[Fsf-friends] Welcome to RMS

[Ramanraj K]

>
>
> Arun wrote:
>
>RMS should be in india from Jan 16 to Feb 2nd. 
>Will be participating in WSF. 
>
As per our Tamil Calendar, Pongal, the festival of harvest, when the sun 
is thanked, falls on Jan 15, 2004.  It is remarkable that RMS, the Sun 
who heralded the Free Software movement will be visiting India at about 
the same time.  The Sun shines on its own, and is the source of all life 
and energy.  We all have more reasons to celebrate the harvest season 
the forthcoming month of Thai, and the popular tamil proverb goes "Thai 
piranthal vazhi pirakkum" - Thai is the harbinger of good tidings.  We 
can hope that the visit of RMS to India, and the WSF meet will make a 
difference in all our lives.

I am sure the FSF would have its prorammes and plans for the visit, but 
I would like to stress, that there should be more focus on presenting 
RMS and the activities of the FSF, to the media and to the public, so 
that there is a wider awarness about the value of the free software 
movement, that is being grossly unutilised in India.  Newspapers have 
given excellent coverage in the past - I still remember an article by 
Satish Babu in the Hindu that was titled something like nothing is more 
appropriate for India, some two years ago.  There was another article 
about the free software option last month in our papers.

There should be a good built of an electrifying excitement over the 
visit of the chief guru of free software.  I never knew that RMS had 
visited Chennai twice in the past, until recently.  Even with my own 
limited knowledge, I know that RMS has travelled widely in India 
addressing the student community in several Indian Universities and 
colleges, and has visited culturally significant spots like, 
Mahabalipuram.  RMS wrote that Belur-Halibedu took his breath away. 
 There are several interesting facets of RMS that would connect him well 
with the common public of India, and it is high time that we make 
optimum use of his visit to promote use of free software as extensively 
as possible.