I met Contrapunctus for the first time at IIT in March 2024. I was attending DelhiFOSS, a public conference for open source enthusiasts. I am not exactly a “tech person,” but I was unable to resist the temptation. Unfortunately, my shyness overcame me and I felt isolated for most of the event.
I was eagerly waiting for the talk on OpenStreetMap. A few weeks ago I had stopped contributing to Hindi Wikipedia after I got frustrated with the conservatism of the admins. I was looking for a replacement which wouldn’t involve so much conflict. OSM felt like a good candidate.
However, Contra’s talk wasn’t very useful. Though they did show some practical demonstrations of Organic Maps they didn’t really delve deep into mapping. Once the talk was over Contra asked interested people to join them for a small mapping party. A mapping party is an event where mappers socialize with each other and, optionally, map a target area around them. It is a very effective way of building solidarity and understanding in a community. Once DelhiFOSS was over I saw two people giving their numbers to Contra and I gathered enough courage to give mine.
A few days later I found myself at Software Freedom Law Center. SFLC is an organization of lawyers fighting for a freer internet. I got comfortable in the meeting room as Sahil fluidly demonstrated some simple armchair mapping on their laptop. I soon started mapping areas around me in silence, pausing occasionally to ask some questions. This experience was very fulfilling for me.
As I started attending more parties I got more and more comfortable with other mappers. This brings me to the 13th party where I was familiar with around half of the population.
I reached GTB Nagar Metro Station at 10:30, 30 minutes before the start of the event. (I am bad at containing my excitement for the parties.) The street leading to the meeting spot was full of dogs and, due to my intense fear of dogs, I decided to wait at the metro gate for Contra. I spent the time leisurely mapping buildings and shops around Mall Road. 5 minutes before the designated time, I messaged Contra for their position. Turns out Contra has already reached the destination park. So, in the end, I had to pass through those vicious dogs anyway.
I spent the next 60 minutes talking to other mappers and helping them with Vespucci (which is an advanced OSM editor for Android). I was never bored.
Suddenly Contra interjected that the time has come for the actual mapping. After asking the newcomers to map some shops in Wadhwa Market we decided to split up in 3 groups. After 30 minutes, Disaster, Hait, Hait’s friend (whose name I have forgotten), and I begun to map around Mall Road. Though we were mapping at a very good speed, we were only able to map 1 side of the road in the little time we had. I heard some voices of annoyance at the large amount of coaching institutions we were mapping; I guess it did made the mapping a little boring. In that small time period of 60 minutes we were able to map some 40 shops, 20 buildings, and a few footpaths. Unlike previous events where I felt bad at my inability to map much, this time I was strangely feeling happy.
We decided to join Contra’s group at 13:30 for a quick meal. On our way back Hait and Hait’s friend showed us something on their laptop that Disaster and I won’t quite forget. Pretty nasty stuff.
We took a group photo and then took another 15 to 20 minutes to decide on an eatery. We finally chose McDonald’s. As we were casually talking, waiting for the food, I noticed some participants who were clearly not having a fun time with us. They reminded me of my experience at some of the previous mapping parties where I felt horrible even in a room full of people. I tried to talk to them but wasn’t quite able to.
A little later my McVeg and glass of Fanta appeared on the table. As I was eating my burger, I promptly forgot about the Fanta and started eating Hait’s french fries instead. (Hait, politely, didn’t pointed that out.)
After drinking my Fanta, which I finally noticed after some time, I decided to take a tour of the washroom. Unfortunately, the washroom door didn’t had a proper lock indicator. A girl soon entered the room while I was busy with my business. I was so annoyed about this. Even Indian Railways have better locks than these!
Then almost everyone went their separate ways. Contra, Disaster, Kushagra, and I went to see a mapper who didn’t joined the party due to a mild fever. We had some small talk with her and then returned to the metro station. On our way, we talked about XMPP, Signal, dogs, and Firefox. I also saw the RSS feed on Kushagra’s blog. (Turns out, both of us are using PaperMod theme.) Disaster took a bus to their home while Contra took a Metro in the opposite direction. When we were alone, Kushagra chided my habit of not using fingerprints for authentication. I changed the Metro at Azadpur and started playing Push Play. The next day I added fingerprints to my phone and RSS feed to this blog.
