Amateur Excellence

by Vikas Kamat
Page Last Updated: December 07, 2024

We honor the quintessentially Indian online community of Sulekha (from Sanskrit, meaning "good writing") by graphically rendering its logo in our pictures. 

In the online world of aaya-dot-coms and gaya-dot-coms, Sulekha has continued to be a major success because the promoters of Sulekha.com (Satya Prabhakar and Sangeeta Kshettry) understood very early the participatory nature of the Web. All of the content on Sulekha (mounting to over 250,000 pages at the time of this writing) comes from its readers, and the resulting body of literature not only reflects the mood of the moment but is also a great read. Some pundits write community sites  off as "amateurish", and "shallow". It is my opinion that only those who recognize the importance of an individual's expression will appreciate a democratic medium such as the Web. Even the nasty differences of opinions that occur at Sulekha Coffeehouse are worthy of study, because collectively they represent the thought process of the masses. Sulekha may not be what the Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.indian was during the pre-Web days,  but given today's rapidly dwindling India-related content on the Web, it is both relevant and essential. Whether you are a news junkie, a passionate activist, or a casual philosopher, you will get your dose of brain-juice at Sulekha.

Visit Sulekha everyday (or multiple times a day as I do) at http://www.sulekha.com 

Sulekha -- Quintessentially Indian

• Ramprasad Bismil (Row 18, Column 9)
• Kasuti Design (Row 11, Column 24)
• Buddhist Student (Row 5, Column 15)
• Banjara Woman (Row 11, Column 24)
• The Doorman (Row 11, Column 9)
• The Floral Ganesh (Row 9, Column 24)
• Tippu Sultan (Row 13, Column 17)
• Tanjore Saraswati (Row 11, Column 7)
• Monk Practices Handwriting (Row 9, Column 19)

Homework:

Located in the PhotoQuilt are many famous people, hero-stones, rivers, and common folk of India. Try to pinpoint Poet Kalidas, Artist Raja Ravivarma, Queen of  Jhansi Laxmi Bai, Mask of Kathakkali, and Shankaracharya.

See Also:

• Amateur Journalism by Dave Winer
• Blogging as Journalism -- article at the Online Journal Review
• The Amateur Webmaster
• Kamat Photo Quilts