On the 19th of August in 2018, means today, there was a meetup of Kannada Wikimedians at the CIS-A2K office in Bangalore. The Wikidata label-a-thon was running from 15th to 19th of August and this was the last day. For the Wikidata label-a-thon, I was going to the office and Gopala had asked me to join for the meetup. So I agreed to be there on time.

But due to the cabs, I reached late and joined them. They had discussed lots of things there and I was busy with my work on Wikidata and the project in Odia Wikipedia. But I had to join them in the afternoon for some help in Wikidata label-a-thon. 

Nimaji, the security person had prepared the tea and coffee for us and I prefer tea more than tea, so took one. Their meeting starts with the Wiki Advanced Training in Ranchi. Mallikarjun and Vikas Hegde from their community who joined the WAT described those things which we learned in Ranchi. Then they discussed their achievements, some community works, tasks, etc. 

Around 1.30 pm, we left for the Lunch and did at Nandini, the nearest restaurant to the CIS office. 

The food was Kerala style food and as usual, the taste was awesome, but for me it was spicy. I love all the food and especially the sweetest items they serve.

Then the meeting resumed and I had joined Vinay, one fellow Wikimedian from Mysore for the Wikidata edits help. Some of them had a basic idea and others learned how to edit in Wikidata and Tito dada had described why should we edit in Wikidata. Then before everyone left, I took one group, since I'm not from their community and we took one selfie with them all.

After that, some had left and some stayed with us and we did some edits for the label-a-thon. I had finished the article for the day in Odia Wikipedia as well as in Wikisource. Then we did dinner together at the same restaurant. 

After dinner, everybody left and my cab arrived late, so I say goodbye to everyone and then reach my room and wrote this one. 

Around 11 years back, I went to a new school and there on the very first day, I was interacting with new friends from other schools. And you may notice the attitude of the new joining students in a new school. That thing was happening to me. Since that school is near to my home, that was as normal and old school for me, but other student’s behavior was terrible.

So, the 1st day went like this and on the 2nd day, I saw one girl sitting on the backbench. It was the recess and she was tensed due to some reason may be. I couldn’t ask her about the problem, but that face captured through my mind camera and I asked one of my friends about her, he told her name. She was from the nearby village, where I never went and he described the route to her home too.

Every day, I went to the school and saw that girl sitting exactly on the same bench, the same place and was noticing every situation of her. I don’t know why I was attracted to her. Time was flying as per its rule and one year passed like a blink of my eye. We went to the next class and I became friends with everybody except that girl, but I never miss one class to see her.

In the new class, once the teacher asked us one question and for her, I shifted my bench from the 1st row to the middle to sit near to her. And for that moment I was waiting for the last one year came with that question of the teacher. She didn’t have any idea about that question and I show the answer by writing it on a paper and she answered it smartly.

After the class, she gave me a thankful look and in the recess when I was writing something about her on my diary, she came to me and said “Thank You” in a sweet voice. Before that, I heard her voice, but that day the pitch was too high and the sweetness was out of my expectation. Then we became friends and most of the time, we exchanged our storybooks, notes, etc.

Like this again one year completed and we came more closure to each other. Most of our friends were saying lots of things about us and as usual, we were ignoring them. In the final year, we taught each other and discussed lots of doubts. Our board exam went well and the time came to say goodbye to those old friends, teachers, school and of course to her.

On the farewell day, some friends were happy, some were unhappy, and the girls were crying. That day, we were sitting together and in the meeting, everybody sharing their experiences and some do apologize for the mistakes they did in those three years. I was waiting for the last. Before me, she shared her words and 40% of her speech was about me. Then I went on the stage and I don’t know why I started crying thereafter her speech. Before that, I was not happy but at that moment, tears started fallen down from my eyes. I couldn’t say one word there and I forgot everything on which I had prepared before.

Then one of our favorite teachers came to me and she also came to the stage again. At that moment everybody was in shock and some other also started weeping. Both of them hugged me. That was the 1st time she hugged me. Then I just could say a few words there and they both were standing next to me.

