Right from my school days when I started using the Internet, I had been following people on the Internet, from whom I have continously learnt and shaped my understanding of the world. Although it might sound a bit kitsch, I would compare this to the relationship between Ekalavya and Dronacharya, but the comparison breaks down when I gratefully recollect how much more I have received from my gurus than what Ekalavya received from Dronacharya. And have I been as worthy a student as Ekalavya? I don't think so.

One of these exemplary gurus and closest to my heart has been Suraj Kumar. I remember, the first time I saw him was around 1998, in one of the ILUGC (Indian Linux User's Group - Chennai) meetings held regularly in the IIT Madras campus. He was the same age as me, but vastly more knowledgeable and driven. I was this reticent Linux newbie and was at awe with the MoM's he wrote after each meeting - every detail captured in his pleasant style with a unique sense of humour.

I continued to follow his posts as @sunson on Live Journal and @sunsonian on Twitter. The later half of the 2000s were the heydays of Web 2.0 and there were increasingly more options for staying connected and learning from my gurus.

I internalized a number of life changing concepts like Peak oil and Emergence through his writings and the links he posted on the wonderful Delicious bookmarking website. He introduced me to other communities like The Oil Drum which opened their own wide worlds.

Although I was already an atheist, @sunson's explorations and thoughts were much deeper. He introduced me to Richard Dawkins and I devoured his books, The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion.

The biggest impact he had on me must be his efforts at natural farming. I eagerly followed his journey as he introduced me to Masanobu Fukuoka's writings and Nammalvar's work.

This had a great impact on my own journey into natural farming that I started in January 2022.

Looks like everything ends where it starts and I learn from this post on the ILUGC mailing list that @sunson is no longer with us. In this ephemeral digital age, I am thankful that the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has his Live Journal blog archived, although his delicious bookmarks and his personal website are lost. The Twitter feed anf Flickr photos hang on a noose.

I really hope his writings survive the bitrot and continue to educate and inspire more of us.