The
Mahatma on the World Wide Web Project was conceived by a core
group working with me in mid 1997. Kanakasabapathy
Pandyan and Vijay
Mukhi were the first people to advise
me to set up a website, after listening to my vision about an
electronic source of Gandhian information.
Miheer
Mafatlal willingly
obliged me by agreeing to host the site at the end of his leased
line. Soon we were working on the preliminary web site with the
team of technicians provided by Pandyan and on 2nd October 1997
the pilot web site of the Mahatma on the World Wide Web was launched.
To our surprise Yahoo picked up the site as a recommended site
for the subject and also in its pick of the week section. This
was when the material on the site was only a microcosm of what
we had estimated.
The
web site was envisaged to host 250,000 pages of text, everything
written by the Mahatma and about the Mahatma; over 45,000 photographs
of the Mahatma; hundreds of Cartoons featuring him; 48 hours of
Audios of his speeches and 5 and half hours of video. In the Pilot
site we had only two books a few hundred photographs and cartoons,
yet we were adjudged the most comprehensive web site on Mahatma
Gandhi.
It was during
this period that we formed a core group of advisors for
the Mahatma on the World Wide Web Project the original
group of
KanakasabapathyPandyan,
Vijay Mukhi
was expanded by co-opting Harish
Mehta CEO
and Managing Director of Onward Novell and Dewang
Mehta of
NASSCOM.As the scope of work increased I was indebted
to Pandyan for maintaining and building the web site and
bearing all the costs involved. We had envisaged the scope
of work, then we estimated the financial requirement to
build and maintain such a site. We were offered the hosting
facilities by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, I am thankful
to the PMO and Communications Ministry for granting this
facility to us .On
30th January 1998 we added a new section to our site dealing
with the "Murder of the Mahatma" "The Last Days" it was
the 50th anniversary of the martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi
we posted books dealing with the assassination of the
Mahatma, pictures and information about the murderers,
the conspiracy and the weapons. For the first time we
made available The Black & White documentary films of
the funeral. So now www.mahatma.org.in
was a multi-media site. We are grateful to Tilak,
Munjal
and Tony
of Graphiti
Multimedia for converting the VHS videos into
short film clips playable over the net.
The
next make over came as we decided to design a better home page
for our site Nirav
Sanghvi of Nettalk took up the task and designed
the new home page for us; The pilot site was now shaping up very
well.
It was during this time that we achieved a major break through
Kanwal S. Rekhi, Esq. and B.
V. Jagadeesh, Esq. of TIE Global, USA gave
us a grant of US$250,000 each. A further US$250,000 is promised
by two more members of TIE, this grant was augmented by Harish
Mehta who gave
us Rs.2,500,000. Thus the Mahatma on the World Wide Web Project
was now on steam and we were now equipped with the resources
to give shape to something that a few years back was just a
part of my day dreams.
Kanakasabapathy
Pandyan
who was now heading a new company Vegaa
eServices Pvt. Ltd. contracted with the Foundation
to provide the manpower to build the site and to liaison with
other vendors who would provide technical services for the project.
They have signed up with a Vadodara based data entry company
Baroda Express
Dot Com to do the data entry work of the 260
plus books that will one day soon start appearing on the site.
The Vegaa team
comprises of P.S. Baktha
our Administrative Manager on whom we learned to lean on for advise,
he is the youngest at heart old
man of the team. Bakthaji is assisted by R.
Venkat who does all the running around. Next came
the software engineers, Nipun
Mapara, the harried professor of a girls college
who gave up all the Bimbets to seek peace on the project, Anoop
Menon, Sameer
Menon and Amol
Tatkare do the coding, software development and
system administration work, at least that's what they make us believe.
The baby of the office Sudhir
Gattawar joined us in the graphics department his
self confessed motive for working on the project is that he wants
to put on weight, he was soon joined by the racing car enthusiast
Deepankar Sadekar
who always drives a Ferrari in his dreams and hopes to drive one in
reality one day soon. Yousuf
and Krishna
our office assistants do all the indoor and out door work and ensure
that we are all fed and supplied with tea coffee whenever required.
The Mahatma Gandhi
Foundation would like to thank every one who has helped in making the
Mahatma On the World Wide Web Project a reality. We would like to thank
our partner organisation in the US The M. K. Gandhi Institute for
Non-violence, Memphis, TN.www.cbu.edu
The
site is being built but we are nowhere near completion as is said,
"The
woods are dark and deep and there's miles to go before I sleep".
We seek help
from those who can, in any manner.
Tushar
A. Gandhi,
Managing Trustee
Mahatma Gandhi Foundation
Rishiket Apartment, Gr. Floor,
N.T.Malusare Lane, Irla,
Off. S.V.Road, Vile Parle (West),
Mumbai 400 056,
India.
Telefax : (+91 - 22) 26704603
Wednesday, 24th January 2001
Created
& maintained for Mahatma Gandhi Foundation by Vegaa eServices
Pvt Ltd.
Hosted by VSNL.
The site features streaming audio and video.
Last updated on October 2, 2002.
