Secondly, this was my maiden experience of conducting business deals with the business class, being a journalist for all of my earlier years. It was a different experience altogether dealing with all types of people, including some who could be safely classified as crooks of the first degree.. But one passed this agni-pariksha (test by fire).

Being behind a small time publication, one had to be an all-rounder – looking after all areas of publication – editorial, circulation, advertising, printing, accounts, and whatever work was left to be done. One could obviously not appoint professionals and sufficient staff to look after all these departments, simply because overheads had to remain in check.

To prevent this venture going into the red, I managed the show mostly with one staff-member, and by deploying my Merces flat as the office. The first one year was really tough, as one could hardly recover the printing charges leave alone my salary.

It was a great eye opener; before starting, I had set a target of some 1000 subscribers within a couple of months at a subscription-fee of a fairly reasonable Rs 120 per year. But it did not take me long to come in terms with the harsh reality. Even my close friends did not bother to pay subscription as a support to my efforts. Those in the thick of IT sector of Goa also did not care to subscribe it too. One got the feeling that people were scared that with their single subscription I may get rich or Digital Goa could overnight grow into a big publication.

I experienced the much spoken-of Goan crab mentality very closely during this time. One thing that can be said with certainty is that Goans are very hostile towards those who make a new beginning. They would waste lots of their energies to discourage you from aiming higher, or pull you down, instead of supporting enterprising people. It is only when they feel that one has survived their onslaught and have made a mark, that they would be sympathetic to you.

This is precisely the reason why the average Goan youth doesn't take a risk and avoids aiming higher. To succeed in Goa, one should either have money-power or a godfather or extraordinary perseverance. Most of my energies still goes into Digital Goa, though today it has grown into a professional, self-sustaining magazine. It has not only gained acceptance but even attained popularity within industry, IT businesses, students and general IT users alike.

There is no dearth of advertisement and, most importantly, our advertisers do not part with their ads as a measure of their generosity, but rather on account of the mileage they get in advertising in Digital Goa. This, for us, is the biggest recognition that Digital Goa is treated as a professional periodical. In fact, one could argue that it is the fastest growing publication and one could venture a bold forecast here that, touch wood, it could have a bright future.

But, there is much to be done to make it really a good quality magazine, both in terms of content and layout and printing. We need to dream of publications on par with any national-level magazine. My preoccupation with the Digital Goa magazine has made me neglect the other projects of Aparant Infomedia. However, we could still complete a comprehensive directory of IT related businesses, including a database of around a thousand firms, with the help of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry . Also, we are in the final stages of completing a Website and e-mail directory for Goa, one of the first of kinds in the country. Hopefully other interesting projects on the lists will get to see the light of the day, so that it can be proudly said that journalists can themselves re-invent themselves into good publishers too!

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