I was travelling the past five weeks, and got to hear only when my daughter called and told me the sad news about Atul. Many - most of us - wouldn't have been here if it hadn't been for him, in a perverse kind of way. It was his sudden rush of fundamentalism that put off many of us, and brought us to take refuge in the mailing list that Ram and Bharat had created: things were really bad for an orphaned crowd, for even an Indrajit to take shelter with them. Who can forget Shiv's first post? wholly composed of expletives, and all those bad things that were verboten on CiX?
But there was an entirely different side to my relations with Atul as well. I got to know him when I started using a small editor that he and some friends had built, and which was floating around in shareware form. It was accidental that I found a place to work opposite the block from his house and his residence, and got to meet him almost as accidentally, and it was comical to see his expression when I dug into my rather bare pocket to pay him the measly sum that they were charging for the editor. Those rare visits were very nice. The great man actually had a very efficient support system working for him. Apart from KK, there was an indefatigable and rarely-to-be-seen on line Geetanjali, and an adorable muppet who stole hearts effortlessly. That was in 1987, some - dear Lord! - twenty six years ago, and the muppet must be a poised young woman mourning her father. And he was a great man, one to mourn, never mind the strong views and inflexible stands that he took. His contribution to FOSS was significant, speaking as one who was never more than a lukewarm sympathiser of the cause. His writing and preaching was marked by a certainty and conviction that rang true. But most of all was his human side (yes, R, there was one). We had got five months through a six month project with a software biggie, and were on the verge of completion. In an unguarded moment, the systems admin had wangled a three-day leave of absence from me, and left, horror of horrors, without handing over charge. Murphy's Law reached out of the deeps of space and batted us with a lazy paw. The server collapsed; we found to our consternation that the lunkhead running the admin had used a non-standard setting which was unknown to anyone else. After futile attempts to recover it on our own, we reached out to Olympus, and Hephaestos obliged. It was deeply salving to see him set calmly to work and recover things bit by bit - don't ask me what he did, I didn't have a clue then, and don't have a clue now - and give us back part of our work after several desperate, trying hours. I would rather remember that kind, helpful Atul at this moment, completely engrossed in getting a friend out of a hugely avoidable jam, than several other things that might have happened. It is the good that we need to remember; the rest can go get shoved up the backside of that f*** Kathe (he probably is related to a lathe, Shiv, the way he goes boring in with a metallic insensitivity to human feeling). There were good moments on CiX, too, like the encounters with a little boy who is now a sober, matured member of Silk, where I perfected my range of pejoratives. It was a tightrope walk, with a delicious frisson of terror on posting, wondering if this time one had gone beyond the line drawn by the moderator, wondering if retribution would follow. What followed was an attack in flank from a totally unexpected quarter, and the gloating of a malicious Udhay egging me on to retaliate - but that's another story. I wish I had done what I often wished to do, Atul, and taken you aside on one of our subsequently infrequent meetings, after we all left CiX, and told you how much I appreciated the good things you did. ----- Original Message ----- > From: Venkatesh Hariharan <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Cc: > Sent: Monday, 3 June 2013 11:18 PM > Subject: Re: [silk] Atul Chitnis > > Whatever his personality, Atul was one of the guys who gave an impetus to > the FOSS movement in India. For years, FOSS.IN was the event to attend. RIP > Atul! > > Venky > On Jun 3, 2013 9:17 PM, "Chetan Nagendra" <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Sad to hear that Atul is no more. >> >> Chetan >> >> On 03-Jun-2013, at 12:55 PM, Biju Chacko <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> > A lot of people on this list are acquainted with Atul Chitnis. Many of > us >> > got to know him in the Open Source scene in India in the late '90s > and >> > early '00s. >> > >> > I just heard that he lost his long battle with cancer earlier today. >> > >> > He was not universally liked but I guess even those that didn't > like him >> > would be saddened by the news. >> > >> > -- b >> >> >> >
