course, there are foreign visitors also. If the author was not intending to satisfy the foreign readers, the book    s would have a bit more depth.

The characters come alive, the office personnel, the tribals, rich kids whose parents have made enough for many generations, Egoist bureaucrats,  their more egoist wags, the variety of food, the lack and plenty of water, the effect of forcing of modern societal system on the tribals. The destruction of their very livelihood to survive the modern society and its demands. Roads, cycles, buffalos, and all other quintessential characters of a novel which plans to cross the border of India to other English speaking countries.

The private sector and its workings and its shortcomings, Doctors, helpers, drivers all have played out their role. Official Jeeps, "silent" Maruti cars also make their appearance.

Fascinating read. The book was also made into a movie. I dont remember it perfectly, But, I liked it more because of the lead actor. He was so perfect for the role. I would still recommend the book over the movie. This is one book which you would like to watch after reading it just because of the range and variety of places the protagonist passes. The book oozes laziness, everywhere and the protagonist is the epitome of it and thereby is able to recognize that aspect in all the people he meets.

Finally caught up with "Catch 22"

For the past many years I always wanted to read catch 22. Somehow I was thinking the book will not live up to its hype. Why were my thoughts like this I cant tell because, I don't know. Now, why am I not knowing the reason? Why is that i was not reasonable in taking up this book and start reading. Why couldn't I find a reason to read the book. Why did any other give me a reason for reading it or for not reading it. I don't know the reason why I left this book alone. Why is reasoning so hard. For the want of a reason I did not take up this book for reading. I wanted to read this book but wanted a reason, which again was not coming by. Oh, whatever....

To start with, I came across a new style of writing and was just thinking why others had not copied the style. The style is unique. The chapters are named after key characters. Every chapter describes the character in detail with an introduction/brief to the next character. In the mean time the story is taking its course. I fell in love with the style immediately. The words describing the harsh situations become "harsher". All the characters are crazy. Seeing the characters and comparing with present ones and the past ones, I thought there is no human in the world who is sane. The sanest person is the most insane. I don't know how sanity and the other side are related but they are definitely related. Do I know how they are related, I don't know. Now, don't get me on the reason for me not knowing the difference and I dare not ask you.

The characters are simple, straight forward and crazy. The situations are crazy. If you are crazy enough you can see the funny side of it. If you are sane, you will immediately throw the book into a parallel universe. Uh. Oh, you don't believe in parallel universe. You are not crazy enough. Stop reading right here, right now. And again, don't ask me the reason for it. You are not crazy enough. Am i crazy enough. Dont ask me about it. The combat sequences are explained beautifully. You definitely enter the war field. You suddenly know that flying a fighter aircraft is not for the faint heart. With nowhere to go and nobody to talk when communications are cut, it is a flying coffin. The dangers of flying a war plane are depicted beautifully. I don't think the author has left any use case.

The author intervenes in the novel at all times throughout the novel in the way of the protagonist. I liked the name of the protagonist. How he came about that name would be very interesting. To reason out this with the author would be very interesting. We are again back at reasoning. What is it about this word when we are talking all about craziness and lunacy. The protagonist is etched out beautifully and his relationship or its lack off, is nicely depicted. I many times thought that the author was not happy the character is coming up and he puts in lots of hyper which he himself would have dreamt of. But the way the author holds all the other characters with the main character as the binder is awesome.

It has been one hell of crazy &(*)(_(%% ride. I have curtailed myself from using many number of explicits. Why, Because I don't have the freedom, the author had. Why, This is not a book. It is about a book. So, how does the author get all the freedom he likes while we readers have to be careful. I am trying to reason out ........

"An equal music" Love and music

After reading a couple of P G wodehouse books I was in the hunt for something different. While browsing the book store, my eyes fell on a book by Vikram seth. No, books by vikram seth. A collection of poems also in that list. Read a couple of poems. They were telling too much in between a couple of words, modern day stuff. The next book was the magnum opus, "A suitable boy". Now, words are not enough to describe this book. And that is, that. The next book is what I am reading right now. "An equal music". I had been knowing about this since I finished A suitable boy, but somehow was so overwhelmed after reading it that I thought he couldnt have written anything better than that. Oh, I again started about the boy, while the girl is supposed to come out from the past couple of years. Has he written anything at all really about the girl, we dont know. I would like to know for sure. If anybody has any news regarding this please do comment.

An equal music is a not equal for all readers. It definitely commands a better knowledge about music. Why, because there is a lot of communication regarding the chords, ups, downs, mediums and the stuff related to music. Yes you can ignore it and go along with the premise of the book and take everything in context. It is like reading A suitable boy without knowing India. Yes, you can read the book and understand everything in context but, the context of the country as a participant in the writing is left out. Let me tell you it is a big chunk you have left out. Many people have tried to sum up India and everybody goes back thinking that they have figured it out. Nothing can be near to truth than this thought. Coming back to an equal music, as you must have understood the undercurrent is music here. Listening to music and understanding music are two different things. People can talk languages but may not be able to write and read the same. I just felt the same here. The characters are well etched and we have a variety of characters. London, Vienna and Venice figure prominently. I think that the author loves these places and observed them very clearly.

As in all musical performances there will come various times in the performance a crescendo. Here also there are situations which are built up to that crescendo and then at the same time it calms down and you are taken along flats. I love all of those. That does not mean the flats and the smaller crests and troughs are not interesting. I definitely think that this was written much before A suitable boy. I may be wrong. But I have a very strong feeling about it. So, whom should you recommend this book. Definitely not for new readers. For accustomed readers, yes. For connoisseurs, yes. For non-musical people, No. I heard you. Your are telling me that you can read the book by ignoring the musical part. You can read, but then you are not a reader. Books are written for readers, yes. All class of readers, no. If writing is an art, reading also is one. Yes, we may not understand the full extent of the feel/purpose of the writer. But that is the purpose of the writer. The reader should be transported to that scenario. The reader should feel the same what the writer wants the reader to feel. The reader has to be an artist to really get to what the author wants to tell us. So can all readers who could read and enjoy detective/romance novels read a book on fiction written with music as the main protagonist. You tell me.

There is one another aspect which is brought out beautifully. The influence of public utilities like the libraries, the parks maintained for the general public in the making/learning/education of an individual. The joy of searching for a book physically has no parallel. That too borrowing a book from the library which has been read and churned by lakhs. I used to love the comments left by people on the books. And whenever I used to read a p g wodehouse, I always blessed the reader who had written the meaning of the word used by the master. This would heighten the joy of reading that man. So, I totally dig the author when his characters remember the good old times.

