On being treated like a celeb in Pune - okay, a minor celeb

DEF (where I'm working) sent me to Pune and Mumbai to do some research about mobile phones in india (eg. who uses second-hand phones, how community and grass-roots organizations use mobile networks to disseminate information, how mobile and internet are perceived and used differently, the unregulated e-waste economy and the official e-recycling industry, second hand phone markets, knock-off ‘China-made’ phones etc.). 

Was picked up off the airplane by Ravi Ghate, of SMS One, and taken straight to Keshavanagar to tour through the community and speak to residents who subscribe to SMS One’s Community Newsletter – like a super local neighbourhood Facebook group, only on a text/SMS platform rather than the web because not everyone has a computer or internet but it seems like absolutely everyone has a mobile phone, if not 2 or 3.  Only it’s not quite Facebook because it is a one-directional flow of information and only 160 characters of text, max. per message.  No pictures or any bells and whistles like that.  No back and forth, Comments or Likes.  Everyone loved it but I had to wonder if it will ever have to compete against Facebook.  I wished I'd asked if they used FB.  Kinda' kicking myself about that omission.  For the most part, it is used for community messages at the local government level (what’s called Panchayat level here, with an emphasis on the second syllable).  Before people had this mobile phone newsletter people had to rely on these for community, school and social services messages:

 … blackboards, many of which were still standing at street intersections. 

In this case, the Community Newsletter was run by Anil Bhandwalkar here, who also happened to be running for a Panchayat seat in Sunday’s election.  He’s standing in front of his election sign.  See the kite symbol on it.  

Here are some other election signs, with various other mostly utilitarian and/or household symbols on them like ceiling fans, sewing machines, whistle, propane tank, playing card, comb, wardrobe, cup and saucer. 

The symbols are for people who can’t read well enough to recognize their candidates name on an election ballot; so they can recognize the person by their unique symbol. 

Here’s Anil showing his ‘China-made’ phone.  It was good of him to take so much time out of his second last day of campaigning to guide me around.  Here I am shaking hands with another candidate.  

Anil didn’t mind because she wasn’t his competition.  She was running for the women’s quota of reps.  We were also interrupted once or twice by other candidates' campaign parades, complete with crowds and loudspeakers.  All in all, it was a pretty busy morning in the 'hood.  

Met lots of people, shook lots of hands, sat in people’s homes and offices, had to discretely not drink many glasses of cool water offered out of hospitality (and hope they didn’t notice or think me rude) and posed for lots of photos.  A local journalist even came out to see little ol’ me.

I was only there about an hour and a half or two, but they presented me with a bouquet of flowers at the end.  I was really touched.  It shouldn't have been them thanking me, but the other way around.  

A  bad hair day

 Next stop was to the offices of TH Solutions to hear about Aarogya, a community health information network whereby people can text in health questions and get them answered by a doctor.  

Then I met a young whipper-snapper computer scientist named Ajay Garg and Aarti Patil, a school principal who uses SMS/text to communicate with parents. 

Then out to a street corner to chat for a short time with this motley crew (joking).

And finally, to talk to Sharkar Kalmani, who runs Pune’s only NGO active in the field of electronic waste and electronic recycling. 

After a long day, Ravi took me out to dinner with his family, which was uncalled for, and then I rolled into bed and crashed. 

Next morning, Ravi (bless his heart) put me on the bus to Mumbai.  And yes, in case you were wondering, the flowers came with me.