Ruminating on the Nokia Lumia Your Wish Is My App II Indiblogger Meet 2014!

I am seriously technology challenged though I have always tried to be updated on what is the latest. Gadgets and Technology fascinate me but I am of the mind that what is supposed to make life easier should not be so hi-tech that you have to invest a lot of time to make it work for you when it comes to application.

Now here comes my exposure to phone apps. 8 years ago, I bought my first mobile.

I was slightly in awe of it and later on, felt frustrated by all the additional things it was supposed to do but well, pretty much never quite functioned. Then four years ago came my first smartphone.

I was pretty impressed. I could blog on my phone, make notes, read attached documents from my mail…and then apps came to my notice. My first app was the Farmville gaming app. And it was pretty cool except that my phone would hang in a bit and I gave up on playing from my phone. Then I got hooked to "angry birds". But that was it for a long time until I discovered a host of other apps which I found to be quite useful. Often, I also wondered if there were more things I could do with apps and once in a while, I would check if there are apps for specific purposes. 

There are so many apps out there to make it pretty mind-boggling. i have downloaded and deleted quite a few on finding them not to be not as useful as I thought it would be. The apps I often use are mostly for communicating and the more utility it provides, the higher points I give it. So when an opportunity to design or create an app at the indiblogger meet came up, I was terribly excited. My head was abuzz with ideas. The proceedings went smoothly if a little delayed. There was a 300 strong crowd to wave in the wonderful people from Nokia and the panel of Judges from the Your Wish Is My App Season II - Rajiv Makhni, Vikas Khanna and Vishal Gondal. They kept the session rocking with their witty banter and a presentation on the state of tech affairs from Nokia was enlightening! Not to mention the delicious and generous spread at the Oberoi Hotel's Ballroom.

My last blogger meet concluded successfully with a great run. our group choreography won the first prize at the Meet and later on, I won my first windows phone, a Nokia Lumia 620 for blogging about my causes. 

Second time round, it was wonderful to see and hear so many creative ideas from fellow bloggers about the apps they wanted to create. I also got a chance to share my app idea! and won a delightfully prize- a universal usb charger! Woohoo. Thank you Nokia and Indiblogger.

My understanding of apps is that they should simplify things for us, at a touch or click on our phones. How wonderful is that! 

And let me get to what made me think of my app.

I have always been dismayed by the way our country treats its women as second-class citizens. This is most apparent in the lack of civic amenities meant for women. Security is entirely another issue.

So here goes my app idea!

Men can go anywhere but not us, girls. They can stand right on the road too and shower the roads dreamily. But for girls and women, we have to suffer terrible indignity and security risks even to carry out our most basic biological need of relieving ourselves. 

First off! We need more public loos - clean and safe corners for women but in the meantime, we have to make life easier with an app which I will call the "loo locator". 

Does it need an explanation?
An app to find the nearest loo!

It will help both girls and boys who are inclined, to find the nearest loo wherever you are so that you can relieve yourself in comfort and with dignity. This will make my life almost anxiety free (and hopefully for more women too, across cities and towns). In the hills, you can always find a safe corner or even step into a local's loo but in the city, that is just not an option! Here's to better loo habits and happier city women.

Moving on to my next app idea, I would like to design an app that allows pre-medical students to gather information about all the medical institutes in the country or even abroad, application procedure and dates, apply for exams, upload their passport photos, pay application fees and keep a track of the exam schedules and exam centers. My sister and many other kids run around for almost two months figuring out which exams to sit for, especially sitting for the state exams and the centralized exams. Multiple applications, multiple challans, multiple passport photographs and negotiating exam centers and multiple cities. This will save a lot of time and effort for everyone involved!

I love Delhi and it is home for me but many times, commuting and negotiating with the Autowallahs can take the shine away!

I wish there was an app which could tell me the shortest, low traffic route to my destination and also calculate the exact fare for me. You would say use GPS and also that autos have meters. They do and GPS works too but our autos still happily run you off on long routes, complain about traffic jams and even charge you extra for it! :( An app to this effect will ease travel around the city because I would know exactly how to get to my destination and how much it would cost. Smart app eh?

I could go on and on but let me bring my musings to an end while I go take a loo break. Thankfully, I am home.

This post is written after my experience at the Nokia Lumia #YWMA Indiblogger Meet 2014.