An equal music is absolutely equal to both the male and the female protagonist. It is told in point of view of the male protagonist. It doesnt neglect any of the female protagonists. All are on equal grounds. All are right and wrong. I am feeling I should also be knowing a little about the language of music. There is one more language I was fascinated by reading the book and that is the sign language. Immediately I remembered the braille language my co-employee uses to read when we travel. I always thought about only spoken languages. This book exposed me to many others. Thank you, Vikram seth.

There was one more nice discovery on the public network. While i searched the public network for an equal music, there was a gentle surprise. I found a collection/playlists of the music referenced in the book. The music was beautiful. It was very soothing. I could feel the crescendo moments in the book. I also could feel the diminuendos at various points along the collection of music. This is a great collection and the perfect companion for this awesome book. I did try learning to read sheet music and understood that it is not that easy. You should have the interest and passion to really get somewhere. Instead I thought that as an applied scientist, I would be an applied musician. Just listen to and consume it without knowing a damn about the background of it or how hard is it to produce a certain combination of music. To all the performers of music, here is my "RESPECT". You guys are awesome. 

Love is all over the place. Love flows throughout the book. Love is the epi-centre of the book. Everything in it is love. Music is the mortar binding all these. The romance is so nuanced. The romance is musical. There are happy notes, fast paced notes, slow ones, sad ones and ...... There is one note wherein, the saddest note played out by the protagonist in his mind gives him the ultimate happiness and then everything is all so clear. But as the observer of all and listener of all these notes, there is something which I went through which hasnt happened to me for a very long time. My heart shed tears and they were torrential. I was speechless for a very long minute. For the first time, I wanted this sadness to last. It is like extending the most exotic feeling of ecstasy. Love can understand all the variations of life and at the same time can be blinding if very narrow. Love has to encompass the entire universe. Love cannot be towards one. Love has always to transcend. Love has always to give way. And as the author sums up, It has to be felt a bit a time. Even the purest soul cannot take in everything. It has to be experienced in infinitesimal scoops. And dont forget to fall....... in love.

Thank you Vikram. I think you would have been better off writing a sequel to a "more" equal music.

P G wodehouse's use. "Jeeves and the yule tide spirit"

Picked up another collection of short stories from P. G. Wodehouse. "Jeeves and the yule tide spirit". This is now quite a different collection of short stories. It is named jeeves because that is the most known and frequently used character in wodehouse's works. There are a couple of stories with jeeves as the central character. These stories have been culled from other collection of short stories, jeeves specific. The jeeves ones, I had already read them, so gave them a skip for the rainy days. I was really shocked by the variety of the stories chosen for the publication. In wodehouse's words, quite a "rummy" collection. Well, dont worry, you still have the aunts, the uncles, the cousins and of course school time buddies.

There are a couple of stories which would give all the light romance novels a run for their money. They are exquisitely designed and written. You are immediately in the thick of the action. It is good to see that he has tried his hand at all the genres of writing. There is a story combining romance, horror and crime writers. That in itself was a very heady mix. I liked that piece. There are a couple of cheeky ones which we are accustomed to while reading wodehouse works. And of, course how can the collection be complete without cricket and golf. They all have their presence in the collection. All the stories have that happy-go-lucky thing as the undertone. In the wodehouse world you have a solution for all the problems in the world. In fact, the problems are what ignite the comedy in the situations. Otherwise the wodehouse world is very boring because every body is going about their chores like there is nothing wrong. Action starts even if there is a little wrong and even at the slightest deviation from the obvious.

Everything in the world is still hunky-dory. And at last everybody is happy. And we the readers are transformed and for a moment dwell in that world. I would not call his works escapist. I would term them as small time capsules to be taken at one's own orders. For a moment you want to forget the present you are in or in any world you could have been up-till now, you get yourself transported to wodehouse world. Maybe there is a learning or two(Well that would make a great case study for managerial studies, will it?????!!!). You have all the same classes present in the world in his world also. The rich/poor, dark/white, north/south. But the way they gel in, the way they criss cross each other and then the way they settle down can only happen in his works. The conclusions to such kind of stories is quite remarkable. The conclusion doesnt look much complicated when you are in the flow. But, when you are out of it and think about the story, you think, that is freakingly unbelievable.

What a writer. I had plenty of chuckles during my transit(sometimes it was very vocal). But I loved every bit of the book.

P. G. Wodehouse's Very Good, Jeeves

The past fortnight has been very productive w.r.t me starting to take up my hobby of reading books to the good old days. Having started with Franz Kafka's "The trial" you would expect me to maybe read the next novel of Kafka. No that didnt happen. I lightened up and started to read Very good, jeeves by P. G . Wodehouse. Yes, I can see that look on your face. I can see the look from here. I can understand the look especially if you are Kafka fan or also a Wodehouse fan.

 I am special. I am a fan of both these amazing writers. While Kafka saw what is wrong with the societal setup, Wodehouse gave a damn about what is wrong and used the same wrong to bring out that Right Ho! or the What Ho! spirit with lots of mirth and happiness. You felt bad while reading a Kafka work, bring yourself around with a Wodehouse short. What an amazing set of writers and such a different views on life. 

The short stories in the collection were so beautifully written with poetry in just words. I could listen the lyrics as well as music as i read throughout the sentences. I dont know the poetic prowess of Wodehouse but his music sense I think was excellent. And I dont have any rights on any sort of comments as to the vocabulary of this man. Yes, you may not know much of the words used. But, heed me if you dont strive to know the meaning you will not hear the music. Yes you can get where the story is going in context without caring a damn about the meaning of that specific word, I request and beg you not to do so. In all the stories, nobody works, which is exactly my argument of work. Why should anybody work. Why cant we just live? No, forgive me here..... Yes, back in the Wodehouse world, nobody works. They just live. The situations/plot lines are masterfully crafted. Every character is beautifully etched. So, if a character is told to do something, it will do so. Why? Well he was created to do just that. 

If anybody wants a lesson in character building,he should start and end right here in Wodehouse world. You read it while going to work, it will keep your mood uplifted because you know that while coming back to work also you will take yourself to that world. So to do that, you can work. When you are returning from work and reading him, you think you deserved this after doing things which were required to get this opportunity to read him. I was blown away by the preface for this collection written by the man himself. The simplicity of the man and what you would be expecting is on display from page one. I would love to be any of his characters. I dont have any problem being any of his characters. 

The situations are rummy/chirpy/exciting. They are not sad. Being written at times wherein the bad effects of tobacco were still not widely publicized they are thoroughly romanticized. You also get recipes for plenty of cocktails especially if you are a fan of whiskies and brandies. Intelligence as well as stupids are celebrated with equal aplomb. The bourgeoisie and the proletariat are treated the same without the complications associated with them. Most of the writing is "that is that" 

 I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey through the dark alleys of Kafka as well as bright and never say die spirit of the Wodehouse worlds. Thank you, gentlemen for your great and d endeavoring works.

