The website, launched by veteran actor Saeed Jaffrey, in June 2003, is an online oral history of the South Asian diaspora which unveils many inspiring stories, says an official release.

History Talking.com aims to create a valuable online educational resource of oral history. It invites people to volunteer information, eyewitness accounts and life experiences about some of the socially and educationally relevant events, social trends and cultural themes.

"Most of our contributors are senior citizens narrating their life experiences. While a large number of our visitors belong to the web-savvy younger generation. By bringing them together we hope to build bridges between the two generations," says Rana.

Rana claims to have had a good run since the launch of the website, approximately 1700,000 hits in August 2003, with 34 per cent hits coming from the UK and 26 per cent from the US. In the last few months it has over 150,000 average monthly hits, claims Rana.