Hi Team, or better I will call it family.
When I first get to know about the google guide, my first question was " what is the use of contributing and what are our benefits in spending time on this?".
I got my answers when I was going through some training classes in my company. I was so getting bored, I opened google maps and looking for nearby places to enjoy in Hyderabad. My research started from 30-40 Kilometres and then till 500 to 700 kilometres. I found multiple recommendation, pictures, reviews. Sometimes I felt like I was there at the location by looking at all the picture and video related to that place. When I looked at the source of that picture and the profile of the people who are providing reviews and recommendation. I came to know about this community called local guide. At that time, I realized the benefit of becoming the part of local guide family.
The one thing which really motivated me is the pictures uploaded by our local guide to help us understand the location visually. Specially for the people like me, I can remember a place visually better that theoretically. I like to travel to new places, explore new things. But in my regular days, I will be busy with my daily schedule. Going to office, comeback home, then gym after that sleep and repeat again. Even I do not get much opportunity to interact with the people who can help me to plan my every trip or gather any information which can help me to plan my trips. At this particular moment, this family of local guide from around the world was the closest thing who helped with all my planning’s.
Whenever, we plan to go for some trip all my other friends will ask me to do all the planning. And this is then I make them join my family of local guide. I still remember my last trip of western coast of India. I have never been there and didn’t knew a thing to do. By looking at all the picture and stories of our fellow local guides, I planned the entire trip and it was the biggest success. We covered entire beaches of North Goa and then went to ‘Gokarna’. There we went to an isolated beach and had a camping night. After looking at all the pictures, we were able to continue our journey even in the night when there was no light on the mountain and we still reached our destination. It was really amazing and I realized the power of sharing and helping other. I can assure everyone that no hard work goes to waste. One day or other it will come back to you with the sweet results. You just need to have patience.
After all this experience, I realized how can we help others by sharing the pictures and covering all the minor details which we tend to forget eventually. Whenever I go to new place, I look for all the picture and if I find anything new, I take that picture and upload it from other to have the clear expectation of what they need to expect when they are going to that place.
Sometimes my friend will ask me like why you are wasting your time in uploading so many pictures. You are not going to get anything out of it. AT that time, I show them the perks I receive from our google team for the hard work we do. But perks are not the things which motivates me. It is the email from our other local guide from around the world, trying to contact me via email and other means and seeking information about the places I visited. After their visit, the way they approach me with the smile on their face which clearly says that you saved our day and gave us very helpful information. That feeling of joy runs through my entire body and motivates me to share as much information as possible by covering many places of this world.
In this busy life, I just need few moment and opportunity to explore this planet as much as I can and share my adventure and experience with others. Want to make new friends, get to know each other. Because at the end, when you are not there , those friends and family will be there to tell your stories.
