From last couple of weeks I have been conducting a survey of social media salaries that Indian professionals are getting. This is an in-house effort by my company just to shed some light over the matter cause me and some friends in the industry used to wonder about it. Instead of pushing it too much openly over here on the blog or Twitter, I chose to message people individually on Linkedin. This way I thought the results would be lot more qualitative as I would be messaging only social media profiles. Another advantage I felt was that it might lead to dialogue between various social media folk, which did happen. I replied to almost everyone who wrote back to me.
Along with the good stuff however there was some backfire, due to the fact that it is actually not possible to keep track of who I have already messaged and who I have recently come across. (It is possible but very tedious) It so happened that couple of them got the message multiple times, while one of them nicely replied back and I apologised and explained to them why it might have happened. This other person just called me a Spammer and threatened to remove me from their contact list. I removed them from my contact list, as anyway that person was not adding any value being there cause he couldn't even word his messages well!
His comments however got me thinking....
Work can be done to the degree of professionalism where every little detail is in place, however tedious we would take the road which would lead to no mistakes. Probably a very "Safe" path. Sure it might have taken more time if I had to cross check before I messaged anyone but at least there wouldn't be a repeat.
Now the thing is that I need to at this point re-visit why "I" was doing the social media survey in the first place. I could have hired someone and got them to do the messaging (its nothing too difficult) but I was doing it cause I like doing stuff on my own. I did take help from someone for a while but the answer is that I am really passionate about these things.
So the problem that comes up is that mistakes do happen. Many a times they are unavoidable. If I got scared of them, I would have to work like a computer and I would not be able to put my soul into my work. My passion, my love for the work I am doing is the drive not some 'Safety' rules and procedures.
Another example, is my Happenings newsletter. This newsletter started as an expression to communicate with friends, family and even some not so close friends. What happens is that a lot of them are not tech savvy enough so I can't ask them to subscribe to my newsletter but they would read my emails. So when I started my newsletter I scanned through my entire email database where there are a lot of people... I ticked all my relatives, friends and even some with whom I had lost contact but I wanted them to read these letters from me.
Now the thing here is that since I had not 'technically' asked them to sign up for the newsletter some idiot could call it spamming. The thing is that if I listened to these people, whether they are right or wrong, I would not be able to work with passion and 'रूचि'
At some point I think everyone needs to ask themselves Do I have passion for what I am doing? And if I really feel for it just go ahead and do it. If in the process someone who is not interested in my life gets the newsletter or if a social media professional gets the same message multiple times they need to have the grace to just unsubscribe or just let me know politely. This applies to me too when someone else goofs up... and it is something that I have been experiencing in my life. Small things can get us really riled up against some act another person has done and we start judging them saying 'they spammed' or 'they are rude'. Via social media it becomes so easy to just 'unfriend' these people or block them or bash them on a blog.
What I feel is that this is part of a bigger problem that we as Humans have. We create a small circle of friends and family and then we close ourselves to others. we perceive relatives as completely different from the way we see another person on the road. Why is this? The fact is that even in close families often you don't Know (beyond routine likes & dislikes) most relative any better than you can know a stranger on the road. Taking the example of an extreme situation - sometimes when there is a case where a family member has indulged in paedophilia - if you have read cases you will find the family is very reluctant to even believe the child of the same family who has made the claim. If the accused were to be outside the family these people would pick up stones to hit him! Why this difference?
Another example I just read today in Robinson Crusoe - It seems RC was taken as a slave by some turks, he found that really distasteful and ran away. He obviously saw that as great injustice but then in the same book, RC himself is completely comfortable with taking African slaves!!
So I think, we Humans as a whole need to calm down, sit and think about stuff. We need to see people as part of our family, and I mean all People. Albeit an extended family, but I do not think there is any other way to achieve true peace and a loving world..........And if you know your family you will know that they are never 'Perfect'!
pic source: www.call4peace.com
Recent conversation with the printer who will be printing my biz cards,
Prntr: What work you do exactly?
Me: Umm social media marketing.... basically we manage presence of companies on Facebook, Twitter... if they want a blog...
