“The answer to that question will always be YES!!”
He joyfully remarked as I ordered another tea for him. And
boy he was right, over the next four days he stayed with us, be it any hour of
the day, and I ask him, “Daniel, tea?!”. Yes, was the reply that was spatted
out from his smiling, sometimes smirking mouth, ALWAYS! :D
When we googled for his images to be used for posters, we couldn’t
find one that had a non-serious aura attached to it. It was safe to assume,
this guy was all business-no nonsense ambassador. So, when he was all ears and interested in the
trivial details of my life, and didn’t really mind my chattering skills, my joy
knew no bounds.
I consider myself very stupid when it comes to the
field he belonged to. But not once, did he make any attempts to reinforce that
fact :p Over the days, I saw him interact with the entire frequency spectrum of
people. He was the same with all – humble, patient and curious.
He hates cabs. He emotionally blackmailed me to let him walk
or bike around the campus. Now that was a problem you see when he didn’t have
an active cell number, and you receive calls every few minutes asking about his
whereabouts. You cannot imagine my relief everytime I found him coming back to
the guest house, usually with a few people tagged behind and bags of tea.
He loves spicy food. So yes, I lost the bet when I
challenged him to eat the spicy mango pickle. Though Jaljeera and hot green
chilies, was when I won. There were rumors that he played dark room and
involved in heavy brainstorming sessions with the MUN guys. I am quite sure
they were not rumors. His enthusiasm is contagious.
With all the brouhaha that surrounds this man, it was
amazing to get to know how simple and empathetic he is. When it came to
clicking a picture with him, no money for guessing that I made sure how wide his
smile should be :D
( Daniel Domscheit-Berg , previously known under the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt, is a German technology activist. He is best known for his role until September 2010 as a spokesperson for whistleblower organization WikiLeaks in Germany. He is the author of Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website (2011). He gave a keynote speech at Lecture Series,Techniche 2015, IIT Guwahati.)
This man is really remarkable.. :)
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