Nithin Kamath's Weblog

Yesterday evening I was in the park and observing the people passing by. By now you would be thinking, I must be crazy to sit in a park all alone on a Saturday evening doing nothing wasting my precious time. You bet. Believe me, the dose of natures fresh air and the calm is the best you can give your body and mind.

Coming back to the intent of writing this post, during the time I spent there one thing which really hit across and which we hardly notice these days is that of true happiness. In a age where money and success is all that matters, it was a real treat to observe small kids express their happiness which brought about a bigger smile on their parents faces.

My bench was in a strategic spot where in the kids could start seeing the large newly opened playing area with see-saw, swings etc. As the kids came the reactions were worth the watch, I missed not having taking my camera along. Each kid responded differently, some jumped with joy, some pulled their parents to come along faster, others just ran forward in full throttle to the play area.

If I had taken the camera, I would have loved to take a photo of a small boy who came wearing cool orange goggles and the moment he saw the play area, he stood still on his track. After a couple of seconds, he took off his goggles in style with his eyes still popped out. Now thats what I call being wonder struck. After the initial adrenaline rush was over, he put back his goggles and ran to the play area, leaving his parents gasping for air trying to catch up with him.

Yes, this should get us thinking, when kids can be so happy and express it so nicely why can’t we. We can see people all around stuck up with their own life, not happy with what they have and wanting more, most of them filled with anger just looking for trigger to blow.

As we celebrate Independence day, I would say is the right day to get rid of all the cobweb you are caught in. Enjoy the freedom you have been provided and relax, enjoy the world around.

Note: So far this year I have not been able to write much on my blog. So I have thought the only way to revive my blogging area is to write small and quick random thoughts and observations.

Atul Chitnis introducing Philip Tellis at FOSS.in 2009

The 2009 edition of FOSS.in came to an end yesterday and this was my first experience attending such a big conference. So how was my experince? All I can say is that I was totally blown away by the spirit, dedication and enthusiasm of the people who were a part of FOSS.in. I salute all the people who made FOSS.in such a memorable experience.

For a first timer like me being at such a event can be a bit overwhelming, but thanks to Laxminarayana Kamath I got to meet up with lot of people right from Baiju, Santosh, Debayan, Sham, Tony, Ankur, Deepak, Anil, Hardik, Vignesh and lots more…sorry folks I am not able to mention all your names but I sure remember you.

FOSS.in has lots of talks and workouts, I attended a few of them and to sum them all up I would quote what Philip Tellis had quoted in his ‘Shut up and hack’ keynote “Have Itch, Scratch”, that is what the conference is all about and the tag line of the event ‘Show me the code’ is justified. If you were at the workouts and seen the number of them this year you could have understood what the Itch can do.

One more thing that made this years FOSS.in special and convinient was that it was held at NIMHANS Convention Center with three auditoriums for talks, one whole floor for the workouts – WOW! Thats how it should be.

So I will wrapup this quick writeup on FOSS.in 2009 with a BIG Thank You to the Team FOSS.in for organising such a big event in such a smooth manner.

Couple of weeks back on a Sunday evening I and Harish were sitting in the BSK IInd stage park chatting about how tough the life of a software engineer has become. Suddenly a thin and untidy looking man came up to us and started begging for a single Idli saying he had not had food for a day or so and was feeling very hungry, but by looking at him we could make out he was a bit drunk.

So we told him to go away but he was persistent and kept on asking, after a couple of minutes we felt it was wise to give this fellow the benefit of the doubt, after all he may not have had food for sometime which is resulting him in being a bit shaky. So we asked him to come along with us and we proceed toward the park exit.

The moment we reached the exit of the park the man stopped in his tracks, we called him telling the hotel is just a few yards away, but he stood still. Finally he opened his mouth and told us he does not want anything. We insisted, but he did not listen. So we went back to the park, meanwhile he had found someone else to beg for a Idli (Never knew Idli was the codename for Liquor!!)