Mapping: Return of a love affair from past

Long time back, I was having an informal conversation with a professor of mine during tea break. He was UK qualified and had seen Europe. He said he was curious how much have I traveled abroad. He was taken aback when I told him that I haven’t even seen Pakistan in good detail ?! ‘What? Then how on earth do you know so much about the global map?’ ‘Hahah… as a pastime I sometimes grabbed the geography atlas from my nephews’ school bags and felt deeply interested exploring the map and then fetched further information from other sources’ ‘wow… great… in that case you do deserve to travel the globe in reality’… :smiling_face:

Many years passed by… I became an untravelled, loveless dud again.

Then one day I touched the application of Google Maps on Android screen! And the love affair started once again! But…

I loved to surf the planet as a rare natural bounty… its curvy crust with hills, oceans, plains, volcanoes, snowy things. Dark and fearsome forests, effects of climate on people, cultures and places… The man-made magics…

The towns, cities and villages… And, above all the people! Their expressions, pains and… and the political affairs around their problems! This was not there for me in my new lovable finding. Photo of people: Privacy concerns etc.

Real reviews: Please exclude comments hinting to political matters, Maps wants you to stay clear of the geopolitical issues, don’t generate controversy. Maps: Stay clean! Me: Big shit! How can one with a large bowel stay clean ?! Maps: Hey! Instead of roaming around water bodies, mountains, deserts, missing villages; come to the places where general public wants to go… & all… Me: Thinking ??.

This, initially kind of perturbed me, it was not my cup of tea… I thought… I looked around and found out that Karachi is a concrete jungle, mainly made up of (often unplanned) residential buildings!

How much new or exciting shall I be able to bring about by reviewing and photographing similar grey and squarish buildings and places? I just pondered…

However, as I continued working more and more, I started understanding the need and importance of what Google Maps wants from me. I started to understand that it is a service to common (& even hifi) people. Similar looking buildings in Karachi or elsewhere started looking like cakes & cookies with different flavors ?

For adding some life to the photos, I tried to include some colorful stuff, some vehicle in foreground of the photos. Sometimes broke the rules by adding some people and expressions…

And I started loving the work. So the conclusion is that: Now apart from other urban structures

I am generally posting about Miscellaneous items & eatables Miscellaneous eatables and items of general use from markets in Karachi

Shopping related material

But major chunk of my contributions from Karachi are related to residential buildings and projects. I take photos and try to review them. In addition to other general information, I look for accessibility levels which is almost none in old buildings & at different levels in newly built ones. Particularly, Wheelchair parking is an uncommon feature. I also add hash tags in reviews, to indicate about accessibility facilities.

Moreover, occasionally I can’t keep myself from hinting (by very ? intelligent guess) about the legal status of the land used, although due to fears I often try to avoid this.

And this way my cute affair with the Maps is going on naughtily ? @PaulPavlinovich @ermest @TravellerG @OmerAli @KashifMisidia #NoWheelchairAccessiblility #KarachiApartments

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Thank you for tagging me in your post @GhazalaShah

A love affair, yes, that is returning. I see what you mean. Thank you for the beautiful photo, and for the post, that let me learn more about your country.

I like (sob) your #NoWheelchairAccessiblility hashtag, unfortunately so true, in many places. I think I will have to adopt it

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  • Thanks @ErmesT acting late caused a lot of stress on me. I should have kept a time allowance for post on Connect.
  • On the contrary I am little better at working on Maps. Writing the post become too laborious, app was behaving worse than naughty.
  • To save myself from agony of data loss, I composed the post on my device first and to save personal resources of time and energy, tried to shift it to Connect by copy paste. That didn’t work. So I wrote (& voice typed) it here again; on a tremulous & shaky Connect window :sweat:!
  • To fulfill the task I kept awake whole night & could go to bed after sunrise.
  • I was somewhat uncomfortable with the title of the post but thought it’d good to choose a fun topic, tell a story & make people read it by looking at the heading :sweat_smile:
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@ErmesT my apology, regarding wheelchair accessibility, the situation is not so bleak. In new construction people are taking care about this.

  • I did not wish to write

NoWheelchairAccessiblility here because it is not true for every building here.

In suggestions, the keypad did not show me the full word of # NoWheelchairAccessiblility & I just clicked it.

  • In the pre publish preview the photos were distorted (all in portrait mode) so I could not pay good attention to each & every word in text.
  • After posting tried to remove this phrase but no success…
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Thank you for the feedback, @GhazalaShah

Your post is fine, I’m sorry for the trouble you had in writing it. Well, I really think that, even if in the new building everything is fine, in my country in many old building it is not so fine, so a #NoWheelchairAccessiblility hashtag can be really useful. Several times I am highlighting the Not Accessibility of restaurant or a shop, or a restroom not reachable for a person with a wheelchair

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A very good read after such a long time , thanks for the great post @GhazalaShah

I hope that we raise awareness in our country and in near future our tags strike off the NOs :slight_smile:

I am also very glad that you decided to publish the post on a very different note that defines ypur motivation

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Yes Ermest, now people are gradually realizing the importance of providing more accessibility options when they go for any construction. It’s not only for people who are in life time need of this facility. But many of us at some phase of life can need to be moved by wheelchair. Old, infirm, unwell, convalescent, post surgery; all may need this for some time.

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Many thanks @OmerAli for your kind complements, I am humbled! I agree with you that we can do a lot more to make mapping much more informative and helpful in Pakistan.

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Assalam walaikum @GhazalaShah

Thank you for sharing such a great post with us,

Wishing you best of luck for your Connect live 2019 application :crossed_fingers:

Shurkiya :pray:

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@GhazalaShah Wow. Seems like I just visited Pakistan! Nice photos.

Good luck for CL19!

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Thanks @KashifMisidia @SaifIS for your wishes and likes :slightly_smiling_face:

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Well written. Thanks for sharing.

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Too good :slight_smile:

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Thanks @NextGBC @Utmanzval both of you :slightly_smiling_face::coffee:

I’m glad you’re enjoying your LG journey @GhazalaShah it is cool to see images of yours from your country to help us appreciate your home.

This post is great and is rich with images, just a note that each LG can share only 1,000 photos to Connect.

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Yeah @PaulPavlinovich … I noticed the photoeeness (a new term invented by me :grimacing::nerd_face:). No matter how I justify it; I had a feeling of this photoeeness & knew the limit of 1000 photos, before hitting Publish… :ghost:… but me & my Desi ways… :relieved:! BTW… does this limit of 1000 pics include the photos we include in the comments? Just asking for information…

different and unique post. :slight_smile:

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I enjoyed reading every word of your post…

Very eloquent, very relevant and much appreciated.

Thank you.

If you manage to visit Australia I would love to meet you in person.

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Your encouragement made my day @AndreaBaird . My humble thanks for your kind words :pray::coffee::apple:. If time brings me to your amazing home, I will be super pleased to meet you! Same is true for vice versa: if you happen to come to Karachi or Pakistan; I will arrange for your tours to whichever places you choose.