Franz kafka's "The trial" between the indivdual and the society

There was a sudden void in my reading habits. I had gobbled up all the hardy boys, the nancy drews, alistair mcleans, agatha christies, desmond bagleys, eric van lustbaders, Mulk raj anands, sherlock holmes, Dalgaleish, Asterixes, tintins, phantoms, spidermans and what not. There was a certain appetite. I just gobbled up books. Sometimes finishing them the same afternoon and taking them back to the library only to be informed that the books can be exchanged only the next day. So I have to wait out the whole night before I could bring a new book. Buying books was out of the question. So to ensure that the book i want is available the next day, I used to misplace the books to my favorite location, the most dusty part of the library. To this day I don't know the books which were kept there. This place was my insurance. I would walk up the next day to that specific location take the book which I had hid and exchange it.

The community library run by the government was my favorite place in the whole world. To this day I am shocked that the library knew the tastes of their audience so well. Newer books would be a cross between the popular demand, the critics collection and topics spelt out by the government as standard. With a paltry strength, the library was well maintained and the classification was consistent. If you had a doubt the staff were very supportive and they knew your tastes exactly when you are a regular. There were books which were returned that day and not yet stacked. I was allowed inside this chamber to chose whatever has just been returned. I still cherish those memories.

It was now time for my professional education. The books are different, they are to be read in a different manner. They are to be read with emphasis on application. Engineering is a different word for "applied" pure sciences. It was very difficult to carry out my hobby reading. This period put my reading habits on the back burner. Then while commuting to work by my car, I was spending nearly 3-4 hour for commute. This is the time now, I have recognized for bringing my reading habit back. I was never so happy. Over this non-reading period there have been plenty of books on my to-read list. So started without the top most. P G wodehouse. While buying them, my eyes fell on the Franz kafka section. I was always coming across the term "kafkesque". I associated with so many things. All things particularly dark. I thought my reading habits will re-start with one from Kafka. Without knowing anything about the stories they were telling I picked up a random kafka book. The one I picked up was "The trial". What follows below is my thoughts on this book. There may be spoilers. Your are warned.

The feeling of reading the first few pages gave me a feel of deja-vu. I remember an Alistair Mclean book where the first few pages are used to describe a gun with so much detail that it transcends the physical gun to something with its own life and then at the end of the chapter, the protagonist tells that "This gun is aimed at me". The first chapter of The trial gave me the same rush. It was a jolt. It hit me directly. The first page, the first para was as harsh on me as on the protagonist. The novel is a celebration of the complexity of our societal system. It mocks the system and shows how complex it is to understand the system. The division of labor is laborious in our societal system that nobody knows much beyond what he is born to. I remember I ridiculed the life of a mosquito, wherein it dies within a range of a few kilometers. The human life also has become the same. There is division of labor at work and there is a specific role you are to play in the societal setup. This is brought out ever so elegantly with all the characters. Every character thinks itself important in the large order of things. But nobody knows beyond a very specific limit about the broader prospect. The people in the higher echelons also know only what they are supposed to know. The highest in this bureaucratic setup also only knows only what he is supposed to know. This is a just a result of the complexity of keeping the human race in a bound setup. Does the author suggest anarchy then? No he does not suggest anything. He just holds a mirror to the complex societal setup we humans have developed. Nobody has a mind of his own. All the actions/thoughts are suggested by the people around above and below. The individual is dead, always. In fact, when anybody tries to be his own, he is dead. Until he fits in the larger scheme of things everything is fine. When you start looking out of your work, your friends, colleagues, peers you see a different world. When you try to see beyond what you are supposed to then you die on your own or the system will kill you by showing how out of place you are.

There have been reviews of the book which tell that the author visualizes a totalitarian regime. This is far from the truth. The author is talking about our societal setup whatever be the system you use. Be it socialism, communism, democracy and other theories. All work on a whim that few people know what is good for the human largess. And nothing can be far away from truth. Yes, it is dark. Yes, it is chilly, Yes, it talks about how complicate the human mind is, how dark it is and how it always tries to break free. Yes, it talks about how the societal system tries to imprison the human mind putting it into a conundrum. The author wanted all his works burnt. Was he afraid to that he may disturb the societal setup with this. Normally all authors talk about how the bureaucratic societal setup is so bad. Nobody has brought to the fore how every individual is in the same mental situation. How everybody do their part, in ignorance to complicate the setup. The trial is where the author puts the societal setup on trial and the individual loses and the society wins.

But the, would we be better off in an anarchist system. We don't know, yet. It is very difficult to visualize something so big, bigger than figuring out and imagining galaxies, while still living inside the system. Can you get out of the system. Now, what does that even mean...........

So near to a Desktop..............Raspberry Pi 4

Its been a long time since I wrote anything technical. This particular piece has been long overdue. The public network is full of ideas of what not can be achieved with a raspberry pi. After owning the original pi and surprising plenty of people with its capability to output videos at full HD, You know, I was eagerly awaiting a pi with 4k capabilities. Many people were surprised at the announcement of the rpi 4 and its capabilities. I for one thought that the maker and I have a connection. But, yes, the connection lost lots of packages between. So, what have we got in terms of what I really wanted

1. 4k desktop(I don't know which monitor gets the capability at 60Hz. My monitor defaults to 30Hz whatever I try. I think we are talking about the latest HDMI standards)
2. 4k movie playback is still patchy. I think it will get better with the foundation/users/developers hacking away at it
3. USB 3.0 support is a major leap(We will discuss below how, this is a radical decision)
4. USB C charging is also welcome with more power headed its way(But not enough)

The best OS to run on a rpi4 is no doubt raspbian. Yes, it is still a 32 bit OS. But, wait, the foundation is supporting all the pi's dating back to the first one. Kudos to the team.There are plenty of options for running 64 bit OS developed by groups and hobbyist OS enthusiasts. They are limited by the quirks in the hardware and its hardware acceleration. The memory limit issues have been resolved. Now it is only about video output performance to be bought on par with the 32 bit raspbian. As we are speaking there is a thread testing out a 64bit kernel with 32 bit userland. For running the latest Firefox, a 64 bit kernel is now a prime requirement and the rpi hackers are getting there. Tried all of them out there. They all have certain polish out there. They run faster, they are stable enough. But, video output performance has not reached the 32 bit raspbian level. I always came back to raspbian by restoring the backup.

