Thanks so much for this great tribute. Inspiring.
On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 8:32 AM, Andrew Lih <andrew.lih(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Condolences to the community. I let the Signpost folks
know, and there will
be a writeup on this coming shortly.
-Andrew
On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Viswa,
Thank you so much for letting us know of this editor's inspiring story.
We
are sorry to lose such an exemplary Wikimedian. I
hope in his passing he
had the satisfaction of feeling that in his late years he made the world
a
better place.
Please contact me off-list if you would like this email to appear in the
Signpost.
Condolances to his family and the Malayalam Wikimedia community.
Pine
On Mar 5, 2015 7:08 AM, "ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ)" <vp2007(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Dear Wikimedians all over the world,
>
> One of our stalwarts at ml Wikimedia community, Wikiuser:BabuG
> <https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Babug> (
>
https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Babug) expired yesterday night.
>
> Despite having paralyzed due to a severe stroke and severely affected
by
several
subsequent health problems, he was guided to Wikipedia by his
son,
> Dr. Ajay, another prominent Malayalam Wikipedian, as a possible remedy
to
> escape perpetual loneliness.
>
> His real world name was G. Balachandran.He was born on 14th October
1938
in
a small village off North Parur, Ernakulam
District, Kerala, the
Southernmost state of India.He joined the Armed Forces Engineering
College
> and then continued to serve the Indian Armed forces for long many
years.
He started contributing to Wikimedia, particularly to Malayalam
Wikipedia,
in the year 2008.
His initial contributions to Malayalam Wikipedia were based upon a
pulp-converted digital Encyclopedia, released by the Government through
GFDL licence then. He continued to create even more full-featured
articles
> on his own, later. By 2014 October 18 - the day he edited last in
> Wikipedia- he had 1935 full-blown articles initiated and expanded by
> himself in
ml.wikipedia.org. Besides, he also contributed more than
350
images to
Wikimedia commons and a handsome amount of contributions to
Wikisource, Wikidata and Wiktionary.
He always attributed his renewed energy and life's aspirations to the
Wikimedia mission, for having returned to a meaningful life after a
20-year
long and frustrating solitude while constrained
to an immobile chair.
Ever
> since 2008, he stood up and started walking and moving around. His was
an
extreme
example for us in Malayalam WP to showcase how Wikipedia can
change
lives.
In almost all our Wikipedia Outreach sessions, we utilized this great
example to motivate and excite the newcomers to WP.
Tory Read mentioned about BabuG thus, in a document
<http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/india-chronicles.pdf>, a
review
on the state of Indian Wikimedia Communities, in
2011:
G. Balachandran, a septuagenarian who lives outside of Ernakulum in
Kerala
> state, said that working on Malayalam
Wikipedia helped him recover
after
a
stroke left him paralyzed. “He’s much sharper
now,” said his wife
Jagadamma
> K. “He’s made a lot of new friends, and that’s been good for his
health.”
>
>
> For us in Malayalam Wikipedia, today is a black day, for having lost a
> great beacon on our voyage to ultimate openness and freedom in
knowledge
and
wisdom.
Yet, we feel, BabuG has made his life stamped immortal for ever and has
shown us the pathway we should follow in continuing our humble
contributions to the ultimate cause of mankind.
-ViswaPrabha
(On behalf of Malayalam Wikimedia Community)
http://ml.wikipedia.org
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