Thought to myself: Does he know what I am talking about?
Me: You know Facebook??
Prntr: Yes yes... it is a website...
Me: yea... a social network actually with lot of people on it (I have a flair for putting things simply)
Some pause
Prntr: So this is a service you are doing... you charge for it?
Me: Ya.. of course!
:S some people find it hard to believe that a person is paid for social media!
This is good... it answers the all important question raised about online activism. What is the impact of online activism on the actual cause?? Or is it often just all BS.
Managing many twitter accounts... one thing I have realized whether it is lead generation, conversing or building followers it all boils down to every individual tweet... whether that one tweet is interesting enough to gain a reply, spike the persons curiosity or even get them to follow.
Its all about those 140 characters.
No, I am not exaggerating, cause I have seen it in so many different situations and platforms. The same message wrapped in a different way - lose the 'pitching attitude' from it or become that tad bit informal and all of a sudden there is a real JUMP in how successful it is.
Crucial to take the time and pay attention to the conversation, how you are forming your words and then your sentences. After we take that much care.. it boils down to the listener/reader...
As listeners we need to give people a chance, cause they may be bad with simple semantics.. so look beyond the words at the aura :D (sorry that was a joke... the joke is that I don't really know how we can look beyond the words... I mean its damn tough to gauge a persons 'heart' or real intentions at least for me..)
What do you think guys and girls... ever seen this when socializing over new media?
Again online media brings important breaking news to the fore. Usually this happens due to technical reasons.. Where people tweet news and it goes viral, before traditional media can boradcast it. This time however its not the technology that is the cause for traditional medias silence over the matter. Twitter has been abuzz about this for more than three days. BarkhaGate has been continuously trending on the Indian twitter trends and often other names like Sanghavi have been seen.
The Matter
Open (and Outlook) magazines released phone conversations between N Radia (suspected to have a hand in the telecom scam) and media house biggies.. Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghavi and others.
Hear the tapes.
These tapes clearly show conversations where the reporters and Radia are talking about sensitive matters and how it could be shown to the people via their media channels, lobbying for governments and more.
This cannot lead to fair news coverage
This was my first thought when I heard these tapes.. when the reporters are so involved with 'the news events' they really cannot be giving any sort of 'fair coverage' to the events.
Traditional Media biting its own tail
I was also thinking that the media houses are in a soup.. as can be clearly seen by the way they have clammed up about all these tapes and such. It seems B Dutt and Vir Sanghavi are giving some replies on twitter itself, but nothing has been reported in the main news channels (papers or TV). The thing is that if the matter is only trending on Twitter for days.. a large public mass will remain ignorant to these developments unless some newspaper or TV broadcasts it.
To be cool the traditional media for long have been publicizing every small thing about Twitter I dunno why, probably to be in on the 'big thing' thats happening abroad or because the celebs are now on Twitter... they probably never thought of such a scenario haha They are biting their own tail when they give publicity to the online media because as online media becomes more powerful and more of the 'mass' , the offline media loses power in society.
Journalists to keep a distance from actual event
This incident also raises deep questions about 'What is role of journalists/reporters?' 'how involved can they get in an event?' as they are also supposed to be covering it. Often such examples as below are cited where journalists act totally crass over only 'covering' an event and not taking part in it.
Can a bigshot journo/reporter who has many contacts high up, choose to use them or should they just keep covering events, situations and not take part in it. I feel between fairly covering an event and taking part in it, so as to become biased the line is very thin. Every journalist needs to make their own call.. but if tapes like these come out surely it will shake faith of people in media, if they had any faith in the first case :D
Went on a travel to Gangtok which is a very beautiful place! Its about time that the beautiful Himalayas finds its fair share of admirers! It was really sad to see "Sikkim- Switzerland of East" written every here and there! The Sikkim tourism board needs a much more robust tourism industry going!