The foundation was little brave this time and touted the rpi 4 as a desktop replacement. That claim, is very gutsy. If your desktop requirement is to run a browser and not wanting to watch High Def videos multitasking with office suites, then, the rpi 4 is good enough. Oh, oh, wait. Before telling me otherwise, I do agree that ou can improve the performance and extract more juice out of the pi by investing a little more of your time an accessories. To bring the performance of the rpi 4 to a desktop level, you would require

1. A heat sink with fan(money) This is a necessary investment. Your rpi 4 runs very hot. It has to be cooled down or else you will feel the throttling. Even opening one single application raises the temperature to the max.
2. An sd card with highest transfer rate possible with corruption resistance(I came up with that)(money money)
3. Buy the original usb c charger. There have been reports that the rpi4 is picky when it comes to usb c chargers(money money money)

With the above items, and a little bit of overclocking and some software optimizations the rpi 4 is definitely nearing a desktop feature set.

A real desktop will definitely demand storage space. Here the usb ports come into play. The two usb 3.0 ports are a god send. Just connect your external HDD's and you have the storage capability of a desktop. A good desktop also has Bluetooth connectivity and 3.5mm jack connectivity. You are completely covered here. A good desktop of course has to have a keyboard and mouse connected. Your are covered here also with the two usb 2.0 ports. So you have to connect more usb devices, like another external HDD. Your Pi will die here. Now, it is time to invest in a powered usb hub(money X 4). Be careful here and buy a good one and check the power distribution among the ports in the hub.

A monitor. What is a desktop without a monitor. You definitely will have an old monitor lying in the attic. It is time to brush it off and connect it to the pi. Oh, you are far ahead and have a 4k monitor a 4k tv, rpi has you covered. The pi is very picky when it comes to supporting 4k. You might be out of luck for older ones. Buy a good hdmi cable. Or, better buy the official one. The desktop feels snappy. Choose your apps properly. Prefer functionality over eye candy. In this way you can get more out of your pi. Yeah, I heard you. You can always get a "mini" desktop from various vendors. But, I would like to stop you here. Will it be as hackable as the pi. Will it have the whole world building things for it. Will you be able to search the public network for issues and resolutions. Will you get to run Debian GNU/Linux as well as the pi can run. Will it be credit card sized. Will you enjoy it. Will it give you joy.......

Now, coming to the most costliest investment to extract more from your pi. The ssd. This is a must. The loading of applications from the sd card is pathetically slow. Opening word processors/modern web browsers will be slow(When I say slow, I meant in comparison with a desktop with the latest desktop processors from the big guys). I recommend strongly to invest in an ssd. All of a sudden, the rpi 4 becomes a "real" candidate for desktop space. Suddenly the pi feels snappier. It boots faster. The copying, installing, upgrading are faster. Applications load faster. The UI is very responsive. I can go on. It is highly recommended to go for a ssd on immediately buying the rpi 4. What would be the size? Well, you have been running your pi from an 8 bit card(Yes, even now that is enough). I dont think you get an ssd less than 32 GB. So go for the minimum sized ssd, if you are hard pressed for money otherwise, go the full monty and go for a bigger drive with enough space for all your data. It is upto you. But buy an ssd. Though I am stressing the requirement of an ssd, it is important that you appreciate its requirement. I suggest you run your pi from an sd card and then after a couple of months upgrade for an ssd. Then you will appreciate what I am talking about here and also why I spent a paragraph in influencing you to upgrade to an ssd. If you are seeing degraded performance after installing on a ssd, go here

Well, I observed that the post is not well balanced. It is like a non uniform graph, jumping about on the sheet. If you are reading it, you are definitely a fan of the rpi. So read on.

The public network is floating with optimizations available for the rpi 4. There are plenty of posts which help you to extract the last atom of juice from you rpi. Here are my recommendations. If you have any more feel free to share with me. Thanks in advance for all those efforts. Let me brief about my setup

1. rpi 4, 4GB
2. 4TB spinning HDD and a 1TB spinning HDD
3. 4 Port(USB 3.0) powered hub for connecting the above HDDs to the pi
4. Official charger for the rpi 4(This cant supply power to the second hdd)
5. 4K 32" monitor
6. Logitech wireless keyboard(K 400) with both keyboard and a touchpad. You will love this setup if you are invested in window managers. More on this later in the post
7. 8GB sd card
8. 128GB SSD connected to the USB 3.0 Port
9. A transparent case
10. Copper heat sinks for the main processor and the graphic processor
11. Fan

I have flashed the fully featured raspbian on the 8GB sd card. I then followed this excellent post to move the root file system to an SSD. Huge thanks to the OP and all the users/devs contributing o this huge thread. Dont use the option of using the method of device names like /dev/sda1 use the other option of specifying the id of the partitions for better compatibility and allowing the dirty job of allocating the device names to the OS by giving it a free hand and not doling out names which would make your device not bootable. If you are sure you are not going to connect any other disk then go ahead and do the first method. I suggest the partition id method.

Now it is time to disable the services which you don't want. There are plenty of posts and lots of directions in the raspberry pi forums for this. The sky is the limit and every user has his own requirements so go ahead and treat yourselves.

The default xfce4 desktop is quite good. That is if you are fan of traditional desktop environments. If you are a power user, then I would suggest you to shift to window managers. As their name they just manage windows. That is exactly what majority of us do when we fire up the desktop. For all other configurations we have the terminal. In my opinion, the most lightest terminal I have used to date has been urxvt. When I started searching for window managers and at last settling for i3, I was shocked to see that the majority of the configuration files shared by users on the public network mentioned urxvt as their terminal emulator. Once I started using it and configured it to my hearts content, any other terminal is bloated. When I fire up the rofi launcher and choose lxterminal, the hourglass is displayed for a brief amount of time. With an urxvt session, it is instantaneous. It is pure bliss. And when you are getting this response on a pi, it is a festival of sort whenever i fire up this emulator. I adore all the devs involved in this project. My favourite colour scheme is the solarized one and urxvt looks fabulous with this. Making it full screen without any borders and menus is........

The next piece of software I would like to talk is about youtube-dl. For all the command line junkies. This is a god send. Coupled with the unix philosophy of chaining the output of several commands, you have a miracle at your finger tips. Just combine it with omxplayer and you have a fantastic streaming solution. Did I tip my hat to the devs? Yes. Now, coming down to omxplayer. This is a quintessential piece of scripting to extract the maximum out of the video sub system of the pi. I am astonished at the video capabilities of the pi. All credit to the omxplayer devs. I do agree there might be some proprietary magic here. But, the foundation is working towards producing a good FLOSS representation of the graphics driver. All my best wishes for the team. Youtube does frequently defeat the purpose of youtube-dl but the devs have always found ways around it. I love you guys.


As always, all the ideas and optimizations mentioned here have been culled from all over the public network. If any credit is due, please drop a line and it will be acknowledged.

