Arriving At GNOME Asia 2024

Being one of the folks helping organize the GNOME Asia 2024 conference in Bengaluru, we had to arrive at least a couple of days before to ensure the smooth running of the operations for the event - the day of arrival for me was 05th December 2024. It started with me waking up as early as 0330am Indian Standard Time as I could not sleep anymore due to the excitement and also because I had an early Indigo flight 6E0391 to Bengaluru to catch from the expanded terminal of the Pune Airport (PNQ). As I had my luggage packaged well in advance and planned on backpacking this time, there was less trouble in the morning for my dad to have me dropped off at the Pune Airport (PNQ). The security checks went mostly smoothly apart from the one seizure that took place for a bottle of Honey that my mom sneaked to get to my brother, Soumadeep Dhar, who was working off from Bengaluru in Phillips and had plans to join in with the GNOME Asia 2024.

At around 0600am Indian Standard Time, I was through with the check-in process and I had roughly 45 minutes to kill before the boarding began at around 0645am Indian Standard Time. Once the boarding announcement was made, I found myself at seat 19A (window seat, of course) and started watching a movie named "A Man Called Otto (2022)" while the flight took off at around 0725 am Indian Standard Time. As we drifted close to Bengaluru at around 0855am Indian Standard Time, my phone's internet connection became active and I got to know from our fellow organizers from Fedora Project's end, Justin W. Flory and Sumantro Mukherjee, that the accommodation would not be available until 0300pm Indian Standard Time. I decided to connect with Samyak Jain to have an understanding of what the plan looked like for the rest of the day after my arrival and if there were plans to visit the Red Hat India office which was the event venue.

It was a liberating experience to have just one unit of luggage as then I did not need to wait for the checked-in luggage to appear at the belts and instead head out of the airport instantly. From the Kempegowda International Airport (BLR), I decided to book a cab for Soumadeep's accommodation at Stanza Living Newport House and spend some time there before heading to the planned accommodation at Fairfield by Marriott, Whitefield Bengaluru. After getting myself an Uber cab from the dedicated stand for the Uber company - I made it around the Reva University, Bengaluru by around 0910am Indian Standard Time. I did not get to experience much of the flagship Bengaluru traffic on my way as the accommodation was on the outskirts of Bengaluru near Yelahanka so a 30km long trip was done relatively quickly. After providing Soumadeep with what was sent from my mom, we set off to have some light breakfast at Pancham Garden.

On our way back to the accommodation - we met with his friend, Atharva who was studying at Reva University and was staying at the same place. While coordinating with the folks from Fedora Project over a dedicated WhatsApp group we made for the event attendees and organizers - I got to know that Jona Azizaj got herself a room at the hotel a little sooner and I departed for the hotel with Soumadeep after having some light lunch at around 0230pm Indian Standard Time. There were a bunch of folks who were planning to check into the hotel that day like Amita Sharma and Smera Goel among the rest that I mentioned previously. We had a harrowing experience on our way to the hotel when the cab that we were riding in was shunted from behind amidst a heavy traffic situation by another vehicle and our enraged cab driver could not help but stay put in the flagship traffic jam of Bengaluru that we got ourselves into at around 0330pm Indian Standard Time.

We halted for a while when the moment was opportune to check on the vehicle's state and thankfully, neither the folks riding the cab nor the cab itself was hurt much. At around 0415pm Indian Standard Time, I let folks know about the worsening situation of the traffic to the folks and asked them to leave for the hotel as soon as possible - as we arrived at the Fairfield by Marriott hotel. Once I got checked in and assigned room number 114, Soumadeep and I headed upstairs to work on the Fedora Infrastructure and Release Engineering slide deck that I was going to present the next day. As Samyak was occupied with helping out with the details of the event organization, it was down to me to ensure that the presentation slides were done right. I checked with Jona as well in the meanwhile but even she was occupied with her slide decks for the talk that she had the next day and instead, I heard from Amita who just seemed to have arrived at the hotel.

While I took ownership of the dinner plans in the morning, I allowed Samyak to take the lead on it after I provided around three options for various dietary preferences as I had a long day of travel with little patience to express my dissent for the extent of work that was being taken upon. Soumadeep and I decided to order ourselves something from Zomato from the Big Bowl outlet for dinner and I had to head down to the reception to retrieve the food due to the poor cellular reception of the Jio Mobile Network Carrier. After a delayed delivery and a finished dinner, I decided to see off Soumadeep who was now heading back to his accommodation when I met up with Justin and Sumantro after a long time at the reception. With a heartfelt reunion and Justin providing me with a Keychron K5 Max, we decided to touch base later during the next day so that they could focus on getting themselves something to eat in the meantime with what time was left.

Samyak visited my room at around 0900pm Indian Standard Time and we discussed the changes that I introduced to the slide deck for our talk "Infrastructure and Release Engineering - What Goes Into Building Fedora Workstation" based on the advice provided by our Red Hat Community Linux Engineering or CLE teammates, Julia Bley and Michal Konecny. We discussed the parts that needed to be delivered by each of us during the presentation and I decided to call the discussions off a bit sooner as I figured that Samyak was super tired and sleep-deprived. He gave me a glimpse of the presentation that he was building for his talk on "Open Source Mentorship - Crafting Communities, Creating Leaders" and after exchanging some advice - he departed for his room. I helped Amita check the slot that she would use to deliver her talk on Red Hat InstructLab during the Fedora Linux 41 Release Party slot before heading back.

Having the Fedora Linux 41 Release Party coincide with the lunch break on the first day of GNOME Asia 2024 was a tricky affair concerning the retention of attendees for the time so Amita, Justin and I decided to order some meals for the attendees willing to stay back for the same. I also informed Aaditya Singh and Siddhartha Sitaula from the GNOME Community to announce both in the tracks to ensure that people stay back for the Fedora Linux 41 Release Party. After meeting up with Justin and Sumantro, I decided to see off Soumadeep and by as late as 1100pm Indian Standard Time, we were barely able to get ourselves an Uber Moto. Once I got back to my room, I began fielding some questions concerning the Non Disclosure Agreement statement that came from the community of attendees with limited success. I decided to let Sudhir Dharanendraiah and Justin take the lead on this instead as it was very likely a misunderstanding led by miscommunication.

After taking a step back on the conversations on this situation and a brief conversation with Justin about the same, I decided not to worry too much about the situation and instead, sleep over it to see if the situation improves. Sometimes assuming the best intentions on all ends is what helps ensure that the situation becomes better for all the parties involved. I took the Keychron K5 Max keyboard that I ordered via Justin's help for a spin to see if it was just as fancy as people made it and at around 1200am Indian Standard Time, I decided to call it a day and struggle with what looked like an uncomfortable bed. There was also planning done for the next day as there still were a bunch of unsolved mysteries to look into like the audio-video streaming situation that Samyak, Sumantro and myself wanted to get to by heading to the office in advance and the placement of registration desks around the place to ensure that the audience is well fielded.