On this day in 2005, I launched DeSiPokemon.com, India's first online Pokémon community.
What was then born out of a need and sheer interest in the franchise, and a sandbox to experiment my newfound passion for web design, has over the years grown to have over 26K posts spread across 8K+ members. It is this platform that has helped me connect with some of the best friends (and their friends) whom I cherish today, who wouldn't have existed in my life otherwise, and further played a pivotal role in many more lives. I'm so grateful to still have new enthusiasts signing up and engaging in conversations and keeping the space alive, building more connections, while having been unable to maintain or moderate the website by myself in the last several years owing to other challenges that come with growing up. I'm truly humbled by everything this platform has given me — a lot of respect from people who have looked up to me as 'Webmaster DP-NiSh', a lot of affection and support from people who have contributed in the process, a lot of creative learning (coding, subtitling, editing) from everything I put out there, and is just something very close to my heart, that I hold pride in, and has shaped a big part of my identity over the years. Cheers to our evergreen family! Thank you. ❤️