Microsoft trying to redefine "open"

             Recently I have been reading a lot about how Microsoft is becoming more open. Plenty of the articles are nice and long. The content is so bland that at the end of the article you feel "nothing". The only thing is that the word "open" will be used profusely and will be present in almost all the sentences. It is like you typed "open" 100 times and then started typing text around them. In one of the article, the author writes how Microsoft has started leveraging "open" source software instead of re-inventing the Tyre. This is what is happening. So, Microsoft will not acquire any proprietary company for an application.

               They will hunt for software available in public domain and use them without spending a single dime, which for Microsoft is definitely a major shift. This got a boost with the acquisition of github. Majority of software available on github are hobby projects satisfying the creators itch. They are now ready to use the model made famous by Apple(with Macos and webkit) and google(Android, chrome). If a piece of software is available with sufficient maturity include it. No licensing fees. Microsoft wanted a collaboration and versioning system, they went and bought github. How does a proprietary company justify acquisition of a platform used by FLOSS and OSS developers. Start rebranding the proprietary company which wants to become open.

                To this day not a single key proprietary software has been released in the open. How are they now open? But github was a key cog in the wheel of the upgrades for windows 10. Now, Microsoft wants a rolling release strategy for windows 10. That is there will not be a windows 11. github is the component Microsoft lacked. Now, the upgrades for windows 10 is much easier. With this methodology all the users are beta testers. But, the catch here is that people pay for a windows license. A wrong upgrade can be costly to the company. Now with the present acquisition, it will be easy for the company to roll back changes and release a downgrade. The best example for the openness ad per the organization is its decision of using chromium browser to replace its nonsensical attempt at browser. The worlds biggest company cannot make the most important software of the internet world. If you cannot fight them embrace them.

                     Why chromium? Holes. Microsoft likes holes. It creates holes and sells holes. To start with Microsoft cant make a browser so it cannot make a browser with good holes. So, take a browser created by a company with holes, lots of holes and made by an advertising company. What is the result of such a dangerous combo? Holes, Lots of holes(re-quoting Keanu Reaves). Now, Microsoft is "open" for business on the internet. Is google complaining? No, why? They will be getting to know the holes created by Microsoft. Together they are ever happy while exposing the consumer to the highest amount of data collection. Why didn't Microsoft fork Firefox? Just because the Xbox team is sitting beside the surface team, have they become open. Just because all its employees are sitting in open spaces, has Microsoft become open? Just because the "notepad" team is sitting beside the "office" team, are they now "open".

                  Microsoft is creating a new definition for "open". It is out to malign the word "open" create confusion among users regarding the meaning. The openness withing chronically closed systems. If the kids just sit beside parents and discuss can the system be called open. Yes withing the family, they can be called open, but doesn't mean that this family honors the society as a whole. All this PR about open is Pure PR. What is in it for the end user. Will you get a better windows experience and so on.....

          For us FLOSS enthusiasts, Until Microsoft matches the phrase "show me the code" there is no relation between the word "open" and Microsoft.

Apathy in India

          I am sitting waiting for my train. Two elderly couple order coffe from the vendor who is busy counting his money.In fact he reluctantly gave them coffee. They enjoyed the coffee gleefuylly sitting on the chairs provided on the platform. They finished it and then got up from their chair and did the most unthinkable and unimaginable thing. They threw the disposable coffe cup right in front of them. They then went back to their chairs waiting for the train. And I am in for one more shocker. The train rambled in right on time. But still, the time beig announced was for the arrival of the time. There was no indication as to when it would depart.

             Now there are two parts in the above situation. One is that of the elderly couple and the other is the dinasour of a train service, The Indian railways. Let us now take up the first part, the elderly couple. They had their cuppa which is very much ingrained in an Indian's daily routing, nothing wrong about it. The difference and the shock starts when the couple finish their cuppa. They threw the cup right on to the train tracks. They did this in auto mode. They did not give it a thought. They just thought that that was where the garbage had to go. Now they are waiting for a train which is supposed to arrive on the same track. For me this incident was a shocker. The event really caught my attention.

         This happened while I was going through a blog post regarding slackware and how the author adored the way the distro is being maintained and gave accolades to its history. All of a sudden because of this incident my eyes started to scan that particular platform. I was not searching for anything in particular. To start with, I started looking for waste bins, I found one just beside the elderly couple's chair. I nearly went near them and wanted to advice them that they had a bin at arms length. I just paused for a moment and observed that the bin was full to its complete capacity. Now I searched for all the bins across the platform and to my shock, every single one was overflowing. I restrained myself from advicing the elderly couple. Now, I turned my attention towards the vendor. Having counted his money, he was belting out the beverage at a feverish pace without bothering where the used cups are going to end. Now, I extended my horizong to all the platforms, wait for it, It was the same across the 10 platforms.

         The solution, which I thought at that moment was very simple. Dont allow the vendor to sell any more coffee until the waste bins are cleared. Imagine the uproar of the commuters at such a proposal. Thereby putting pressure on the vendors as well as railway personnel. Let us start keeping up cleanliness across all the public utilities. It is not happening with people on their own. It is better to put meaningful constraints on all the stake holders. The constraint should be on both the service provider and the service receiver.

The modern web is f*&*d

            It required the mozilla firefox's debacle to understand how complicated and shitty the  www has become. It is no more interlinking of html files. It is a treasure trove of executables. Executables are supposed to be run on your own personal computer/laptop. Every web page you open runs executable code. I just want to view the page. If i want to execute something, i will do it. But, the "I" for one is totally absent. It is "we". They decide what is to be show and executed. You, poor chap want to read the text in a html page. You point the browser to that exact html link. What do you get. Nothing. Yes, you get nothing out of everything. The world wide web to start with was such a joy. I remember seeing one of my richer friends using the www and I thought it was so serene. It was like God, if there was one has come down. It was like Krishna with all his knowledge is only waiting for you to ask the right questions. The answers are all there but tied to the right questions. It was like an interlinked answer sheet for "everything".

              What has the web come to now. The chromium browser i use, is the, ungoogled chromium build with all the plugins required for removing ads, privacy guarding, javascript disabling stuff. The link i wanted to open did not open until i disabled the script blocking plugin. Now, what is this page i was looking at. I was looking at a page from mozilla's website which was periodically being updated during this addons debacle. You know what, the page was not displayed until i enabled scripts to run. Why are scripts running here. Yes, I dont know how the modern www works. I just know how to make it look better from a client point of view. youtube doesnt display on the chromium browser with scripts disabled. I was just reading about the way youtube was started by its hipster devs. I felt very sorry for them. A big organization taking control of your pet project starts by giving you that processing power you need to start with. Then starts the acquisition of everything. You lose your identity. All acquisitions start with giving the acquired the promise of independence. Now, independence, is an intoxicating word. It is like you are suddenly on one of the private beaches and you are being told you are the owner and here is the money to run it.

