Another village in Punjab joined the internet bandwagon as Gumtala, situated on the suburbs of Amritsar, today launched a website not just to connect with its diaspora, but also to bring them together with an objective to uphold cultural traditions and fight drug addiction that is rampant there. Residents of the village who have made it big through the dint of their hard work, but are proud of their roots, took the initiative to bring the hamlet on-line.

“The aim is to apprise the world of the village’s religious, historical, social and cultural importance, besides highlighting the achievements made by its residents, a majority of whom are now settled abroad, besides creating a forum to deal with the problem of drug addiction,” said managing editor of the website, Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala. “The place is important religiously and historically as it’s the place associated with the first Sikh war between Guru Hargobind and Mughal emperor Jehangir,” he said.

Gumtala said that the village residents were a happy and contended lot sometime ago despite the fact that most of them were living a hand-to-mouth existence. “But unfortunately abundance of riches, caused by escalating land prices has dragged the village youths towards drug addiction,” he said. “As a result, the cultural and societal traditions suffered a setback,” added Dr Gumtala. He averred that the portal had been conceived to form an on-line forum to deal with the problem of increasing drug menace.

“The website comprises a guest book and a message board through which regular discussions and counselling sessions would be held to deal with drug addiction problem,” he said. He added that memoirs of those hailing from the village besides write-ups and pictures on its heritage would also be put on the website. Stating that the village, which is even older than Amritsar itself, is considered to be the ‘mother’ of Amritsar, as the city is reportedly founded on the land belonging to this hamlet.

Editors note: The site can be accessed at www.gumtala.com

Comments (0) >>

Show/Hide comments

Write comment

You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.