United by Free F&B - Food & Books @ IndiaFOSS 2026

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I am organizing a potluck lunch at IndiaFOSS 2026. So free here is “free” as in “your” food… Basically each of us attending this “BoF” session will get one dish. We share, eat and discuss everything under the sun.

Plus, in parallel @perry is organizing a pot-luck for books - as in free book give-away. Following the success of the pot-luck in IndiaFOSS 2025, we’re back, and we’ll be bigger! Join us!

When

This F&B sharing BoF will happen on Sunday - Day 2 of the conference, i.e. Sep 27th.
Time : 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM.
Venue : Room 2 on First Floor. (this will be labelled on the venue map)

Free software + Free Food + Books = Great conference !

How to Participate

Adding to the Menu

Please post the item you wish to bring to the potluck as a reply to this thread. Please include at-least a one liner on what the item is (e.g. starter, main dish, side dish, desserts, etc), and “veg/non-veg” !

Note that you won’t need to bring large quantities of your dish. Imagine that 4-6 guests showed up at your home. Just make and get enough quantity for them. So it’s like lunch box quantity. For items like sweets - get like 10-20 pieces (depending on size, or equivalent). Similarly for savouries.

I will check new items and may ask you questions or suggest slight changes if necessary to ensure the menu remains balanced. As dishes are finalized, I will update the menu right below. When your item is on the menu, you become a confirmed participant !

In 2025, we ended up with some snacks and fruits. Then went on to have the regular lunch. This year, let’s see what we end up doing!

Getting your own books for sharing

Post the title of the book, author, etc as as comment. This will be folded into the book list below.

Food Menu

S.N. Dish Category Type Description Who
1 Pineapple Holige Sweets Veg Yummy see holige/poli . pineapple flavour is quite nice @Shree_Kumar
2 Jaggery & Peanut Laddoos Sweets Veg Mouth watering delicacy that you can’t resist! @omshivaprakash
3 Bhakarvadi Savoury Veg Authentic stuff from Pune @rajan_shah

Books

Give-aways

S.N. Title Authors Genre Who
1 The Nitopadesha (Translated by) Nitin Pai Shree
2 Mixtape Vol 3 zine perry
3 Amar Bari, Tomar Bari, Naxalbari comic book perry
4 The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF speculative fiction perry
5 Four Speeches Carl Malamud Omshivprakash
6 Controlled Lending by Public Libraries Under Indian Law Lawrence Liang & Carl Malamud Omshivprakash
7 Public Library Movement In India Lawrence Liang Omshivprakash
8 The Argumentative Indian Amartya Sen Shree

Books for exchange

S.N. Title Authors Notes Who
1 Serendipity - Accidental Discoveries In Medical History Dr. Kiran VS Kannada Book Omshivprakash
2 Vikalategala Parichaya (Introduction to disabilities) Umesh Kannada Book Omshivprakash
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@Badri_Sunderarajan @perry @Dilip_G @omshivaprakash add your contributions here please !

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Books

S.N. Title Authors Who
1 Four Speeches Carl Malamud Omshivaprakash
2 Controlled Lending by Public Libraries Under Indian Law Lawrence Liang & Carl Malamud Omshivaprakash
3 Public Library Movement In India Lawrence Liang Omshivaprakash

I would like to exchange few CC licensed Kannada books with those would like to hand over any other CC licensed Indian books :slight_smile:

Few More books

S.N. Title Authors Language
1 Serendipity - Accidental Discoveries In Medical History Dr. Kiran VS Kannada
2 Vikalategala Parichaya (Introduction to disabilities) Umesh Kannada

Note: Both of these books got Karnataka Science & Technology Academy Awards. Serendipity was awarded by Karnataka Sahitya Academy for 2021.

Let add this too…

Food Menu

S.N. Dish Category Type Description Who
1 Jaggery & Peanut Laddoos Sweets Veg Mouth watering delicacy that you can’s resist! Omshivaprkash
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Food

Kinnathappam - sweet jellyish cake made with rice and sugar. Eaten as snacks, breakfast or dessert depending on where you live :yum:
Type: non-veg
Allergies: contains sugar, eggs, rice, cashew, cumin, raisins

Books

  1. Mixtape Vol 3
    by various authors and artists, published by Kokaachi
    A collection of 5 short b&w comic stories.
    Type: zine
  2. Amar Bari, Tomar Bari, Naxalbari
    by Sumit Kumar, published by Bakarmax
    A no-holds-barred satirical comic book on the history of the radical left in India’s Red Corridor.
    Type: comic book
  3. The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF
    by various authors and artists, published by Blaft Publications
    An anthology of weird, fantastic, supernatural, Dalit futurist, & magical realist fiction by writers from South Asia and the diaspora.
    Type: speculative fiction

Edit: added authors

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I’m confused. Which of these books are purely give-away, and which are for exchange ?

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Kannada books are for exchange :). They are ofcourse available for sale if anyone wants more copies.

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Ok - updated list, added a book exchange list as well. Thank you !

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How do someone participate if they are travelling from outside Bangalore but still wish to be part of Potluck? Does local dry snacks or sweets from the origin location work to participate?

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Yes - we prefer something from the origin location. Just make sure it travels well. Could be sweets/savouries/anything.

But please post what item you will get here - it’s a useful hint for others.

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Tagging potluck “alumni” too @Yashi_srivastava @Harigovind_C_B @Muneer_S @Mohd_Yasir_K_N @urbec @Jasil ! Folks - potluck is happening at IndiaFOSS 2026 too.

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I will try and add books from my end. Will see what I can share. Coming from Pune, and a bit early, so pot luck wise, I may not be able to contribute.

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Oh well… we won’t mind some Chithale Bandhu Bhakarwadi :wink:

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I was planning for Bharkarwadi from Pune… Since @flossboxin is travelling early and I am arriving on Sep 24, I can get it on behalf of all from Pune :wink:

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We have a running joke among the previous folks in the potluck… “if you are from Kerala, you can’t get chips” (preventing chips clash). Should make a similar one for folks from Pune. :smiley:

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Hahaha… good one! I would partially agree with this.

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Same here, but I am already engaged in so many things here, and will already be carrying a lot of stuff, so would not be able to do that. :frowning:

For the books, I have pinged in my office group as well (we have a dedicated books group across few cities). I hope someone will come back rallying across. :slight_smile:

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Recently learned kinnathappam doesn’t stay fresh for more than a day (even the packaged ones from bakery) without refrigerating, so I cannot bring that to the potluck. Unfortunately I don’t know any recipes for sweets that last long either, and cannot replace it with anything else. Please remove kinnathappam from the food list :frowning:

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Hmm interesting. No worries. Why does the wikipedia article say:

Once cooked, it often stays fresh for four to five days if stored in a dry place.

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That’s what I thought too, until I saw the expiry date on a bakery kinnathappam. That sentence in wikipedia cites a manorama article on sweets from Kannur and it doesn’t mention eggs as ingredients, which might explain staying fresh for a long time. Perhaps kinnathappam is made without eggs in north Kerala. I live in the south and the ones I’ve seen in bakeries all mention eggs in the ingredients list.

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@Dilip_G I stole your idea for pineapple holige btw (from Bengaluru Darshan). Apologies :smiley:

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