                  From here the buyer will start scheming. How is he gonna integrate this independent entity into his largesse. Everything will happen bit by bit. The buyer will tell I am going to install security guards for "your" teams safety. Now, you are cornered and in the coming days you will screw your team or will exit it altogether for the team to fend themselves. The remaining team have to just go with the buyer. You and your efforts are still not recognized in the vc market. So you continue for a few days become goody goody with the buyer and incorporate whatever you are asked. There ends the independent product.

                    When I started using the public network. It was so neat. You want to download a big file do it from my ftp server. Dont clog my http server, other users will feel the latency. Your http server will "only" serve http pages and links, nothing else. You wanted to write a blog go ahead and register to organizations specialized in doing so. The tool will only concentrate on making blogging experience better. All of a sudden the blogging landscape became zero. All the blogs were searchable. What an utopian condition. Now, you write your blogs. It does not come up in any searches though it will be the only matching web page based on your searches. But the first 100/10000/N results will yield results what the "algorithms" tell. Now, algorithms is a good word for the big corporations to escape from responsibility. The algorithms are so complicated that i believe it is out of human intervention considering the complex rules which includes government rules, paid content, the ISP and what not. The user and the creator are totally lost in this maze.

                  Everybody wants to build a bigger walled garden. A stronger walled garden. Is everything in the walled garden accessible to everybody in that particular walled garden. No. The products are same as the industry. A person working beside somebody will not know about the salary of the next. But, all work in the same walled garden. The products are also the same. There is no openness left in this industry. There has to be a revolution. This revolution has to happen from the bourgeoisie, the content creators. The content creators have to wage the war. It is not that difficult. The internet allows the freedom  and tools to do it.

              I had a book named internet with me, purchased when i started to understand how the internet works. I remembered that book and gave it a visit. It might seem idiotic now, but, there was one word which caught my eye, "gopher" Sadly the number of articles on this protocol is at the minimal on the public network. But, this was until I went down one of the gopher hole. From here it was rabbit hole.

             I request all the content creators to host a gopher server and advertise it along the http pages. I loved the simplicity of the protocol(Come on, the http was just to have linkable web pages and travel down the rabbit hole). If you want your content to be searchable and help other people put it on plain html websites or put it in a gopher hole. Start using it, you will fall in love immediately, with its simplicity, with its methodology of serving content. Its adaptability to deliver content in terms of text file and to download other content like music/movies/pdf etc.

The servers available

af          A simple gopher server written in Lua, with a blogging module
geomidae    A simple gopher client written in C
Attua       A gopher server writting in Retro, A forth dialect


The clients available

sacc    A simple console gopher client
cgo     A simple console gopher client
vf1     Majority of the hackers on gopher tend to use it.

For more info enter the
gopher://bitreich.org:70    with your gopher client

The above is a very small list. I have come across much more. At this moment of writing I have used the above and remember them well.

           I spend all my time on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD. Therefore all the collections are projects running on these platforms. What an awesome community/developers are out there. It has been an honor to use your hard work and your passion.

On Newspapers

         I remember as a kid, whenever and wherever a newspaper was in my hand, I would turn first to the last page which talked about news that can be easily digested. Normally it would be sports new and told who won or lost with scores. There were times which I had seen the sports event and I already knew the result and had my own review of the event. Reading about it in the newspaper was to see whether I was right or wrong. Now, Why was I turning only to those pages? I remember my father never reading those pages. But he never tried to force his hand in the way I was reading the newspaper. He was happy that I was reading the newspaper, at the least.

        Compare this to the other extreme of one of my friends. His father was so serious , he had his son write down the entire headline article everyday during his summer holidays. This happened in his house everyday, while I played away at his gaming console. I never knew the intention of his father but for me it was a punishment. The punishment was a result of his anger towards the school for giving us vacation. Later I thought that this he forced his son to do this to improve his vocabulary. This idea of his was not working since we were not having any conversation in the English language. We conversed in our local language and we never discussed the topic which he had written for an hour. During the same time I had access to all the comics and magazines his father had subscribed.

        They were instrumental in me knowing about some broader aspects of those days. I think the writing in the magazines was a little special. It somehow grabbed my attention. Maybe it was a combination of visual aids and writing which would combine historical facts and extrapolation to the future. Comics took me to another world. A world devoid of all the perfect sciences and mathematics of my school. The law of least resistance of nature was at play. I had chosen to read things which required the least effort from me to understand what is being read. Now the thing is should we read based on the law of nature or your interests or read it in a sense it is intended to be read.

        What is the newspaper intended for. How is it to be read. In what mental state should the newspaper be read. I believe that the newspaper should be read in a holistic point of view and be read with an open mind without any preconceived notions. Yeah, i get it, you are telling me that whatever is to be read has to be done with the same attitude. Now there are reading objects which are like textbooks which are written with a specific aim and normally with a very narrow and specialized subject. This has to be read in depth. A newspaper on the other hand has to be read holistically and then if interested in a specific subject you can drill down with Wikipedia and then on to textbooks. Can newspapers do some job of Wikipedia and text books. What i meant was a little ahead than "informing" the reader.

        This is where weeklies, monthlies and fortnightlies enter. But there is a chance for newspapers also to do the same thing with their weekend specials. Very few newspapers have nailed the weekend specials. Reading sports news is so easy on the mind. There is no post-processing on the individual except for siding with a specific sides and then reasoning out why one side lost or won. The same goes for movie related articles. They are easy to digest. Newspaper was my window to international movies. This was the next section I used to read after the sports section. I waited for my opportunity to watch the movies I had read about and my god, did i watch them once i got an opportunity. And i love the way newspapers cover international movies. They dont go in depth. They just state the facts and leave the imagination to the user. In depth revies happened only for movies released in our country. And all movies never really made it, particularly ones with "critical" acclaim. This is exactly that moment where I thought that newspapers have to be read in their entirety.

         The act of choosing the newspaper to start doing it and continue to read the same was more difficult than I thought. But I did zero in on "The Hindu". It had impeccable engish and broad coverage and "plenty" of articles to read. The reason for the choice is very interesting. This particular newspaper had a very interesting way of giving out sports news. They mixed it up with other serious ones and the last page didnt have a single sports news. This was a winner in all the things I thought was wrong with newspapers. And then all of a sudden something happened they wanted to reduce the size of the newspaper. I think it was the increase in pulp prices which was forced upon readers with a reduced size. But the newspapers advertised it to tell that they were adjusting to the "millenial" generation. The size is better to hold and read.

        One more thing happened. A few pages went color. An excellent opportunity to increase the prices. So now we had the newspapers adjust the price increase of pulp and at the same time increase the prices showing readers colors. And then something else happened the quality of articles in the Sunday magazine reduced and the most important thing, sports started arriving at the last page, again. But, the present newspaper is back to its glory age with the last page having other articles interspersed with little sports. The biggest change which prompted me to write this post is that the Sunday magazine has changed, a lot. It is now a booklet size, a bigger magazine size and very near to my favorite fortnightly, "The illustrated weekly".

