Artistes and authors have been trying to carve an online identity for themselves in the pandemic, by mainly launching their website. We spoke to three Delhi-based personalities, who gave us many reasons for their digital intent.
VISIBILITY MEANS BUSINESS! RAVI RASTOGI
I have been a Choreographer and Fitness Coach for 18 years, and always explored different ways to generate the business for my dance classes or spread awareness about fitness. During my training at Broadway Dance Center, New York, I made a website for my dance classes that required constant upgrading. But the pandemic changed my business dynamics and with no students coming to the studio, I developed my website all over again, and added a platform for my online classes with a payment gateway, meeting the required demands of the new normal.
DOCUMENTING HERITAGE SUNANDA SHARMA
As an Indian classical vocalist / musician, I find a lack of documentation concerning our classical system. I have travelled extensively in India and abroad with my music, and observed that the West is so good at documenting their music, art and heritage. India is the ‘guru’ for so many things, but the creators are so busy ‘creating’, they don’t pay attention to documenting simultaneously. I always wanted to have a website. It’s a good way to archive your work and connect with the world. In this pandemic, I found it useful to utilise my time in recreating my website, as it kept me creatively engaged.
MULTIPLE TALENTS SANGEETA GUPTA
I have had a website since 1999- 2000, and I had updated it several times over the years. In 2015, I reformatted it to Word Press, and did some exhaustive work on it in 2018. In the pandemic, I realised that it had not been renewed since a while, and had completely lost its aura. I redid the site from scratch. My website has detailed information about my creative life as an artist, poet and filmmaker. All links and different profiles with my e-books on art and poetry are here. The pandemic gave me an opportunity to present it in an organised manner.