I couldn’t beleive this one, but Stanford sophomore Rohan Verma has created a Mapquest type service for Delhi called, MapMyIndia.com. Never again will a rickshawallah take me for a crazy trip. How the heck can you possibly make a map of Indian roads? When I lived in Delhi a couple years ago I was at the mercy of drivers who didn’t understand my horrible Hindi when I told them where I wanted to go. Well I guess it wasn’t so bad as long as I stuck to main roads. From IndiaWest:
…Rohan Verma has been working day and night in New Delhi to put together the sort of Web site that’s mundane for U.S. Web surfers but unheard of in India – a navigational tool that produces printable maps to provide directions to destinations in India.
The result – after three-and-a-half months of work leading a team of 10 people -is Mapmyindia.com. “My role started from conceptualizing it, managing and execution of it, and deploying it, which we did on Sept. 10, and also marketing,” Verma, who is all of 19 years, told India-West.
It’s the final nail in the coffin of the colonialist myth. Mapping India spells the end of the untamed land of tyger, tyger burning bright, pith helmets and wolf-boys 😉 Offering her up neatly packaged like sushi, circumscribing her power in a pentagram…
Having lived and experienced India and US I can appreciate the importance of such a thing. I only happened to learn about it on 03/08/2005, after seeing it has great potential to grow. Will they have road signs on the pole and not in gutter will be another matter to consider. Perhaps metros and tourist attractions will benefit the most.
well its definately usefull but needs publicity to reach out to the ever confused desi who is always asking people for directions …