       This was one magazine which had one of the best writers of our time as its editor. There are eminent writers who complain on lack of good content and good writers, but when given an opportunity and responsibility to improve the same they sulk. Khuswant singh is an awesome writer and as an editor, I have not seen anybody in my reading period who is even a bit close to him. Everything about the illustrated weekly was different, awesome. The size, the front shiny pages, the layout of the mag, the collection of articles, the heading where all these articles went, the heady mix of national and international news, the wry humor, the language, the movies, the sports, the politics........ I just fell in love with the mag. I never used to miss it and would wait for the next week. In fact i would call it as fandom.

      But, all good things come to an end. The publication was stopped. To this day I dont really know why it stopped. To this day, I dont want to know what happened. I dont want that feel to end. If you know why and all, it would be like it is over and then move on the next case. I like the feel that I dont know much about why it stopped. Yes, you may know. Dont tell me.

         Compare the physical newspaper with the electronic versions. You will never get a holistic view. You will be fed a particular article. In fact you will be fed with articles you would like to read. This is again not decided by human intervention, but, by machines. The spread of a newspaper with various subject articles is a sensory delight. From generic knowledge/news we are moving towards specific list of interests. I am not against it. But more and more of your interests only and nothing of other information which do have bearing on your interests in various ways is bad.

        Withing walled gardens created for us, we further create walls by specifying our interests. Apps love when people do this. You are interested in sports but an app cannot tell you how the polity-economical condition, technological advancements, world order have any say on your subject of interest. Reading a newspaper is a ritual.

        The quintessential coffee cup with in-frequent sips and turning the pages one by one. I salute Mr. Gutenberg for the print medium he created. Newspaper is a journey in print. It is the existing "classic" in the present modern age. It is no big deal to understand why the apps started by these newspapers are not a hit among readers. It is difficult to squeeze the entire universe into one planet. I would always suggest to all the readers to spend some time a fixed time with a cuppa and read the newspaper, you never know which rabbit hole would interest you.........

Use happiness instead of fear/intimidation/punishment

            I have been reading a lot of articles regarding the troubles taken by the security agencies to find out more abut the issues created on their own. To remove one thorn you use another thorn and you start thinking that the thorn you used are better ones. But you have now created a thorn which is mightier than the one just removed. That same thorn will now start biting you in an indirect way. The thorn knows its owner and its creator. It will be careful not to bite the creator directly. But a time will come where the signature of the thorn bite is recognized by its creator.

            Now the creator is at crossroads. It knows that it cannot create a new, a better, thorn. The creator has learned from his mistake. Now the creator has no option but to use brute force to remove the thorn. In the process the creator has to undergo a lot of pain. The thorn has learnt from the mistakes of the one it dislodged. It is now housed deeper. The more you confront it, the more the pain. Now the creator resorts to really try to know ways to dislodge the The thorn now has so many branches it is difficult to decide the master branch. You destroy a master branch, another tertiary branch will take the place of the main branch. This tertiary branch will not do any mistakes done by the previous master branch. Continuous learning. This is an infinite loop with no end in sight with the infinite pain both on the creator and the thorn. Instead of inflicting pain and then eliciting information/response form the thorn, why shouldn't we allow it to grow itself into a nice plant which would yield edible fruits. Why not give the thorn so much happiness, near ecstasy, show it the paradise lost and then show them the paradise found. why don't we show the thorn that heaven is right here, on earth and can be experienced right now. why not lead the thorn through the dark prison gates to a place of high life. Why not show it the fruits of capitalism(which the capitalists are good at) why not tell them how it works or how they can make it work.

          Dont we talk aplenty when we are happy. Dont we cry when we are ecstatic. Make then so happy and at the same time sad by showing them what can be done with a little bit of hard work and education. People talk when they are happy. They do. In fact the let off all the guards when they are happy than when they are punished. Cant you remember the number of times it has worked with your boss, spouse, parents. Haven't you asked the most endearing request when the sponsor is the happiest. With this effort we may not be able to convince the thorn about happiness in the world but even if we create a small doubt in their minds it will go a long way in stopping people form carrying out ghastly deeds. There are plenty of examples of anti establishments wherein a doubt was created in their minds regarding their efforts and come over to the mainline to try that last ditch effort all because of a small doubt regarding their present activities. This is where the establishment should work seriously and support these and make them fine examples of the happiness available at the crossover. Every single case can be an example for aplenty. It should not do anything negative with the lot crossing over. The establishment should be very careful here. Compare it with confrontation logic wherein the response from the thorn will be based on older experiences/doctored thoughts and not on logic.

          Show them where they stand in the supply side. Show them the demand waiting for this supply which they are capable of creating. Instead of building bullet proof dark alleyed buildings and spending the tax payers money in using this investment on these misguided people let us spend the same amount of money in giving these people greater happiness and show them how they are using up the happiness of plenty others who are toiling hard and are not on the supply/demand map because these people are eating away at their expense. Open them out like this. When people are happy they are the most chatty. Get that information from the ecstatic captors and try to bring other people into the establishment. This can be done very easily considering the share of these people are minuscule. Let us kill the demon which capitalism has created by using the very fruits of capitalism. Normally these alternate groups are formed based on common ideologies. Creating a doubt in few of the people will result in clash of ideologies which will bring out the best. Ideologies should always be in question.

Money, money, money

        What is it about money? How much of it is necessary. How much is enough. How much is bad. How much is good. Does it depend on the individual and his place in the society. Does it depend on the money an individual is already having. Is money the means of consumerism. Is money the mother of all evils. Is the burning man which rejects money and brings back the barter system the answer to all the evils of money. Does barter bring about equality among people. Does barter reduce the rich and the super rich. Will people start honoring relations and human emotions if money is taken out of the equation. Will the removal of money bring in Anarchism which is supposed to mimic the "ultimate order" in chaos. Is money the first aspect of blinding of logic of humans resulting from emotions.

        Actually what does money bring to the table of human society. At the last mile of human society, majority of human emotions are expressed w.r.t money. It can be giving voluntarily, taking by force, taking without the knowledge of the present owner. Happiness, boredom, anger, love, time for love, condition for love, maintaining relations all change at the drop of a hat with change in the money holding power of the individual. Are human relations still strong enough to transcend the issues arising out of the effects of money on the same relations. Is money akin to God. If somebody has all the money in the world, would he have seen god. Since God is supposed to be everything. Is money greater than all the dark energy in the universe since money is what is required to research and find out about dark energy. 

