How a Student Set Out to Ease the Lives of People
Chintak Dholakia. That's the name of a blogger, a Biomedical Engineer, a freelance Wordpress developer, a Web-consultant, and, most importantly, a student who set out to seek solutions to common problems he saw around him. What did that lead to? Well, that's the story we're going to tell you right now.
DailyStuff.org
It was 2011. Chintak, in his 3rd year of Biomedical Engineering at L.D. College of Engineering (Ahmedabad) then, had come across quite a large number of complex diseases having equally complex cures. It wasn't for no reason then, that he was taken aback when his mother led him to a Naturopathy clinic one day. "I had learnt about so many diseases in my education. When I found out(at the Naturopathy clinic) that such simple solutions to them existed, I was appalled. I learned so many tips to cure diseases, even cancer, with the help of nature. No Allopathy, nor other medicines were offered at the clinic. All that was offered were some tips to live better. That inspired me to start my own blog and write about this stuff to make life easier for all. That was how DailyStuff.org was born," says Chintak.
DailyStuff.org is a Life-Hacks blog. All topics ranging from home tips, kitchen, body & health tips and various other life hack categories get featured on this blog. It's an Indian centric website focusing on Grandma tips and Indian medicine. "India has always been a great source of Life hacks and many of these tips are not known to others. By this website, we plan to offer those hacks and make living easier!" says Chintak.
Contributors and guest authors help Chintak maintain DailyStuff.org, which he operates from home. Priyesh Rajnikant is the Editor of Technology section and Pratiksha Buch serves as Chief Contributor. They also have contributors from Australia and the United States.
Shikshakosh.com
Chintak saw poor kids deprived of education working at chai shops. He asked them, "Do you like to study?" One kid answered, “Saheb, paisa kaha?” (Sir, where’s the money?). This simple conversation had more of an impact on Chintak than he imagined.
"It hurt me when I saw those kids. That's when the idea of generating a library of free and open source educational multimedia hit me. I know it will take a lot of time to reach those really needy kids but once free and open source education is more popular in India, I know it will reach to them for sure," says Chintak.
Shikshakosh.com is an open-source educational multimedia website which will offer free videos generated by users. The lectures will be recorded by volunteers and uploaded on the website for free usage to students. The website, as of now, will feature only school level education ( Std.1 to Std.10) and videos will be in Indian languages only to cater to every child on the street. "Everything will be FREE. Users can download it. Anyone can copy anything onto their data drives and share it and use it anywhere. We want to make it completely open-source as we believe that Education is FREE for all!" says Chintak.
AskDaily.in
Realizing that DailyStuff.org could generate a lot of dialogue among people, Chintak started Askdaily.in, a basic question and answer website focusing on regular daily questions. "Askdaily.in is a sister website of DailyStuff.org in order to have a forum for members to come and discuss their questions," he says. Anyone can register and ask a free question. The top question will be answered by DailyStuff.org Staff. To generate a firm user base, Askdaily has a lot of giveaways for people who ask questions on a regular basis. This simple portal is yet another endeavor by Chintak to ease the lives of people.
The Future
Chintak plans to take DailyStuff.org offline by launching “DailyStuff Hangouts” where they plan to organize offline events, talks, meets, various life hack workshops, competitions, and seminars in various cities across India. "It could be our next source of income in future too and we can look forward to creating a brand out of it by making people participate in our offline interactions. We are charting out the possibilities for it and it will launch this by the year-end," says Chintak.
An offline agenda is in store for Shikshakosh as well. "I would like to offer those videos offline by copying them in CDs/pendrives and giving them to Govt. schools free of cost. That would help schools having less teaching staff and it would be done at no cost," says Chintak.
Well, I have one word for you Chintak - Kudos! And, I don't think I've ever been more sincere when I've said that.
Shikshakosh.com is in need of volunteers who can contribute to the content on the website. Do get in touch with Chintak for more. Also, more on Dailystuff.org and AskDaily.in, here and here.
