Hello Friends,
I feel honored while writing this recap to re-live March 29, 2025 as this was the first ever international episode of Ghumakkad Gossip Meet-up series.
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, GG meet-up–03, GG meet-up–04 and GG meet-up–05.
There were 33 participants across the globe including the Meet-up Moderator (MM), Guest Speaker and Connect Moderators during the fifth meet-up of GG series.
It is important to mention here that this meet-up was attended by 6 Connect Moderators including the Guest Speaker and 7 Accessibility Champions including the Guest Speaker and the MM. Thank you so much for your generous presence.
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 and share your views.
20 Minutes Extension
This meet-up was extended for 20 extra minutes which caused some of the participants leave the meeting room early. Only interested participants with the consent of extension of 10 minutes stayed for the extra 10 minutes and others for additional 10 minutes. The topic of this meet-up was closed to everyone and they wanted to have heart to heart conversation with our Guest Speaker. Hence, with the permission of the Guest Speaker and interested participants the meet-up ended at 8.50 PM IST instead of 8.30 PM IST. My apologies, if it might have caused any disruption in your pre-planned stuffs due to this. And, I extend my gratitude to all participants who understood this and stayed connected.
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.
Ghummakad 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 overview on Accessibility Awareness to create awareness on accessible environment. With the help of Google Maps, we have an opportunity to further build and strengthen the accessible ecosystem around us. The ‘Specially abled people’ are valuable members of our communities and they deserve fully accessible environment. And to enlighten on this topic we have had the Accessibility Champion, the Meet-up Champion and the Connect Moderator -
@KashifMisidia (Kashif Abdul Razzaq) from Karachi, Pakistan. He is honored as a celebrity in his country and worldwide he is one of the most popular Connect Moderators in the LG fraternity.
Gossip with Guest Speaker on the topic
Conversation with Guest speaker started with his journey as a Local Guide and the personal experience he had towards accessibility. He has gone through some challenges in the family with the discomfort in accessibility and that’s where he started working, exploring and contributing towards accessibility. It is rightly said that one has to put himself/herself into the shoes of others then only they can learn. And, he is the best example of that. He talked about how he along with other LGs in the country have taken this up seriously. Later, he along with the LGs of respective countries have run the One accessibility project for their respective countries.
He replied to MM, mentioning that during the COVID era, he and @JaneBurunina actively shared insights on accessibility with the Local Guides community. Together, they organized an outstanding Virtual Accessibility Meetup Series for various countries. This initiative led to the emergence of numerous accessibility champions within the community, many of whom later acknowledged both of them in their Accessibility Champion interviews conducted by Googlers.
MM posed a discussion point on various types of accessibility and the role of Local Guides. Kashif Bhai added that while wheelchair 
accessibility is quite common but there are other types also including but not limited to Tactile for Visually Impaired People. He further added, how Local Guides can make an impact on accessibility through their reviews, media contributions and more ways to contribute to make it more visible on the Google Maps.
A collection of examples was presented to the participants by the Guest Speaker and the MM to help them understand what we call as an accessible environment and what all locations of the place like entrance, car parking, elevators, washrooms etc should be accessible area.
He further shared some of the glimpses of Accessibility Walk as how it should be done.
Towards the end of the Gossiping, we shared two case studies on How LG’s review makes the difference. One example was from Pakistan by Kashif Bhai himself and the other one was from India by @MathanVibranarayan. A great learning experience for everyone to see the owner’s response and the action they have taken to meet the expectations.
Attendees Insights
Connect Moderator @SoniaK and seasoned Local Guide @AjitThite emphasized on the fact that how the wheelchair accessible sign is important. They highlighted that this should be well visible and must be available at all the prominent points of the place.
@TravellerG suggested that while writing reviews we must use tick mark 
or cross mark 
depending on the accessibility status of the place. To that MM also shared that in his reviews on Google Maps, invariably he follows this practice and encourages others to do so.
Connect Moderator @NareshDarji and the Local Guide @Sagarkanherkar shared their experience of accessible toilets. They along with @PrasadVR also shared about the significance of red cord in the accessible toilets.
On accessible toilets, @RosyKohli’s insight was quite helpful. She talked about the space of accessible toilets and the architect of wash basin inside the toilet.
Special Thanks
I would like to extend my special thanks to dear @PrasadVR, @K.K.Sharma, @AjitThite, @RosyKohli and @ShreyaMusings for capturing beautiful candid moments which I couldn’t resist myself from sharing here.
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 Speaker Kashif Misidia (@KashifMisidia) for sharing his precious time and 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, there is a BIG news for you as we have two episodes of Ghumakkad Gossip Meet-up series planned for the next month.
Please block your calendar for the upcoming power packed meet-ups. 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.
Abbas Ali, @AjitThite, Ali Khan, @AmirAnsari-PK, @Anum_Shan, @Globe_trotter_Ish, @K.K.Sharma, @KunwarHemrajSingh, @MathanVibranarayan, @ShreyaMusings, @NareshDarji, @NituSingh, @PrasadVR, @Raji, @Raj_Tayade, @RosyKohli, @Rushikesh_joshi, @Ssiddharth2000, @Sisakumar, @Sagarkanherkar, Sakib Mulla, @SarathUpendran, @SaylliWalve1, @ShailendraOjha, @SholaIB, @Shrut19, @SoniaK, @TravellerG, @TusharSuradkar, @VikramSingh_Valera, @Zuhralc, @KashifMisidia
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
- Make use of accessibility sign in your Google Maps reviews.
- Discover and share on the Maps, the wheelchair accessibility at the entrance, elevator, washroom and the car parking area.
- Discover and share on the Maps about other accessibility sign like for visual impairments, hearing impairments, cognitive impairments.
- Highlight the accessibility through the photos uploaded on Google Maps.
- Use and contribute through ‘More ways to contribute’ on Google Maps for accessibility.
- Contribute through ‘Edit features’ under ‘About’ tab for the specific business place.
- Increase the awareness on Accessibility.
- Help the community selflessly. God will return it through the blessings.
Key Success Factor
- Meet-up promotion through various networking channels (Thanks @TravellerG, @NareshDarji, @PrasadVR, @KashifMisidia).
- Friendly gesture to coordinate and handle participants flow of interactions in the message chat box. (Thanks @TusharSuradkar, @SoniaK, @RosyKohli).
- 80% participants joined on or before time helped MM to start and end the Meet-up at the scheduled time (with a caveat as mentioned here).
Thank you all. This also avoids waiting time to Admit the participant, if they join on time.
4. 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 - [This Recap]
for this meet up was happy to hear from attendees how we can share different points for Accessiblity 
got to learn a lot