13 Mar
“Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”
~ Arianna Huffington
Hello, I am Vishal Kumar Yadav, a Final Year student pursuing my B-tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Jodhpur. The above quotes are not only true for my C4GT journey but also for my journey as an aspiring software developer.
I struggled for more than a year to get an internship on-campus and off-campus both. Then around early May, I heard about C4GT from my friend, Aaditya who highly motivated me to take part in the program and contribute to projects.
Looking for projects, I stumbled upon a project in React Native, Looking at my experience you can say I am a mobile developer. I had already built multiple applications in Flutter for various use cases like fests and MVP for one of my alumni. Though React Native was new to me, I had a pretty decent knowledge of React and at last, it’s just concepts and syntax.
I started contributing to the Glific Mobile application, making several PRs. However it was in the process of writing a proposal for the C4GT program, I get to know about the use case of Glific and I was quite impressed by the idea and how it is being used to help NGOs in the social sector.
For those who don’t know about Glific, Glific is an open-source communication platform that leverages the power of the WhatsApp Business API to assist organizations in their communication efforts. You can build your WhatsApp chatbots that respond to beneficiaries according to predefined flows, Flows are designed to guide the conversation based on a series of predefined steps or questions, allowing organizations to automate certain aspects of communication.
Though I wrote a very descriptive proposal, I was not selected for the C4GT program, but fortunately, I wished to continue and my mentor told me that they could accommodate one more intern, this would be under Tech4Dev and not C4GT and gave me a similar offer. It was too unexpected and I felt happy, but also I believe all good things come unexpectedly.
I and Aman were working together on the mobile application and we planned to release Version 0.1 of the app in the upcoming Tech4Dev Sprint which was to be held in the City of Lakes – Udaipur. I surely was too excited for the sprint, it was a week-long meet-up. I was excited to meet my mentors and co-interns which I had only seen in the Google meets.
I had two main motives for the sprint, talk and connect to people as much as possible and second enjoy. I sure did both of these, right from the first day, I talked to a lot of people involved in the different projects and nature of work at Tech4Dev. I get to know about their experiences, viewpoints and opinions about a variety of stuff. I met the C4GT interns and had many conversations with them. We connected easily because we had similar experiences.
On the first day, there was a team met-up, where we discussed the organization’s principles. It included broad points such as Collaboration over competition, equality, failure, truth, responsibility etc.
Though there was a variety of sessions from different NGOs, I would be talking about our visit to the Aajeevika Bureau & Use of GPT integration with Glific by TAP for giving better responses to their target audience. Aajeevika Bureau is a Non-Profit organization whose main objective is to provide skill training, legal education, help workers get their wages in cases of default by the employer. They have also floated a Labour Line phone number to help labours and workers, mostly with wage issues.
Next, TAP (The Apprentice project) uses a WhatsApp chatbot called TAP Buddy that uses co-curricular electives and self-learning as a medium to develop socio-emotional skills for children in 4-10 grades. They integrated Chat GPT and contextualized the responses which the chatbot provides, this helps students clear their doubts and get help from the chatbot itself regarding the context of the activity given.
Apart from sessions and meet-ups, we went on outings quite often.
A morning walk in search of the entrance to the Monsoon Palace, which was visible from the hotel. Though unsuccessful, we had a pretty good walk.
We went to the City Palace accompanied by a cheerful guide who told us about the palace and its history.
Transformed into a museum, the palace now showcases a captivating collection of artefacts that offer a glimpse into the vibrant cultural legacy of Udaipur. Among the treasures housed within its walls are an impressive array of weapons, intricately crafted musical instruments, and captivating paintings that depict stories. Last day of the sprint, we finally went to the Monsoon Palace, at the top of the hill visible from the hotel, the view from the palace was amazing. We took a lot of pictures there, and the wind was pleasing.
On the third day of the sprint, we launched the mobile application for Glific. The glific mobile application aims to make the use of the platform more convenient and effective. I made the presentation for the launch, and Aman decided on making a launch video and showing the demo for the app. Shamoon introduced the team and set up the pace for the presentation, For the first time, I was not nervous about giving a presentation and was confident during the presentation. It went pretty well, with the “First Day, First Show” joke, I was able to make it less boring.
Overall, it was quite a good experience for me, contributing to the project and making a significant impact in the social sector. I would keep contributing to the project and would soon release the V0.2 for the app, we still have many milestones to cover. And I hope with proper plans and dedication, we would be able to achieve it.
Coming back to the initial quote, Yeah I failed a lot, but all those added up to my learnings, and I hope it would be a significant part of my success.