Local Internet Connectivity
Almost all places that I visited including small villages had electricity. The drivers, cooks all came from small villages with electricity. In fact the driver told me that Tata Sky was as bad there as in Mumbai (it shuts off as the first rain drop falls) Airtel TV is better. Most them know computers and can access them. They are not yet on the Internet.. I think the Sikkim tourism board should work and get these guys on the Internet. This will really help bringing the local culture on the web and thus they should have a dynamic online presence including inputs from local people!
Char Dhams
The only reason the Gadhwal Himalayan region finds so many visitors is cause of the Char Dhams. This is really sad because I believe that visiting the Himalayas could bring a bigger change in a persons life by their 'awe inspiringness' than a pilgrimage to the Char Dhams!
Enjoy some pics of my trip... and ponder over how internet connectivity in these remote localities could better their lives and livelihoods!
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| Gangtok trip |
I had mentioned the Jaagore tweetup in my previous post in this series. I had been invited as a panelist on it :) along with some other very cool people. It was a real fun tweetup,
One cause I met a lot of fellow tweeps who I knew from Twitter and hadn't met in a while.
Two, also cause the discussion about social media and NGO's was quite brilliant, if I may say so myself. Bunch of us didn't realise where the time passed at all.
Some insights from the discussion,
Online to Offline connect
There are online campaigns for social causes but they are all virtual like 'light a virtual candle'. Usually these campaigns are started after traumatic incidents like terrorist attacks and such. So these acts coined 'armchair activism' by some, was questioned and a point raised was
An interesting point made by @hiyer was that these may not translate offline in terms of providing compensation or food to victims, but it does provide 'solace'. Even though no close person has been affected in these incidents people do get agitated/affected by incidents. Lighting virtual candles can help allay that agitation. Which is great and it will reflect in how these people are offline too.
I have been thinking that actual ground reality problems managing the logistics for the victims, taking steps to avoid such incidents again and so on can only be solved if people move beyond solace. Nothing wrong with solace but solace is not solution. Solution is a different word and would bring about a different world.
NGO's using Social Media
Another point raised probably by Chandni of @fundacause is that while some NGO's that do great work are present on social media they don't get any traction. A few suggestions that came pouring out were,
- Use creative language - often NGO's use machine language which really fails to pep people up to the cause.
- Objective - Be clear of what you want from the social media campaign!
- Realistic - Be realistic or get some opinions from social media consultants/professionals about what sort of realistic objectives you can set for the campaign
These are the few points I can recall right now. Other than that many NGO efforts on social media were pointed out and discussed. Jaagore's online campaign for social 'awakening' was also discussed. What they could improve on and what they were doing right.
Now a days whenever I introduce myself to people (who are internet active) I always add my twitter handle. Initially I thought it was weird as many people barely know Twitter. On thinking further, I find one benefit of telling the Twitter handle is that it gives a clear connect to me. Like if they wanna talk more etc.. we can always connect on Twitter. Its really the only way I can actually be in contact with people I meet for a short time.
Also this sort of brings internet savvy people closer to Twitter. So more people to do masti with :) (Muhahahah)
Actually the deeper reason is that my introduction feels more complete when I add a Twitter handle (a point of contact with me) cause frankly I cannot say 4-5 lines and sum myself up! I have stuff happening in many different aspects of myself.
This new media gives us tools to be in touch with a lot of contacts without making it to time or resource consuming may as well use it.
If you are just reading this blog post and don't have a blog or Twitter of your own, well sorry to say you are just a VUP then! VUP = Very Unimportant Person!
Many companies are offering some facilities to its customers when they are the "Blog/Twitter VIPs"
VIP
I just have to tweet about some problem with my ICICI, Airtel or Vodafone (and probably some other brands I am not aware of yet) accounts and they will contact me on Twitter. I have personally used this facility of ICICI bank, where I DM them my phone number and a customer rep calls me and solves whatever my queries are. Before I have gone to the bank and spoken to customers reps on the phone and its just not so simple!
