I’ve seen quite a few folks start with a different sense of “connect” in their minds, but more often than not, by the end of a journey like this, they learn more and get a lot more fresh views and perspectives than they had ever thought possible at the start.

If I wish to connect with Keralam, should I do role-play (as Tharakan seems to suggest)? Suppose, I’m travelling across the state to learn about people…should I use the media to draw attention to my travel, or should I silently go about it?

An effort like this warrants encouragement and suport purely from the point of view of a few who could easily have chosen much easier paths for their daily lives taking time out to learn the views of the many who they share a language and a state with, and trying to understand their concerns within the umbrella (multicolored or not) of the mission of their walk and beyond. What would be more interesting is how this experience shapes their lives, and the lives that they impact in the years to come.

To quote a few lines that we repeated probably thousands of times while in school, that I slowly start to understand as the years go by:

“to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,”

Yes, it can. If the walkers decide to earn their living expenses doing labor with their hands, like people in Keralam do, they certainly would make the connection. If not, this exercise would help only to reduce a bit of baby fat from their preppy bodies.

I feel that the walk will spread awareness — the talks in schools and colleges will spread the word — however small the venture. People joined the walk for brief stretches, at various points along the route.

The ones enlightened will be the freedom walkers, I hope. Though all of you see this as a few (guys) teaching their worldview to the many, I still feel that the walk is actually a few learning the worldviews of the many.

The point of the walk being to attract attention to, and increase awareness of the issues being addressed, I feel it can be augmented by ensuring that enough people know about it beforehand, especially since only 3 people are involved in it. On the other hand, a much larger number of people walking would also be a solution to the problem of inadequate publicity.

As for environmental issues, the European nations contribute more towards a green environment than the Americans. In India, most of the major cities are heavily polluted. Probably small steps like using a bicycle instead of car or bike to travel short distances need to be adopted.

Another step is lessening the usage of plastic bags. Mini hydroelectric projects can be encouraged instead of going for so many thermal plants which cause lot of pollution. Hope activities like the Freedom walk have some positive effect on the public minds regarding the issue of freedom in all spheres.

Speaking in terms of free software alone , Anoop and zyxware is doing a fine job. They have hosted install-fests, free software banner events and have helped people with linux, blogs and other things. Good! In terms of free and libre software , that is how change shall come about.

In terms of environmental issues and the like, what we need are massive campaigns initiated by the Government, big corporates and social organizations. The docu ‘the Inconvenient Truth’ by Al Gore and co for example had a profound effect. We need more visibility and awareness, at a very large scale if progress on that front is to be achieved. European countries are moving towards green energy by means of political will. Whereas we are heavily dependent on conventional and often times unclean energy.

We have a long way to go on this.

And freedom in society is a far cry; just finished reading the story of two honour killings in and around Noida! Two girls were shot dead by their cousin for ‘going’ to see their respective boyfriends.

To be frank and to the face , the Freedom Walk can do too little to address these problems we face. Nevertheless I hope that the indefatigable will of the freedom walk-ers will contract into administrative machinery sooner or later. That is when visible change can be brought about. It all boils down to political will.

Kudos to the tremendous endeavour of the freedom walkers, Kudos!!