It’s late at night; the winter makes the surroundings so noiseless. Sounds of Pink Floyd from my Winamp fills the room, as I type on…

There’s something about the night that gives us freedom. Hmmm… talking of freedom, how much we like freedom, and exploit it to its limits. We are all caught up in the shackles of freedom.

I was making the promotional video for Mukti ’09, and here’s what Mukti meant to most people, “Freedom”. So, I think to myself what Mukti meant to me… Freedom…yes, Freedom of course. Only a bit more than that. So, here’s a story of how a technical event changed my college life. Here’s my defining moment of 2^nd year. Mukti 2007.

After Youth for Equality, my bonding with the folks in college was elevated. However, I remained just a face in the crowd, who wore fancy clothes to attract others attention. But that was not what I was all about. So, I derived more attention through my orkut profile. In order to seek attention, I digitally manipulated my photographs (OK, Photoshopped them).

I didn’t realize I was killing two birds with one stone (there goes another cliché). My orkut account was catching everyone’s attention, and I actually learnt a lot of Photoshop in the process. So, I was asked to meet a final year student, who designed some posters for some events. I met him, and he wanted me to design a poster for the official Technical Fest of the college. He said there was a team of people who did this, and then they would decide if my poster was good enough or not.

I thought it was a stupid process, and that no one had the right or ability to judge a work of art. So, I never returned with the designs to him.

On my friend’s advice, I also went for the auditions of another club. Again, I thought interviewing me and judging me was neither anyone’s right or in their ability (that belief still stays with me, and I guess I have already proved more than a point or two by now). Anyways, I went to the audition, just for my buddy (who by the way is an ardent follower of this blog). I answered in the negative, to every question that was shot to me. The result was, neither party was satisfied with each other.

And then, one fine day, I was roped in to make a poster for an event which promoted Linux. Now, I really had faint ideas of Linux back then. Anyways, it was to do with software, so, under the supervision of the members of the group, I made my first poster for NIT Durgapur. A dreadful green poster!

Then of course I designed T-shirts, banners, invitation cards, certificates... Soon, I was an integral part of this group which promoted Linux. So, I was promoting Linux. Giving different shapes and sizes to the penguin became my sole purpose of living during those days. And then I made the final Mukti 2007 poster. Hours and hours spent with seniors, in the LUG, who by now had become my best friends, my elder brothers (clichéd again). Somak da, Arko da, Harish da and I cracked jokes all night, and worked for Mukti 2007. We worked for the budgets, publicity, website, poster, decoration, everything.

Mukti 2007 was a big success. The 3 days passed to quickly for me to describe them in words. We all felt satisfied, yet empty after the event was over. Those were sdome of the best times, and I will always remember that moment on the stage, clicking group pictures.

The After-effects:

Mukti 2007 was the reason people recognize my name today. And that’s what I always craved for.

Met some amazing people during Mukti that changed my life forever. (About one of them, I will talk later, in details)

One Mr. Arko Provo Mukherjee of Final year then, the President of LUG, was one such person. He forcibly ordered a drink for me, a Smirnoff Vanilla Twist. Then another. Those two pegs introduced me to a whole new world that I had been missing. I have never stopped drinking since. And the world was also a way better place, with a drink in my hand. So, I thank alcohol for introducing me to a world of freedom. I thank Arko da for introducing me to alcohol. I thank Mukti for introducing me to Arko da. So, all in all, I thank Mukti for my Freedom!

Thank you all for reading such a long post, nothing about Open source though. But I will write about open source, once I know enough about it….