My first such experience of VIP treatment happened with a non profit, humanitarian organization. I had a bad time there when I was volunteering and talking about it to the admin did not help at all. It was all a pain. I even spent time and money flying there just to understand what went wrong but to no avail. I come back and blog about my experiences and Voila - I get called by one of the admin. (Read more)
Facility for the Online Junta
On the flip side however, I can see this also as a facility, I mean its damn convenient for me to simply tweet to a company when I am facing some problems. In fact I recently saw that HDFC bank is also on Twitter so will probably open my second account in this bank over an SBI.
Social Media
A lot of social media guys are considering this customer service given via Twitter/Blogs as very good usage of social media. I think that for brands which are hugely offline like all those mentioned above ICICI, Airtel, Vodafone... they need to have an awesome customer service for all the people not just the Online ones.
All of a sudden due to this social media boom, companies are getting really scared of bad publicity and thus trying to fix that. Do they realize that the bad publicity would happen offline too?
What do you think of this customer service being given by major brands across the world??
Since I started my company in digital marketing I keep getting some queries, clients etc.. through my online network. One of the most surprising calls I got was from a tweep, who wanted to help me with the work. In passing he mentioned that he was visually impaired.
"What??" I am sorry, I thought I misheard, did he say visually impaired?
The obvious question in my mind was How can he possibly do any online marketing when he cannot see!!
Since I have chatted, emailed him, and he has some interesting tips for social media marketing too!
I thought all you guys would be interested in knowing about him and how he uses the internet... also Why he does that. Here is a small video and his interview about how he got into internet marketing.
"I started surfing the internet during 2004 that’s when I got my first desktop computer. I am a game geek so I use to play a lot of games with my low vision. It was during 2005 my sister showed me how to use google and then I found that windows xp has got an in built magnifier which opened a new world together. Since then I stopped playing games and started off learning a lot of tech stuff, reading and networking with people using mails. But I got my limitations, in spite of using
the windows xp magnifier I need to give rest to my eyes after 1-2 hrs of continuous work on the computer.
You might be wondering how can I play games when I cannot see any thing on computer with out magnifier, the kind of disease which I got degenerates my vision slowly day by day and during that time I had some good vision which helped me to play games.
Online marketing is a life changing agent and how I entered into this field was due to my interest, hunger to learn and enthusiasm. It was during September 2006 I stepped into online marketing, I went to a friends house and there I saw him making a website with Microsoft front page and when I asked him he told that from these websites we can earn money. It was interesting but my friend told no when I asked him to teach this to me. He said you cannot see properly how can you design websites, don’t strain your eyes…drop the idea. I was stubborn and did not give up the idea of learning web designing. I still remember that every day after coming from college I use to sit before computer for hours together and trying to read lots of tutorials on web design trying and testing new free software’s to crack and make a website. I was not successful but gained a lot of knowledge on web design and learned a lot about the web world as I surfed thousands of pages, read hundreds of newsletters and tested lots of software’s. I don’t like my vision limiting something in life and I always tried to keep up my spirits by cheering my self. When I met the same friend next time I asked him are you earning money, he said I need to get “SEO” done for the website…..when I asked him to teach me SEO the reply was same like before...
I came home and used Google to find out more about SEO and found that it is search engine optimization and I understood what exactly it is. During my campus placements I haven’t got selected. I walk out of the
interview halls because the kind of questions which they asked look silly and use to pull my spirits.
It was then that online marketing took birth as a profession in my life. I thought to my self I can do some
thing with what I had learned through Google. Then I started a blog and got content on it. Did lots of SEO to it and finally sold it for some where around 200$. Then I really thought I can adopt this as profession then I dived into it totally and started doing lots of research.
During this time I met couple of other’s through referrals and started taking clients and offered the
services of internet marketing. We did pretty well and I regularly updated my knowledge in the field of online marketing when my friends use to take care of work under my instructions.
I continued it for a long time of 3yrs until I thought to join some company and learn some corporate stuff. I ran 2 online marketing ventures successfully.
I joined a job at IBM and I can say if online marketing has brought a tremendous change in any ones life I am
a real example. Sometimes it is good your friends might not teach something to you and they may say it is tough and hard, but my message to world is never stop learning by yourself and one day certainly it will
pay you off."
