Hello Friends,
Let’s join me to re-live June 07, 2025 through this recap of your favourite meet-up series Ghumakkad Gossip on the topic Sustainability For A Green Future.
I am pleased to observe the Responses and Reactions of all the participants during the GG kick off meet-up first and subsequently followed in GG meet-up–02 through GG meet-up–09.
There were 19 participants across the globe including the Meet-up Moderator (MM), Guest Speakers and Connect Moderators during the ninth meet-up of GG series.
I am thankful to all of you who supported this idea and made this happen (MTH).
I have captured the gist of this meet-up under various heads. Please go through them and share your views.
Quick Introduction of the Attendees
The participants have introduced themselves by sharing their Name, City, LG level and the Connect id. They were requested to write down these details in the chat box.
Participants were also requested to join the virtual meet-up on time to pay respect to the Guest Speaker and the co-participants who have joined on or before time.
Overview of the Meet-up
The MM explained the objective behind starting this GG Meet-up series and how it got conceptualized.
Ghumakkad Gossip Meet-up series is created for all of us, by all of us and with all of us. This is to create more cohesive and collaborative platform to Share & Learn for everyone here. The MM also share some basic ground rules to make the meet-up effective for everyone.
He also explained, why the series is named as Ghumakkad Gossip? Ghumakkad is a Hindi word which in English means ‘Wanderer’ and Ghumakkad Gossip means ‘Talk with Wanderer’. Here, the emphasis is on Traveller and not on Tourist when we talk about Ghumakkad.
Introduction of Guest Speaker
This episode of GG series was dedicated to Sustainability For A Green Future. And to enlighten us on this topic our Guests were the seasoned Local Guide and the GRANDMASTER[1] PrasadVR (@PrasadVR) and the great propagator of Sustainability Ketan Chhaniyara (@KetanChhaniyara).
Gossip with Guest Speakers on the topic
The MM started the session with a talk on ‘what does Sustainability mean to us and what we as a Local Guide can do to promote sustainability on Google Maps. He further added, “every single action taken towards sustainability counts”. He talked about the data on National Plastic Waste as published by the Central Pollution Board, India. While talking about Say No to Plastic, he also discussed the adverse impact of Plastic on the environment.
Conversation with Guest speaker started with a subject about ‘Role of Local guides and Google Maps’ in establishing the Sustainability For A Green Future. Guest Speaker Prasad talked about various ways through which a Local Guide can contribute for Sustainability on Google Maps. Some of the key contributions he shared as:
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Adding new POIs
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Adding photos
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Spreading awareness through Meet-ups
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Conducting special drives, tree plantation, and plastic cleaning
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Writing posts on Connect about our contributions, suggest alternatives
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Answering quick pop-up questions
Guest Speaker Ketan talked about his initiative Ditch Plastic Spoons. He shared his experiences and learning as why he thought about this initiative and how it impacted the community.
This initiative turned into a great success. Some of the positive outcomes of this initiative are:
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Awareness on adverse impact of using plastics.
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Pledge for No Plastics.
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Usage of biodegradable, reusable spoons.
- Spoons made of bamboo, wood, metal etc. as Sustainable alternatives.
Attendees Insights
TravellerG expressed his concern about the implementation level of Sustainability alternatives and practices.
AjitThite added to the conversation that Local Guides can create a list of top 5 green cities in their country, come up with ideas to make best out of waste. He also posed a question to the participant to introspect – Are you using waste water?
He also shared one of the best practices that he follows while travelling in train as he carries spoons and waste-bag to collect the waste while travelling.
Vipin Gupta shared his views as ‘we should Carry our own Bag when we are going to purchase vegetables. I will start from Now.’
Shola shared some of the challenges his country-mates are facing towards Sustainability including absence of recycling plant, reduction in the volume of fishes due to increasing plastics volume in the ocean.
K.K. Sharma added to include ‘Rain Water Harvesting System’ in the reviews on Google Maps, wherever applicable.
Sarath Upendran suggested that we do need a ‘waste collection point’ category in Google Maps.
Special Thanks
I would like to extend my special thanks to dear Shola, Shruti, Shailendra Ojha, AjitThite, and PrasadVR, for capturing beautiful candid moments. Thank you!
Debriefing & wrap up
The MM summarized the overall discussion and thanked all participants for joining and making this meet-up a success. A BIG THANK YOU to our Guest Speakers Prasad VR and Ketan Chhaniyara for sharing their precious time and invaluable knowledgebase with all of us.
All participants were eager to know the next topic, name of the next Guest Speaker and the date of next GG Meet-up. Thanks for your interest and enthusiasm. And, to add further to your excitement, we are going to have milestone episode, the 10th episode of GG Meet-up series on most talked about topic. Here is the next episode of Ghumakkad Gossip Meet-up series planned ahead for you.
Please block your calendar for the upcoming power packed meet-up as we are together going to talk about Dil Se Local. See you around.
This is an opportunity for the Local Guides to Support and Shine, Share and Learn.
I express my sincere gratitude to all who have joined and expressed their interest throughout the session.
@AjitThite, @ModNomad, @K.K.Sharma, @KetanChhaniyara, @ShreyaMusings, @NandKK, @PrasadVR, @SarathUpendran, @Ssiddharth2000, @shaileno, @Shrut19, @SholaIB, Shriram Bhalerao, @Supriyadevkar, @Tejal, @TravellerG, @TusharSuradkar, @Gvipin
Please let me know if I have missed any name.
This photo is the testimony of togetherness for the reason we all have met up for.
Key Takeaways
- Identification and usage of Sustainable alternatives is very important.
- Local Guides can help others choose sustainability with Google Maps.
- Say No to Plastic.
- Find out the ways to convert waste into best.
- Mention cutlery types in reviews on Google Maps.
- Tag or describe places as “plastic-free” or “uses biodegradable cutlery” in reviews and photos.
- Carry your own reusable cutlery.
- Praise sustainable restaurants in your reviews
- Sustainability is for all.
- Every single action taken towards sustainability counts.
Key Success Factor
- Meet-up promotion through various networking channels. (Thanks TravellerG)
- 80% participants joined on or before time helped MM to start and end the Meet-up at the scheduled time. Thank you all. This also avoids waiting time to Admit the participant, if they join on time.
- Mock-up session/s before the final meet-up between MM and the Guest Speaker.
Recaps of past episodes of GG Meet-up series in chronological order:
- Recap: [Virtual] India, January 17, Ghumakkad Gossip: Supporting Small Businesses
- Recap: [Virtual] India, February 08, Ghumakkad Gossip: Editing Roads For Beginners
- Recap: [Virtual] India, February 16, Ghumakkad Gossip: Importance of Co-Host in the Meet-up - Part 1
- Recap: [Virtual] India, March 16, Ghumakkad Gossip: Local Guides Community and Connect Overview
- Recap: [Virtual] India, March 29, Ghumakkad Gossip: Accessibility Awareness
- Recap: [Virtual] India, April 12, Ghumakkad Gossip: Importance of Co-Host in the Meet-up - Part 2
- Recap: [Virtual] India, April 19, Ghumakkad Gossip: Local Guides And YouTube
- Recap: [Virtual] India, May 17, Ghumakkad Gossip: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)
- Recap: [Virtual] India, June 07, Ghumakkad Gossip: Sustainability For A Green Future - [This Recap]
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