 |
 |
 |
In the SpotlightCeylon Society Website - A prolonged genesisIn the beginningIt was a gloomy day, sometime early in 1997, and I had just slammed the telephone receiver down after receiving another rude unsolicited telemarketing call. The phone rang again almost immediately after and I picked it up angrily. I was not really listening vas the person on the other end asked whether I was the Michael Sourjah that collected books on Ceylon. I responded like a programmed robot and gave a surly 'No' even before I had fully comprehended the question. Thankfully, the caller did not immediately hang up but instead courteously apologised for disturbing me. It was only then that I mumbled a humlbe apology and said 'Yes, I indeed collected books on Ceylon. Hugh and Tulsi KarunanayakeThat was how I first met Hugh Karunanayake and his wonderful wife Tulsi. Hugh was the bane of my book collecting endeavours as he somehow always managed to snatch that rare book I craved - just before I approached the seller. But he did convince me to get involved with a bunch of passionate 'Ceylonophiles' and we eventually established the Ceylon Society of Australia. Foundation SecretaryI honestly cannot remember volunteering to become the foundation Secretary of the Society but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get the fledgling organisation off the ground. Unfortunately, the demands of raising a young family meant that I had to reluctantly step down from the post of Secretary in late 2001. However, in a moment of rashness, I made a promise to the Committee that I would develop a website for the Society. I never realised this would be an extremely long genesis. Nagging conscienceThe years flew past rapidly but my conscience kept reminding me about my (broken) promise. I had initially drawn up plans for the website and collected snippets of information but shamefully had done nothing further. So fast forward to December 2008 (7 years later), when I made a New Year's resolution to have the website operating by the end of April 2009. I dusted off the old documents, read a heap of books on website development and re-wrote almost everything (and then re-wrote many times over again). I located a website developer through a work colleague and kept cajoling past and present Committee members for ever-increasing amounts of information as the scope of the website expanded. Partners in this ventureI take this opportunity to thank Hugh Karunanayake, Sumane Iyer, Mike Udabage and Hemal Gurusinghe for providing guidance, support, comments and ideas. I also especially thank Chintan Desai from Melbourne for developing this website and for tolerating my frequent requests for changes and enhancements. I also must thank Palinda de Silva from the USA who not only established the 'Images of Ceylon' website but has also given us permission to use his images on our website. The final details of the website were agreed upon at Sumane Iyer's residence on 24 April 2009, accompanied by a delicious godamba roti meal with cold beer. Website featuresFeatures on this website include an Event Calendar, links to sites with similar interests and the ability to pay subscriptions online, using PayPal. Interactive features include the ability to make postings on the Discussion Forums and to use the Classified Advertisements for buying and selling items relating to Ceylon and Sri Lanka. The Ceylon History section functions somewhat like a Blog where people can post articles and others can provide comments or additional information relating to each article. Our objectiveWe are hoping that this website will strengthen the bonds we have already established and more closely unite this unique global community of people who share similar interests. Secretary to Webmaster I confess that I did not know much abour website development when I embarked on this project. Neither am I a graphic designer. So please do not hesitate to give me your ideas and suggestions for improving this website and also please let me know if you spot any errors or mistakes.
Michael Rohan Sourjah
|