You can contact him on Twitter @raghavasatish He also blogs @ Raghava.in
I have been thinking about Pressure (the pressures of life kind of pressure) and how that helps us work. Generally there is a tendency of people to think that Pain, Pressure, Hurt, Sickness are all 'BAD' things. I think that is a very vain sort of thinking, when a person does not want to challenge himself anything that is a little difficult to understand becomes BAD or avoidable.
All these aspects are very much part of life. Lately I was thinking about pressure and I saw a cycle within me. Pressure is mechanism to get things done, to become active and DO something than just sitting in a very passive state of inactivity.
When there is a sense of achievement the pressure slackens for sometime, but soon after a little worry starts. This worry builds up pressure and it again incites action. Basically pressure keeps us moving forward.
How well a person does is very closely related to how he can manage pressure. Can he keep his head, and stick to what he wants to do and excel at that, or does he get side tracked and end up doing bad work? Whichever way it is, Pressure will always be pushing us....
Its like Gravity, and an am
azing example of what I am saying can be found in astronomy. In order to get away from Earth's gravity any space craft has to put in massive effort and its a pain how much fuel needs to be utilized to just push the craft away from Earth and into space.
There is a thing called Gravity assist - many missions have used the gravity pull of planets to save fuel and travel light! (Read more)
Similarly while initially we seem to think that "pressure aargghhhh we need to get away from it" its only until we understand how it works.
So its time to keep aside complaining or viewing Pressure as a negative thing and lets embrace it as it is a force that helps us achieve and aspire. This will also help us manage it better and not get freaked out by all the pressure around us.
Came across this concept on @mrjain's blog about DeBeers the Diamond Giant. It an intriguing read on how they made Diamond Rings the symbol of an engagement ceremony so as to keep up the diamond market!
It made me realise what we call as culture might actually be the direct effect of 'marketing' gimics by huge corporates that gain a lot of money from it. Hmmmmph will older people understand that if I tell them?
DeBeer's and Google by priyanka
Later I read this other articles about Google and Sify, and they are around the similar topic about Big Brands and their markets.
Google gets into consulting small businesses. Google is actually into a lot of things.. some which we don't know of like they have this scholarship for youth into non-profits work.
Sify - Indian AOL? Its cool to understand how they went about tapping into their market.
Sify by priyanka
Brands and their market and how they influence 'their market' which we also call society??
A crucial aspect for any company is Hiring! To scale up or even sustain practices employees are required in companies, and to get these employees hiring is a must. Yet its not easy at all, as I myself have been realizing at DigiWhirl!
An interesting podcast by @sahilparikh and @mrjain on their hiring experiences,
Joys of Hiring in India
While it is difficult, there is a lot of room for innovation in this field, as we can hear from Shridhar Vembu of Zoho.
What are your thoughts on hiring?
Read this awesome poem by Khalil Gibran, on the Give India blog, totally cool!
Then said a rich man, "Speak to us of Giving."
And he answered:
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?
There are those who give little of the much which they have - and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Though the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall some day be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.
You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?
And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.
And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.
Came across this video on Pluggd.in, its really cool. Takes some time to load but definitely a good watch.
This is why I feel that social entrepreneurship is really something people should be considering starting up, cause it has a social betterment aspect and also a profit making aspect which actaully makes the company more sustainable. Otherwise so often NGO's are halted or they remain small due to lack of funds or people (cause they dont hire).
In fact I have a social company idea.. am working on it. Will talk more on it when it is somewhat sketched out!
Got a brainwave! (read about my other brainwaves here) :D
I was browsing Mashable (don't we all social media buggers?) and came across this headline,
The idea is to make different sort of web pages with different pictorial content, colors, shapes, even different written content. Any users clicks are recorded, as in where he clicks, which topics he seems to like, which colors does he click more often etc.. etc...
The layout of the entire website and the web page content and theme should be such that the users browsing says much about his personality, likes and interests. All his clicks are recorded and then using an intelligent algorithm his personality is charted out. Then according to these personality charts people are paired.
How does it sound? Do you think you might 'Click' with someone with similar 'Clicks' on a website??
