There were slogans, groups and activists galore. Street protestors rubbed shoulders with Magsaysay award winners, activists with authors, cynical journalists with idealists.

The World Social Forum, with the catchline, 'Another World is Possible, opened to a tumultuous reception in suburban Mumbai on January 16.

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At the venue, trying to find someone was akin to looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

But wander around and one was bound to come across persons who have made a name. Standing up for the rights of the oppressed and for rigorous activism that earned them global recognition.

There were dalit and tribal activists from one of India's newest states -- Chhattisgarh -- and there were people from South America, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. All to protest against the globalisation as propagated by the multinational corporations.

So was this a globalised forum against globalisation?

"We are not against globalisation per se," P Sainath, author of the acclaimed Everybody Loves a Good Drought, told rediff.com "We are against the neo-liberal globalisation driven by the multinational corporations that are richer than so many nations and dictate global policy."

"How can we be against going global? After all this gathering itself reflects the globalisation of people's movement," he said

Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy also said the WSF was not against globalisation, as is simplistically made out by the media, perhaps because every now and then groups would shout 'Down with globalisation'.

"When we say another world is possible, we are saying that we want development and globalisation that is people centric, that puts people first rather than corporations and profits," she said.

At the venue, the first, overwhelming sentiment was that of chaos… utter chaos. With a crowd that the police estimate at 100,000 and stages and stalls set up all over the place, the density per square feet was high.

And everyone appeared to be doing different things at the same time. So there were Dalits protesting, tribals from Chhattisgarh staging a rally, some group staging a street theatre (difficult since there was hardly any place to move, let alone perform).

There were foreigners galore, from South America, Europe, and East and Southeast Asia. Many of them were just too busy filming or photographing the myriad images that flashed before the eye: a sort of alternative festival of India seemed underway as the various organisations insisted in holding their own cultural shows, replete with song and dance!

So where was the discussions and the debates? And was there to be anything more or just a gathering of people.

"If you expect some sort of a concrete plan, you'll be disappointed," warned Sainath. "This is not some boardroom where a resolution or plan of action is to be adopted. This is a people's movement; the people are meeting each other, talking to each other, and drawing inspiration from each other."

Isabelle Delforge and her husband, Dominique van Derborght, who hail from Belgium but currently live in Laos, are visiting the WSF and plan to be present for all six days. "The WTO does not benefit people; it benefits the transnational corporations," said Isabelle with strong conviction.

Isabelle works for a non-governmental organisation, Focus on the Global South, added, "We don't oppose the WTO from an intellectual point of view but from a people's point of view."

So did they expect anything to come of the six days? "No we don't," said Dominique, "but the fact that we can meet, exchange views, debate issues, all these feed the struggle that we are waging."

"To be able to meet like this, it is so energising," said Isabelle.

The fact that there are so many groups, often working at cross-purposes, really was not a bother. For instance, the Communist Party of India is backing the WSF even as groups demanding the liberation of Tibet move around espousing their cause.

Sainath said that while there were minor contradictions within the WSF, the major goal of opposing the current form of corporation-imposed globalisation was something that all agreed upon. "When Indians launched the freedom struggle, different parties had different ideas, yet all their differences did not stop them from uniting to oust the British. It is a similar situation here," he said.

'Down with Globalisation', at least in its current avatar, is clearly the leit motif of the gathering. And while doing so, the idea is to also have some fun.

Towards that end, the popular Pakistani rock band Junoon, performed on stage, belting out one of their biggest hits in India, 'Sayoni', which clearly had the crowd rocking in tandem. The youngsters out in the crowds, and a majority were youngsters fired by the idealism of youth, were clapping and cheering out loud.

Later in the evening, the plenary session got underway with many speakers, including Nobel laureate from Iran, Shirin Ebadi, and Arundhati Roy and Shabana Azmi, well known on India's protest and cocktail circuits.

Their speeches were along expected lines, railing against American imperialism, multinational corporations, neo-liberalism, et al.

But Shirin Ebadi also spoke about the lack of human rights in her native country, Iran, and stressed that universal human rights could not be divided on basis of religion or nation, and how women are the ones who suffer the most whenever there is oppression in society. The thousands who heard her, applauded in appreciation.