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One year
of Virgin Endeavour
It
was on January 1, 2001 that the website called Virgin
Endeavour was first uploaded to the Internet. One whole
year of online presence that meant a lot: the first in my
class to have a website of my own, the first among all
acquaintances to have a website of his own…. Pride. A
particular self-belief. A message. And lots of satisfaction.
So what did I gain?
There are many
things in life which you do not do for any tangible material
benefit. Love. Laugh. Play. Spend quality time. Read. Enjoy a
good film. Share a few exciting and emotional moments with
your girlfriend. Give that first gift to some dear one from
your first salary….Did I write up most of my poems for
payback? In that case I should have, perhaps, published a book
and copyrighted my poems. Why should I publish my own
intellectual property in public domain for free? Why indeed!
First, that I don’t think I have enough material for a
published book. And second because I thought that writing a
book was still some way off. While, I may have to reconsider
the second point one year later, I believe that most material
online should be free. And so, here I am displaying my wares
for not even a penny. But what things I can claim!
While it remains
my misfortune that I haven’t received any sort of patronage,
I have slogged through even busy times to keep my passion
burning. I haven’t received even one mail saying that,
‘Well, Mr. Rahul, your poems are wonderful. I liked them.
Keep up the good work’. And to be honest it is not the lack
of quality that is the reason for this callousness. I am a
student of literature, and my friends at the university are
students of literature. I am not sure if even two people from
my class have visited my site. Under such uninspiring
circumstances keeping up a cheerful heart remains difficult.
Another website that I made later this year [Aishwarya
Palace or Ashpalace at
http://ashpalace.tripod.com]
met with the same fate. How can a person deny dejection under
such repeated show of scorn? I have hallowed company in
Shelley and Keats, and I can console myself. However, it’s
not so much a question of consolation. For my part I am happy
that I did a good work, proud that I am the only person to do
such a thing among my friends, and happily complacent in the
firm belief that coming years shall see a reversal of fate.
It’s not so much my dejection that matters, but the fact
that friends and relatives can be so ungracious, so uncongratulatory. It was, after all, for those few words of
praise that this website exists in the first place. More than
for myself, I feel sorry for them. They have let themselves
down in my eyes.
And running this website has meant some concrete
sacrifices. It’s unimaginable how many dozens of hours I
have had to slog with my computer in works related to the
website. While many of those efforts were aborted attempts
that did not see the light of the day, the fact that Virgin
Endeavour has come this far is a testimony that the site
has seen improvements. One year back this site, at best, could
have been called amateur. I cannot make tall claims for
myself, but considering that I had only myself to cheer me,
considering that I have never done any course in web
designing, considering that all I learnt, I learnt by myself,
this is not a bad prize. And I hope the next one year will see
more improvements, although I remain skeptical if there shall
be any difference in its reception.
21 December, 2001
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