I was excited in March of 2000 when I was approached by folks from eIndia; within a few minutes I already had ideas for the skin.

I went to the RIT library and checked out a pile of books about the art and architecture of India. They proved a valuable reference, both for basic style and coloration. The actual 'building' in the skin is patterned after Akbar's Tomb, the Taj Mahal, and Itimad-ud-Daula's Tomb.

The skin came together very quickly once I settled on the exact style, but getting there took a while - I spent two weeks staring at the books, gathering ideas, before sitting down to actually create the graphics. The skin itself was the product of two days of nearly nonstop work (I stopped twice for foor at Taco Bell).

Originally I had toyed with an alternate graphic, instead of numbers, for the large time display. If you look at the skin when it's not playing music, you will see that the zeroes are sort of bullseyes. Originally, those circles went through a cycle of concentric movement while playing. While pleasing to look at, they told you nothing about what was going on, so they were ultimately discarded in favor of traditional numerals.

A few months ago, I discovered that in the late summer of 2000, ZDNet.com ran a list of what they felt were the top ten best Winamp skins. I was the only person to have two skins listed - 'eIndia,' and 'Major Tom.'