When I returned from the stage, she was holding my hand and all the teachers shared their speech with us. Until the end of the meeting, she was holding my hand. After the end of the meeting, everybody left for home and we were sitting at our usual place.

It was time to say goodbye to everything and had to left with those three-year memories. I didn’t want to left without saying my feelings to her but afraid of losing my best friend. All of her friends from her village had left already, so I wish to give a company to her home. On the way, we were walking silently both were waiting to break the ice.

She started first and asked those words which I wanted to tell her three years back and she scolded me too for not saying those for since long. There was a smile on our face. We reached her home and she started talking about the full day story to her mother in front of me.

More than 8 years passed from that day, but nothing has changed between us. Now, we are also best friends. We couldn’t attend the same college after that, but every day we talk over the mobile. During the vacations, we went out together, we did parties at her home, at my home. She would be my best friend in the future too.

The day 2 of Odia Wiki 16 started another knock by Mrutyunjay Kar bhai. It was around 6 to 6.30 in the morning and we woke up. He was there for some casual talk but asked me about Wikidata. I didn't have any knowledge about Wikidata. There was a workshop about Wikidata by Asof, but at that time I was absent. Again at Mysore, Gopala had taught me a little bit about Wikidata, but I couldn't understand. 

So, he taught me a little bit about Wikidata and described me, why should we use Wikidata. We did some edits that time and then I got the basic idea about Wikidata and how to edit Wikidata items. Then we freshen up and got ready for the breakfast.

So for the day 2, I was wearing the new T-shirt made for the event. The front side of the t-shirt was filled by one Wikipedia article written in Odia. The article is about Odia Wikipedia (ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ). It's quite interesting, people would definitely stop you and wish to read what written on it. And we printed this id card from Bangalore, which we collected on 4th July. And tripod connected to my camera was borrowed from Subhashish Bhai. I love its structure to hold for vlogging. 

After getting ready, we all went for our breakfast. It's Sunday and I'm not veg at all. So, today you could see the non-veg items on my plate. 

So, the day 2 started with Sailesh. He had shared some basic goals for the coming year. In that plan, On wiki development, Existing Community development, how New Editors would join, how we could reach New Readers, etc.


Then Dr. Subas Chandra Rout sir had joined. He was absent yesterday due to some problem. He had shared some of his experiences and some basic structure we should follow while writing an article in Wikipedia. What basic things an article should have like, proper pinpointed statement, references, etc.



Then Mrutyunjay bhai had described some more structure like why we use templates in an article, what should we place in an article, how we could import or translate a template etc. After that, we continued that four-part discussion from yesterday. And then we had shared some basic ideas how could all could resolve those problems. Then we took a quick tea break.

After that Sailesh had shared the goals achieved by Odia Wiki community in a collaboration with CIS-A2K. And discussed the projects which we did previously and how we could learn from those, how we should concentrate on the Tungis (small communities) to grow our community. Then we had discussed the projects on which we participated last year and how others should participate and why they should participate in those projects, etc.


After that, we took our lunch break, but before that, we cut the cake for the 16th Anniversary. Dr. Subas Chandra Rout, senior most editor, and Gayatree Tripathy, Junior most editor cut the cake.

Then we went for the lunch. Like yesterday, the Lunch was planned at the hotel itself. During the lunchtime, we couldn't get much time for chit-chat. But managed to get some time for some basic conversations.

After the lunch, we had discussed the individual plans for the coming year. All those things had documented on Etherpad. Yes, on day 2, I couldn't add much to the etherpad, but others had added them. Then I had shared my experiences for the 100wikidays and the wiki year work. And also shared, why should we take part in that challenge for both Wikipedia and Wikisource.

Then Dr. Subas Ch. Rout had shared his experiences of how he started translating the medical articles and why he is adding them consistently. Then Aliva Sahoo and Silesh Patnaik had shared the experiences about the Wikipedia Asian Month 2016 and 2017.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, Ryan Merkley, the CEO of creative commons and Katherine Maher, Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation had sent their greetings message from the Odia Wiki 16. We played those in front of all.


