Welcome to my corner of the digital world. I’m Debashish Chakrabarty, a Technical Program Manager nestled in Pune, and if you dig deep enough into the internet’s memory lanes, you might just stumble upon my footprints.
My journey traces back to the humble “geocities” era (with even a BigB fansite), but it was in October 2002 that I embarked on my blogging voyage with fervor. Null Pointer, my English sanctuary, has seen the sun rise and set on various platforms—from the cozy confines of Rediff blogs to the bustling streets of JRoller, before finding a permanent abode in my own hosted WordPress domain. And then there’s NuktaChini, my Hindi haven, where words dance in familiar rhythms, though most of my blogging has now been replaced by micro-blogging at Twitter.
Me, myself!I have been a DMOZ editor (that used to be quite prestigious at the time), created the first Hindi blog-aggregator Chittha Vishwa that also tracked advances in Indic Blogging, launched the first desi blog-awards called The Indibloggies and keep a sharp eye on Indic-blogging.
I have been an avid evangelizer of the usage of Hindi and Indian languages on the Internet and was instrumental in creation of Sarvagya , a wiki aimed at providing primers and advanced tips for people interested in using Hindi (and other Unicode supported Indic languages) on the internet.
I also used to moderate “Chitthakar”, a popular mailing list of Hindi bloggers with over 800 subscribers and have been involved in initiatives like Buno Kahani (a group blog where various authors, literally, weaved a story) and Anugunj (a web event hosted in turn by Hindi bloggers – where various bloggers wrote on a given topic). I occasionally contribute to the Hindi Wikipedia (its now taken over by fanatics).
I published Nirantar , hyped to be the world’s first Hindi blogzine and another Hindi webzine Samayiki , both seldom updated now. I also founded the Hindi Lingua Project of Global Voices Online, a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society (still frequently contribute there).
During those good days I had been contributing towards localization of tools & software. Some of the projects I contributed to, include WordPress, Gregarious, Pebble, IndicJoomla, IJoomla, Scuttle, Snap Shots, Blog Bar and Splitweet.
Yet, as the sands of time shift, the rhythms of life dictate new cadences. Podbharati, my Hindi podcast, once a dream deferred, found new wings in 2021 with “Sopaan “—a stairway to new beginnings. I also started two newsletters Podcast Parikrama, covering the world of audio and podcasts and The Agile Chronicles that covers Agile, Scrum, Lean, Product Development and Leadership. Do read & subscribe.
Wish to connect? You can schedule a tête-à-tête here.
