[IndiChix] A message for LC-IN

[Runa Bhattacharjee]

Aneesha Govil wrote:
> On Feb 2, 2008 5:11 PM, Vid Ayer <svaksha at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello Mr. Chitnis,
>>
>> Not again... Is this some kind of a weekend game?... the
>> baiting/trolling and personal attacks/accusations a select few
>> indulged in last week not withstanding.
> [snip]
> 
> Vid, I would just like to point out that I completely disagree with
> your views here. I do not think it was other people who did the
> "trolling" and flaming, a lot of it originated from you. I am more in
> agreement with Atul's point of view here and I hope this is not some
> sort of agenda for you to always have the last word because evidently
> that is what it seems to be.
> 
> As about personal attacks, it was a mail that didn't name names. Yours
> addresses one person only. Perhaps that might be a better indicator of
> which one is more of a personal attack. As per my understanding, and I
> am sure some of the others might agree, it seemed an attempt to
> neutralize malice and reinforce what this group is all about. Here you
> might say that since atul is not a female, he cannot have any idea of
> what this group is all about - I disagree. And I was at the BoF, I
> know what transpired. It WAS a failure in many ways. I would second
> that.
> 
> If you think it was an attack on you, there must be a good reason in
> your mind since Atul did not name you. Strange how nobody else
> objected to Atul's thoughts. As they say in Hindi - "chor ki daadi
> mein tinka".
> 
> I would appreciate it that you do not go ahead and try to thwart the
> efforts of the group to rise above the flame wars and do something
> constructive, which is what seems to be happening by your overstating
> your opinions. A lot of people have been quiet this far, please don't
> assume that we all agree with you and find it constructive. I, for
> one, have been staying quiet to not add to the flames as it just makes
> the fire bigger. As it is getting extinguished by itself, please don't
> come and pour petrol. I would be personally grateful.
> 
> Please do not implicitly assume that all your experience at other FOSS
> communities and women groups is directly reproducible here. If this
> place were what others are, we needn't have a separate community at
> all, we would just use the existing ones.

I completely agree with what Aneesha has to say here. I had indicated in my last mail which started 
this particular thread that it would be best to us to understand the local requirements and 
composition (read people) of the foss community in India to decide about how we want the group to 
take shape. It is a small community in India where men and women have been working together for 
quite sometime now and have their own equations.
Vidya, I do not know whether you know about it or value the equations. We do. It is not "timidness" 
that called for us to remain silent so long, neither was it our "agreement" with you. Your ad-hoc 
decisions and messages on "behalf of the other members in this group" were the primary reason I had 
been calling for an infrastructure to be put in place. I do not know how many others agree/disagree 
with you. I certainly do not agree with your aggressive, gender-biased messages that are threatening 
to destabilize a delicate and to some extent,  nascent initiative. The focus for this group ought to 
be to create a stable infrastructure that would provide a resource rich environment to support women 
in FOSS. And nothing better than the current infrastructure to provide the basic backbone to develop 
it. Most of us here are not power-deprived women who would need your voice to speak for us, rather 
FOSS contributors/users - irrespective of affiliations and whom they are married to - who would like 
to share (receive and give) knowledge. Your regular comments about getting backup if the women in 
this group go MIA (Missing In Action- fwiw) clearly indicate your lack of faith in us. Assumptions 
about people holding power, disregard for the constructive ideas, publicizing private communications 
of confidence never build faith either. Kindly, please stop instigating suspicion and let the 
constructive ideas and work continue.

Runa


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