[Fsf-friends] Significance of Pongal

Ramanraj K ramanraj@md4.vsnl.net.in
Sat Dec 20 13:07:15 IST 2003


Annamalai Gurusami wrote:

>But then the WSF 2004 is to be held in Mumbai.  Is he travelling down
>to Karnataka or Tamil Nadu during his visit?  
>
Someone has already asked for the itinerary of RMS and I am sure Arun 
would post it when ready.
Please note that I only wrote about the spirit that prevails in India at 
that time of the year.  For a long time, I thought that pongal in Pongal 
was just what we eat after the rice is cooked with milk and jaggery in a 
new pot until it overflows and offered to the sun along with sugarcane. 
 Please read what Chantal Boulanger & Tom Dawber had to say about the 
Pongal, in their book titled "In the Kingdom of Nataraja":

<quote>
... their belief impregnate every part of their lives and come from the 
depths of their being and history.  Pongal, the most popular Dravidian 
ritual, is a "boiling-over", a symbol of life and fertility, and a way 
to thank the divine energy which swallowed their ancestors for 
millennia.  Here the pot contains the Energy, it means the over-flowing 
plenitude rather than the void."
</quote>

The day before Pongal, we have Bhogi, when, by tradition, all unwanted 
pots are broken up, and used clothing and others are burned up, to pave 
way for the new pots and things.  Life is seen as a continuous renewal.

What better occasion could there be for doing away with proprietary 
licences, that could be given a disposal at the time of Bhogi!  RMS in 
this free sofware song has sung:


<quote>
[To the melody of Sadi Moma]

    Join us now and share the software;
    You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.
    /x2/

    Hoarders may get piles of money,
    That is true, hackers, that is true.
    But they cannot help their neighbors;
    That's not good, hackers, that's not good.

    When we have enough free software
    At our call, hackers, at our call,
    We'll throw out those dirty licenses
    Ever more, hackers, ever more.

    Join us now and share the software;
    You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.
    /x2/

</quote>

Visit:  http://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.html


We have enough free software now.  People don't have to wait until Bhogi 
to throw out those dirty licenses, but it would be a good symbolisation, 
and pave way for free software.




>
>BTW, where is FSF India located (any office?).  
>
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