1. Who is this page for?
    Its for anybody who cares about it.

  2. Why make such a page?
    As science helps reduce distances, distances increase. This is an attempt to bridge gaps between generations and crossbranches, to increase the circle of swajan and so on.

  3. How can I contribute?
    If you are a Mahabal or descendant thereof, you can perhaps provide information on some of the missing links. You can contribute photographs of your immediate family members. You can contribute memories and memoirs. You can point out errors. You can indicate to us already existing compendums. And whatever else you can think of.
    If you are not a Mahabal descendant, you can still provide constructive criticism and names of Mahabals/derivatives you may know.

  4. What basic information can I send?
    Please tell us your name, names of your siblings and parents, names of your children and their children, names of children and grand children of your siblings. Also, names of siblings and parents etc. of your parents too as far up as you can go on the Mahabal side. Please include spouses too.
    List of fields we are looking for.

  5. If I volunteer to collect information for my branch, how much time will I have to spend?
    Initially about 20 minutes to remember the names and 10 minutes to type them out.
    Then ~30 minutes per week gathering the rest of the information. In return, you will get in touch with others of your family, something that you always wanted to do, and also earn a place in the credits page.

  6. Who do I send the information to?
    We have gradually started getting volunteers - people ready to help push this compendum to limits.
    Volunteers:
    Subodh and Neha Mahabal from Pune
    Dinesh and Sunanda Mahabal from Mumbai
    Ashish and Anu continue to be the curators of the database. If you are sending information electronically, it is worth sending a copy to us besides your local volunteer.
    Perhaps you can volunteer for your local network.
    Besides the list given above, do also look at the credits' page for people who have provided information about their own branch and also helped to spread the word around. You could also contact them if it is more convenient.

  7. What are the odd symbols I see at the top of a member profile?
    We are looking for good symbols/icons to represent the following:
    Married individuals, individuals who have expired, those who have some achievements etc. The present symbols are not so great:
    married    expired    achievement male female
    Suggest better ones.

  8. Is this a genealogy database?
    In a way. We have introduced certain criteria of our own which makes the database closer to a lineal chart than a pedigree. Getting pedigrees of all will be interesting, but extremely daunting.

  9. How are the pages maintained?
    Using apache on a Dell box running Linux (earlier on an ultra 5 of sun running solaris 7). The pages are generated using a bunch of perl programs, mostly hashed at home. XML and mysql are used for structuring the info.

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