I feel happy about the big old man - the man - RMS - Richard M Stallman. I feel happy that I am born in times when he was there.
He is the man behind the GNU project. GNU is an auto acronym for GNU not Unix. He is the father of the free and open source movement. And mind you - the free that we speak about is as in freedom - not as in free beer. Richard is the man who refused to accept that the world of computers will be one where sharing will be crime. He stood against those who wanted collaboration and development of technology and mankind as a whole to take a back seat and the agenda of unethical corporates to come in the forefront. When the capabilities of computing started getting enslaved to software licenses , he walked out of the MIT labs like a free man. If did what he was best at - code. He wrote GCC which went on to become the mother for most successful open source projects. People who have heard of Linux, Mozilla, Apache and numerous other projects must realize the contribution of the great man who made all of this possible.
Now that I know about him, that I have my soul feel respect for him, when I want to deserve him - yes that's right - deserve him - I feel restless to do something. While the projects on the open source side gained prominence, something started fading away - the cause. The reasons that the old man had - the cause that if stood for - the freedom that he spoke about all started getting ignored. People are happier with free beer. They dont care for freedom anymore. Actually, they feel no reason to acknowledge the work and intention of those who got them the freedom that they hardly understand.
I feel compelled to use that freedom. I feel internally compelled to make it work for greater good of mankind. I feel responsible to make use of this freedom for the cause - the intention. I have a burning urge to use open source - use my engineering education - use a part of my life for the greater good of my people.
Then when a long time from now, when I meet RMS - in this life or after - my eyes will not escape him. I will not fall at his feet. My mind will not sing praises for him. I will be calm. God willing, that day , brothers will meet.