Vivek Vyas and his friend Vimal Popat were enjoying piping hot samosas from a streetside stall on a winter morning when Vivek noticed something unusual. The snacks were wrapped in a sheet of newspaper on which the obituary section was printed. Now, this got the duo thinking a little about the dead. What will happen to the obituary column the next day? While the other articles get uploaded in the websites, obituaries are often overlooked. So, the two friends decided to do something that no one had thought of. They created shradhanjali.com, India's first tribute portal to the departed.
Now what exactly is a tribute portal, you might wonder. Here, all you find are biographies of people who aren't alive, their family tree, videos and photographs. People can even post condolence messages and also receive death and birth anniversary reminders. The portal stores this information in it forever. "The people, whose biographies you find here, aren't famous. They lived normal lives like you and I. But don't they deserve something like a Wikipedia page of their own? Hence, we started shradhanjali.com," says Vivek. Vivek and Vimal, both quit their corporate jobs and have dedicated all their time to this start-up in Rajkot.
The portal has more than 800 profiles already. By buying the website's package, which the founders claim is lesser than what regular newspapers charge, one can create a page for their loved ones who have passed on. "I myself have added the biographies for my uncle and my grandfather. That way more people get to know about people who weren't very popular," says Vivek, who wants his life written as a page on the website after his death.
People have told the duo quite often to back off from their initiative as they were "playing with people's emotions." But that wasn't strong enough to stop them. "We do not intend to hurt anyone, all that we aim to do is preserve the memories of your loved ones," says Vivek signing off.