After that, we had discussed to start some new projects or restart the inactive old projects. I wish to start the Odia Film project, within which we could add all the movie list and should add more references, etc. Aliva Sahoo for Food, Sashank Sekhar for God/Goddess, etc. Some of our members had shared their problem why they are not active in Wikipedia projects.

After that, we were live on Facebook for some time. This was our 1st Facebook live and we didn't have much idea about Facebook live. So, in that small period of time, we had shared some things about Odia Wikipedia.

Then the event officially winded off after a group photo and I took a leave for my home. Diptiman Bhai come to the bus stop and it was all fun and I learned lots of things from this event too.


This was all about our day 2 and now sharing some more photos.

It's the 3rd part of the series of blogs for Odia Wiki 16. If you hadn't checked the previous blogs, then click on the link. In those blogs, I've shared the things about our preparation for this event. So, it's the Day 1 of the Odia Wiki 16 event. 

In the early morning around 7 O'clock, there was a know on our door, so I opened the door and Mrutyunjay Kar bhai was there. He reached in the morning and we finally woke up for the day. Then quickly prepared for the breakfast.

For the day 1, I was wearing the white colored Wikipedia T-shirt, which I got from TTT-2018, Mysore. And we had planned to wear the new T-shirt for this event tomorrow. Since it is white in color and we couldn't get risk about that. At the breakfast table, Chinu and Nihar had joined us. The breakfast was by the hotel. So, quickly we grabbed some and here those on my plate.

Let's come to the event part. First fixed the projector, banners, standy, etc. Approximately all had arrived and then we started the event. As we had decided to document everything, Subha bhai was ready with all his stuff to make the video. Form the Wiki Advance Training, I was much acquainted with the etherpad, so I started updating everything on etherpad. Since most of our members were not present in this event, they could see everything from etherpad and could add their views there directly.

The very beginning part was the introduction part, which was documented by Subha bhai and I've updated their name and their purpose etc. So, here sharing some photos for the introduction session.

Gayatree Tripathy

Nihar Ranjan Mohanty

Gyana Sahoo

Chinmayee Mishra

Prateek Pttnaik

Sailesh Pattnaik

Subhashish Panigrahi

After the introduction, the admins gave some basic and formal introdutions about Wikipedia and other wiki projects. Gyana bhai had described about benifits to have the proper documentation. Murutyunjay Bhai had described how we should learn from other communities and how could we motivate more people to join Wikipedia. Subhashish bhai had described about some technical issues and how could we focus on community building.

Gyana Sahoo, Admin, Odia Wikipedia

Mrutyunjaya Kar, Admin, Odia Wikipedia and Wikisource

Subhashish Panigrahi, Admin, Odia Wikipedia

After that discussion, we took a quick Tea break and within that time we started discussion with each other, that how could we imrove us. That discussion was a huge discussion.

Within that discussion, we took the sticky notes and wrote the problems we are facing individually and community wise one by one and we paste those notes on a wall. So that everybody could read those easily and if he/she has the solution for that problem, then paste the answer note bellow the quesion note. Like that we had discussed lots of things there.

As I've mentioned this discussion was a huge discussion, within that we took our lunch break and had our lunch at the hotel. So, here placing some snaps from the Lunch.

It was Saturday, So, I'm veg for the day. That's why the plate was veg. During the lunch break, we had discussed a little bit with each other. And yes we could talk hours during our lunch, but we didn't have that much of time. Quickly we finished our lunch and back to the discussion again.

After that discussion, we had discussed little bit about the structures and some new tools which we sould implement for our community. Gyana bhai ana Mrutyujaya bhai had shown some interesting features aobut Wikipedia. After that, I shared my experiences about the Wiki Advanced Training in short. And the meeing winded up at 6.00 pm.


Here are some more photos from day 1;

Before finishing our day 1, three members from Anugul joined us. With them, Mrutyunjaya Bhai's wife had sent some hand made cake for us. The cake was delicious.


Then after some discussion and chit-chat, we went for our dinner. I haven't remembered the Resturant name. After dinner we returned back by walk. And in the night I had finished the articles for the 100wikidays in both Wikipedia and Wikisource.