Earlier this year, I had the privilege of attending the 2nd annual WordCamp Baroda, in Baroda (Vadodara), India, with Siobhan. The trip was my second to India, having traveled throughout Rajasthan and a few other places with a friend back in 2010.
WordCamp
WordCamp Baroda was my first time speaking at a conference. I was asked by Rahul, the organizer, to speak for thirty minutes on Contributing to WordPress. In reality, I probably spoke for forty or longer, but went through a full range of ways to contribute.
The video hasn’t made it up on WordPress.tv yet, but here’s a quick overview of ways to contribute (all of them are listed on make.wordpress.org), along with a link to my slides:
- Code / Programming, including Google Summer of Code
- Translations
- Meetups & WordCamps
- Design
- Documentation
- Support
- Accessibility
- Theme Review
- Mobile
- WordPress.org
Overall, it was great meeting all of the local community, especially Rahul Banker (the WordCamp Baroda organizer) and Alexander Gounder, the lead organizer of WordCamp Mumbai this year. Seeing the work the Indian community is doing to grow is inspiring. I only wish I could have made it to WordCamp Mumbai this past weekend! (Next year; promise!)
Edit: There’s also this great highlight video of WordCamp Baroda 2014. If only it included less of me… 😉
Food
I love Indian food. It’s one of my favorite cuisines. Naturally, I ate as much Indian food as I could. Everything from the airplane food to the street food to the fancy hotel restaurant was delicious – seriously, some of the best airplane food I’ve had. Some of my favorites included the speakers’ dinner at Hotel Express Baroda – especially the “coffeee chicken” and the laughs it provided – the ice cream we had after the speaker’s dinner, and both lunches at the WordCamp.
The highlight, however, happened at the very end of our trip, as we were headed to the airport. We made a quick stop for some street food at a place that is quite famous in Baroda: Raju’s Omelet Centre. Prior to this, I had never actually had an Indian egg dish. I’ve been missing out. The flavors were completely overwhelming (in a good way!) and was some of the best Indian food I’ve ever tasted. By far, these egg dishes were the best food of the trip. We had three different ones, all served with bread: butter bhurji, crushed bhurji, and the butter masala half fry. Unfortunately, it was dark and my photos didn’t quite come out very well (the butter bhurji is pictured), but the flavors were unbelievable.
Pictures
Here’s a ton of pictures from before and after the event.