         You are telling me that a genius might be born who would start spurting out all the details regarding the dark energy in the universe. But you forgot that he has to be born and he has to be bought up to this level. At least up to the time he can talk. There can be another option wherein god himself surfaces and shows us the dark matter of the universe Is money and Economics the greatest science of all time. Since this is what allows us to carry out science. If the journey is more valuable than the destination then money and its study is the most valuable study of all time. Should we commit more resources to concentrate more on this path than the destination. But there is a catch. If science is the destination of all the money based activities the path we have been discussing about is limited by the state of science. If this path has to extend then we have to extend the state of science. 

         Majority of investment from the biggest investors is towards this only. The extension of this path again re-iterates the importance of money. It is a chicken egg situation and cannot be solved that easily. Normally both have gone hand in hand and continue to do so. The rate at which the path is lengthening is greater in the modern times and so are the complications of money based issues. The human race is submerged in this path and its destination. Well I have asked enough questions. Are they related. In fact what is this post about. Is it about the human race, the human relationships, Is it about science or economics. Is it about behavioral theory which has found its way into economics as well as science. 

         How will humans battle the science and economics and maintain sanity in relationships and feelings. So humans changing their relations and their feelings according to the economic models and advancement of science a given. Does it remain same even in and anarchic setup. Why is there no study regarding anarchy. There have been many writings regarding this topic but never practiced in reality. The burning man which tries to do it is a capital intensive arrangement carried out by capitalists. Will humans start valuing relations/feelings more in an anarchic setup. If every man has a purpose will the it change in a capital setup or remains the same in anarchic setup. Money, the end of older relationships, beginning of newer ones, starting bitter ones, starting sweeter ones all in the name of increasing the amount of money. This is the present model of the human setup. Can this model be changed. Are there better models negating the use of money. Are there better models wherein an individual does not think that increasing what he has is the only way to be happy.

Meeting RMS at Mandya(Once in a lifetime opportunity), Karnataka, India

As I have written in many of my blog posts regarding my introduction to computing in 2002. No event affected me more than the reading of RMS's escapades with the printer at the AI laboratory. There was something about the philosophy being churned out in the help file withing the church of emacs. Now, maybe if i had tried editing my configuration files in vi I wouldnt have come across this philosophy of sharing. I still am not sure what prompted me to fire up emacs from my RH 6 machine. I finished the tutor and the was looking for further directions. It was at that time I read the about page on emacs. From that day I have been an ardent fan of RMS and his strict idealistic ideologies which is a mouthful for many an individuals who take sharing as sharing and nothing else. It is very difficult to understand him. He is egoistic. He is very strict on his beliefs and ideologies. I still remember when he last visited India and was interviewed by swapnil bhartiya. He did not drink bottled water until he got a bottled water not manufactured by coca cola. The reason being that he was against some un-ethical practises by the said company in some part of the world.


Let me come back to the present. I was damn lucky to meet him in person at Mandya, Karnataka, India. The event was organized by FSMK(Free software movement, Karnataka). I did not know that such a group existed and am indebted to their efforts in organizing this event. Now, how did I know about it. I am not on any proprietary social networks. I got the information on Mastodon. This makes my decision to stay on Non-proprietary online information sharing tools more interesting. This place, Mandya, is around 100Kms from my place. It was a 2 hour journey. I was present in the auditorium an hour before the stipulated time. There were announcements made to the attendees regarding the mentioning of Linux and GNU/Linux. He was on time and he walked in to a rousing standing reception. And the first one liner was shot. "Dont stand for me, stand for free software" He removed his shoes and started his presentation almost immediately. He did not want to waste a minute. He wanted to get right to the point almost immediately. The organizers were shocked at his speed. It took some time to get their bearings. After 10 minutes or so into his talk, The Indian way of welcoming the guest with a Mysore peta(Traditional cap of Mysore made with silk thread and a sandal wood garland) was done.


His homework regarding the local issues were excellent. He asked for "Mandya Gowdara Tea". Since there was a delay he was given tea made from Tea bags he had brought all along. He spelt the name of the language spoken in our parts perfectly i,e, Kannada(Majority of the Indians who dont stay in our parts spell it Kannad, which is wrong). The most striking was the parallel he drew of our freedom struggle with the present software freedom struggle. His say was that to gain freedom we have to embrace things which we are not comfortable. Freedom is not free. We have to work for it. In the Indian freedom struggle though the British flooded the Indian market with ready to wear clothes from Great Britain(Of course the raw material was from India). We as Indians fought against it by announcing swaraj, wherein we starting spinning our own textile raw material and stitching our own clothes from raw cotton. This was definitely not comfortable at all. But that is a cost we paid for gaining the freedom we cherish(or taken for granted) today. Excellent point. He used the word "Svatantra", the kannada word for "libre" instead of "Uchita" for "Free". RMS, I love you.


The talk and the content was standard. The freedoms associated with the software licensed with GNU GPL v3 and above and why all the developers should use this version particularly and also mention "GNU GPL v3 and higher" which would make the job of the FSF easy when faced with issues regarding copyright.


As usual, the Q&A is where he succeeds or fails miserably


There were questions regarding privacy, china government's mode of working etc which received long and boring answers. Let us cut back to the little interesting ones.


Q. I wanted to contribute to the FSF. When I opened the contribution page I saw that the amount of information I have to give before even entering the payment details was more than that required for opening an amazon account. The contribution process should be simple and as easy as clicking a button
A. Oh. I dont know about this. e-mail me the web page you are talking about. The payment cannot be as simple as a single click(It is for the reader to decide what is right or wrong about his answer)
Q. Wil the development of GNU os continue
A. No. It will not be developed. We had all the userland utilities and were lacking a kernel. Now we have the Linux kernel.
Q. What are the future projects of fsf
A. Oh, you can see our website regarding where the money comes and goes. librejs is being developed to remove the proprietary JS being used.
Q. What about building social networks. Like GNU social
A. Muffled answer.(I dont remember much)
Q. Free software conservancy hosted few videos on its website requiring proprietary JS implementation which if not enabled is not allowing to be viewed and fsf is one of the sponsor of the event of the video. Isnt it ethically wrong
A. I cannot keep track off each and every activity of the FSF.(summary I dont know and I am not going to anything about it)
Q. As a first time developer I am very interested in making money. How am I going to make money by giving my code away
A. (Unclear points) followed by You can work as a waiter for a living and then you can code in your spare time for the public good. If I did not have this job then I would have been a waiter to support what I am doing now.


Thank you,RMS, for everything you have done and will do in your endeavor towards pushing freedom software. Yes there will be fallacies, there will be pitfalls. But walking the talk is what matters. In a world where ethics are washed out at the drop of a hat, we have you, as a benchmark for the philosophic side of freedom software. I wish you would live for eternity, negating all the naysayers.