18-2019 Made for each other

Made for each other ….

Meet T. Shrinivsan and his wife Nithya Shrinivasan (Nee Nithya Duraisamy), a remarkably well-matched couple of Chennai. Lovers of FOSS and Tamil will know this couple well. I happened to have met Shrini several years ago, in my quest to learn some typesetting in Tamil. Shrini was not married then, and lived in Chennai’s Anna Nagar. I learnt a lot about Linux, FOSS, Tamil typesetting and ++++ from him. Now, my visits to Chennai always include a few trips to Tambaram Sanatorium (that is where Shrini, Nithya and their son lead a, no-fuss, no-pomp life). And, when I am not in Chennai, I use Shrini as my SOS Helpline for all my FOSS/Linux misadventures.

shrini2Shrini is not only an active volunteer for FOSS activities in India, he is also an active contributor to the Wikimedia efforts in Tamil, and Creative Commons. He is the Chief Animator of ILUG-Chennai. He is also an active blogger in WordPress (I learnt WordPress from him). I always wonder how he finds time and energy for all that he does.

His WordPress.com blog tells a lot about him: https://goinggnu.wordpress.com/

Some interesting facts about Shrini:

  • He does not own a smart phone.
  • His date of birth is 2 years later than my son’s dob, yet he is my guru.

nithya2Shrini’s ideal partner in life, as well as in all his activities, is Nithya, a remarkably gifted person. Nithya is a guru in big data, testing tools, Python, machine learning and, of course, Tamil. I happened to attend one of her lectures at IIT Chennai, and came out admiring her style and depth of learning. Wish many of my teacher colleagues would learn something from her.

To know more about Nithya, see her blog : https://nithyashrinivasan.wordpress.com/

Interesting facts about Nithya:

  • She is a gifted dancer, and specialises in traditional Tamil art forms like “Karagattam”.
  • She is a prolific writer (in Tamil) of highly technical and involved topics.

In this selfish and greedy world, we need more people like Shrini and Nithya.

I am lucky to have you as friends Shrini and Nithya.

partha