It's been exactly 7 months since I've been working on Debian packaging and I often used to complain about not being able to attend any events because I actually couldn't as there was always some obstacle or the other.

My plan to attend MiniDebConf Navi Mumbai 2025 was no easy feat; it was riddled with a lot of obstacles that I painfully had to navigate through.

I firstly didn't know if I'd ever make it to the conference. As soon as I heard that MDC Mumbai got postponed from Nov to Dec, I thought I could attend it as my exams would be done by then so I submitted my talk for the conference. Not even a week later, all of the colleges in the state including mine decided to go on a strike to demand fee reimbursement dues from the government which meant my exams would be delayed dangerously close to the conference.

Luckily the exams did get postponed but they were ending on Dec 10th (conf was on 13th) so I decided to book my plane tickets. Oh, and just then I ended up with one of the worst leg sprains of my life. The wound was so bad that it filled up my knee joint with fluid which made the entire leg swollen and I couldn't walk for 3 weeks.

But that doesn't end there. Soon on Dec 4th, there was this Indigo crisis in India where there were mass cancellations of planes (over 2000 planes got cancelled) and I was again unsure if I'll really be making it there with all these obstacles. I had to cancel my plane and booked a 2AC Tatkal train to Kalyan Jn.

Finally on Dec 11, I left my hometown for Mumbai on that train after all that pain and suffering. That train journey turned out to be one of the wildest experiences of my life as I saw a lot of weird and creepy people discussing wild stuff on the train. I somehow stayed alive and made it to Kalyan Jn and took a Uber to Navi Mumbai.

The Conference

I went to the venue which was a hotel and met Arya, the kid from FOSSMumbai. Me and Arya did some last-minute arrangements at the venue. People only started coming at like 10:15 am. Definitely fewer people showed up than the number of registrations we had.

The talks started and eventually my turn came. Let's say mine flopped a bit too much as I could barely get words out of my mouth due to exhaustion. I ended up speaking 6-7 different accents and dialects of English during my talk!

Then we had a few more talks and a lot of laughs with weepingclown always being the active energetic person he is. Him and contrapunctus seemed to have good chemistry. We all headed out for dinner to an authentic Marathi restaurant. Me being someone from the Deccan, I ordered a Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani. What I was served instead was, you could say, Palak Chicken and Turmeric Rice. It was an insult to call it biryani.

I couldn't bear that insult and decided to find some actual Hyderabadi Biryani (We judge a city based on the biryani it serves) and eventually found some real Hyderabadi Biryani just beside my hotel.

Day 2 of the conference was a bit boring as only a few people showed up, but the laughs and the fun we had after the workshop made up for it.

Mumbai Sightseeing

It was finally Dec 15 and the day of my day trip. I quickly had my breakfast, got on the Uber and headed to Gateway of India and made it there at 9:30 am. I decided to sit at a nearby Starbucks to kill time.

Left for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Mumbai Museum) and it was an ordinary museum, not that great I guess. Then I walked around South Bombay all the way to Horniman Circle and then to a restaurant near Churchgate.

Then it was my last day in Mumbai (16th Dec). Me, contra, Arya, Kiran, niya, and praveen met at this cafe called Bombay to Barcelona which had a unique vibe that I never felt at any cafe in my life. Loved that place.

The Return & Good News

That was my last stop in Mumbai before heading back to Hyderabad. The plane took off and I landed in Hyderabad only to wait for 30 minutes to get my baggage as the baggage system ran Windows which had a Blue Screen of Death.

Overall, this was my first solo trip and I must visit Mumbai again soon, didn't feel satisfied yet, felt like I missed a lot of stuff.

Also, I became a Debian Maintainer 3 days ago thanks to bhe for signing my key and my sponsor byang for advocating me!