FSF talk, FISAT, Angamaly, Kochi, Kerala

Hi,

* The final day of "Bharatham 2006" on Saturday March
12, 2006 at Federal Institute of Science and
Technology, Angamaly, Kochi, Kerala was cancelled due
to a fatal accident, the previous night, to students
from a nearby college. After the cultural festival on
Friday night, the students had left in their car at
around 2230. They didn't have control of the car at
one turning near a small bridge, skidded across, and
drowned in the river. The doors were locked and had
got jammed. Out of five students, only one managed to
escape. A tragedy to all students, faculty, friends in
and around Angamaly.

* Since I had come all the way, they just wanted me to
conduct an informal session for few minutes to the
faculty and few students who were there. I spoke on
free software and GNU/Linux. As a mark of respect to
the loss of life, I didn't take any photographs.

* I spent the remaining time with the students there,
and got to know more about free software activities in
Kerala, right from Calicut, to Palghat, Trichur,
Angamaly, Kochin, Thiruvananthapuram.

* Had an opportunity so speak to Pramode
(http://pramode.net/) who is an inspiration to
students at Government Engineering College, Trichur
and other
places in Kerala.

* Got to know about Space Kerala who promote free
software and do good work in promoting the same to
schools, colleges, NGOs, http://space-kerala.org/.

* Special thanks to Sumod Menon (final year, ICE) for
coordinating with me for the past three weeks, and for
the hospitality offered.

I, along with Chennai GLUG
(http://www.chennailug.org/wiki/Main_Page), would like
to collaborate more with our folks in Kerala, and want
to organize more workshops in future.

Regards,

SK

--
Shakthi Kannan, MS
Software Engineer, Hexaware Technologies
[E]: shakthimaan-/[email protected]           [M]: (91) 98407-87007
[W]: http://www.shakthimaan.com      [L]: Chennai, India

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