What is it with Chinese love stories! They are sooo sad. Almost always its a sad ending. I first began watching the kungfu serials. One of the most intriguing ones - Blood Stained Intrigue - went on for more than a year.. and then in the end, the hero had to kill the villainous father of the heroine. So the girl leaves him cause she cannot take the shock!
Another one, went on for a shorter time but in the end the girl gets caught by the villian so he is holding her at sword-point while threatening the hero. In any usual Hindi film, there would be a drama but she would be saved. Here, the girl stabs herself with the knife dying so the hero can kill the villian! Bah.
Then I went on to watch movies, one of my most favorites Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Out of the two couples in it, one of the men dies out of poison. Thankfully in the dying moment he confesses his love for the woman. While the woman does not decide to kill the culprit girl, the girl herself goes and commits suicide leaving her guy looking... both tragedies.
Though it has one of the most engrossing fight scenes, watch it below,
In fact this was not the worst, in Hero the girl kills her love and then kills herself! Ya, you can't beat that!
I have watched House of Flying Daggers, The Empress and warrior always drawn to all the Kungfu and Chinese stuff and what do I get? More sad endings and unfulfilled love lives!
It is almost bumming me! Sigh..... you will also get bummed if you see this next video...
And then Jet Li also dies because he is one of the few people who understood the king! Do you know any Chinese Movie that has a happy ending?
I was interviewed for this months, Yuva magazine. It was a feature on professionals who spend after work hours doing some social work. I must confess that I was a little tongue tied over the whole interview phone conversation.
Thats me with another HF volunteer Nupur in the cover picture. She chose to teach the kids a crazy, difficult origami heart in this class. I just sat there in the middle so I could get the picture taken :D
Paper rockets are more my forte rather than all this Dil ka maamla! Here is another photo the Yuva photographer took which is also quite cool!
All in all good fun, and Hamara Footpath gets some visibility this way!
Haven't been blogging in the last few days was working on some projects. Today I missed blogging. I am glad this happened cause I started blogging for a reason not because of any professional requirements. As I have mentioned earlier also my profession being social media, sometimes my blog seems to be a great add on to it, but I think its much more. Its me communicating with the world.
Good to get back to basics. Do you sometimes feel that life keeps taking you along with all its requirements of Job, Money, Family, Society, Relationships? I think its most crucial to take time out and be with yourself, to see that all these requirements are just that. A bunch of requirements, they are not Life nor are they Me.
Too much web stuff blogged yesterday. About time I shared my TEDxMumbai experience,
The event was at a well known place called The Blue Frog, where I had never been before. Yes strange as it may sound to some, my 'night life' mostly extends to staying awake for MahaShivratri :D
Well the The Blue Frog Audi is very nice, dim lighting but all in all gave a cozy feel to the place. I had met the speakers the previous night where the incident with Lakshmi took place, (I did not know it happened cause I was talking to a speaker about some great tips he was giving for Hamara Footpath. Dim that I am, didn't see anything strange in the entire room just walking out all of a sudden) Let me mention here that from what I saw, Lakshmi is a very nice person who speaks to everyone with a smile.
Coming back to TEDx, I had spoken to the speakers and thought they were pretty amazing bunch of people, but was not sure how their talks would go. As the day proceeded it was a little mind blowing in many ways.
The talks were fantastic which you will see as the videos come out.
Also to mention is that I have volunteered a lot and this was one of the best events I have helped out at.
The team I was working with were just so very accessible, and open to whatever I had to say. They were very friendly and helpful!
There were moments where I had goosebumps and tears welling up due to a touching talk, or cause I had bumped into someone really serendipitous ( I am not joking, will talk about some of the contacts I made and how they have helped me with my NGO in other blog posts) and there was a warm feeling of being part of a really nice team.
And so... that was how this Saturday went for me! I am now left with wanting to blog about each individual talk, but have time constraints.
I also need to sift through all the contacts I made and follow on the very, very helpful tips they gave for Hamara Footpath!
So guys, again if you haven't already, do check out TED.com, and stay tuned for the videos of TEDxMumbai.
