At last I am writing on my last trip to West Bengal, my home land. Was planning for the trip for quite a time as hand condition never looked cool.
First, after reaching Kolkata I visited the doctor. He checked my right arm and said it is improving and as I am not feeling anything or feeling too many things in my right arm , he asked me to wait for couple of years :( But most of the conversation with him went on “whether a girl with computer engineering degree is good as daughter-in-law or not”, I think he is thinking a lot on that :p
Reached home on Saturday night 9 o clock. Again got up early next day morning and came back to Kolkata, after spending 2 days returned to Durgapur on Tuesday in a early morning bus. Directly went to my college, where I started talking with the juniors. The talks went as every time it did previously. Started explaining with what is GNU/Linux, what is Fedora to what is Free Software. Told them about various opportunities they can get while working on different projects. I saw little bit more interest this time than last time, dgplug poster was a clear hit :) So decided to do a Fedora install fest next day. As a lug our target is always to spread Linux, so directly installing it to the newbies’ systems and fixing the problems they might get was a target this time. I took all updated RPMs from my lappy and desktop with me from Bangalore , Internet connection was/is the biggest problem with the students there. So , I distributed (actually was burning them) a DVD with a local repo full with my RPMs. I got many games and useful software there. After the collage ended I went to the local computer shop (same shop I use from 2001) to fix my broken desktop. It is P -IV box with 1GB RAM. Around 8pm at night I started feeling problems, fever came very fast with food poisoning and I skipped lunch in the afternoon as I was busy in talking with the students. Came back home around 10 at night, the first thing my father told me was not to go to Durgapur next day and to take some rest. But as I gave my word to those students I had to go. I believe the local coordinators are still missing the enthusiasm to do these kind of meetings. Took medicine and went to bed half dead :)
Next day morning was feeling far better than last night. Reached durgapur around 12. Started installations at around 1.30. We all were in a class room, around 4-5 laptops were present . Installations went very smooth. While doing installations I kept talking on various points to them. The students also asked many questions. Showed them python :) After the installations they learned how to use yum. They copied my local repo and also burned it so that they can give them to their friends. I tried to make the event less formal , tried to make connections personally with these guys as they have the capabilities to become potential contributors. I found having the personal touch with the students really help to convert them into active contributors from simple users. It was a very nice experience :) After everything finished, went back home. My home/village is around 1.5hours aways from the city of Durgapur.
Last 2 days I spent to present some introductory talks in NITDGP or BCET. You can read more about that here.
