Weekly Notes 52/2023

Now that I live in two cities. I am trying to explore Thrissur. I know very little about this town. I plan to explore more in 2024, especially all the FOSS-related activities.

• I could attend the Kerala Wiki Conference and birthday celebrations at Thrissur on Saturday. It was fun, and I was able to grasp most things. My Malayalam is not great, but I could understand most of it with English slides and context, though I couldn't speak. The one project that interested me a lot was the herbarium project by the biology department of St Thomas College.  
• All three of us had a bout of viral fever and are recovering now. I took this week off to rest and return in the new year with total energy. Echo and Pathu have been doing well, unlike us.
• Sometimes, I think about how it must have been to live in the Natzi era without opposing them. I think about it mainly in the Indian context. How can one live in India today without fighting casteism, communal politics, and unfair/inhuman laws? Then, I am reminded of the cost of speaking the truth to power. Just this week, co-founder of CircleCI Paul Biggar was fired from the company he started for the blog post he wrote about the genocide of Palestine people. It's the same in India and the US. They are the two biggest democracies in the world. And to say the least, it's sad. There is hope too.