Young people today, myself included, are constantly bombarded with information. School, parents, social media, the internet, all have something to say in our lives, all day every day. Everybody wants to have a free and easy-going social life. Between all this newness, there are people who want to learn about history, heritage and culture. As a curious student myself, I often wonder about the architecture and history of our country. I wish to know more about it and that’s when I discovered ILF, a place that connects modern day social media life to historical India.

In this blog, I will write about the experience I had in ILF and the knowledge I gained here.  

On a fine day when I was randomly scrolling through my Instagram feed and chatting with my friend, talking about anything and everything, he sent me a post from ILF. As a lover of architecture, I immediately opened it and then I read the caption which explained what that place was about and its historical importance. I was intrigued, and wanted to know more about this page. Scrolling through the profile, I read thoughts from the experts, and got to know about many beautiful places. It was great to learn that social media is being used in an amazing way and helping people know about heritage and culture. Me and my friend then used to send each other some posts from ILF and then we would talk about how beautiful a place is and how we did not know about that place until now.  

After a few months of following ILF, I saw a story of them wanting a social media intern, I immediately perked up and sent a message. A few days later, Amit sir called me and we had a short interview. I got selected and then sir was kind enough to welcome me in the group on the same evening. I became a part of the Social Media team, a team full of creative people.  

Soon after that, I was selected as a member of the Pinterest team at ILF. I was filled with excitement and nervousness at the same time. But I believed in myself and took the opportunity as a chance to enhance my abilities.  

The team was welcoming and friendly, and I was so happy to be a part of the team. I approached them with my ideas and suggestions and was delighted when my ideas got a green signal. This encouraged me to learn and develop. For me, learning and development is a systematic process to enhance a person’s skills, knowledge, and competency, resulting in better performance in a work setting.  

At ILF, the work is vast and diverse, various departments are there to perform different activities. It is that thrill which boosts up the morale of an intern and the environment of the working space that helps one to learn and develop. All the work is done online, which seems like a task at once but once you enter the space of ILF, you will feel that nothing is tough. From research experts to social media interns to marketing personnel, everyone is treated respectfully and communication between the colleagues is one of the key reasons why ILF is thriving.  

After a week of working, I was selected to lead Pinterest and guide the team. I was nervous at first as I was told to conduct my first meeting with the team. To explain the ideas in a way that everyone understands was not new to me but I was still nervous. ILF has helped me gain knowledge about our history and heritage.

A number of steps goes behind a single post/pin. As Pinterest is an information-based platform, we used that point to our advantage and thought of ways in which we could pass on facts about our history to a large audience.  

As we wanted to share facts about Indian heritage, the team decided to create a Pin Board for each Indian state. Then, after considerations and suggestions, we finally got started with our work and posted the pictures. What looked like a tedious task before got easier with teamwork and efforts.  

The pin numbers started increasing and then, the team decided to create some new boards.

All things flow smoothly when you have a great team with you. From social media calendars to weekly planners, everything started to fall into place and Pinterest started to accelerate. We all have an eye for aesthetics. We therefore got our graphic designer to make some mood boards for the page. Combining heritage pictures with aesthetics and creating a beautiful image together. Truly, the results were astonishing.

There are many things that are needed to be pinned on Pinterest, as a result of which the team follows a weekly planner that mentions what posts are posted when. It is as easy as it looks but as distinct as it is. During the weekly team meeting, we all would thank each other for all the efforts and work.  

Just like our increasing coordination, the monthly views on our Pinterest profile started increasing and within a month we crossed 15k monthly views. And now, after 2 months, we crossed 31k monthly views. As they say, Teamwork makes the Dreamwork. And we aspire to make our dreams come true and our goals achieved.

It’s surreal how there are innumerable places that a person can visit in India. I wish to visit these places one day. It’s all these and many more reasons that make me enchanted about working with ILF and growing myself. It’s the process from discussing the plans and ideas to finally executing them that helps a person to develop their skills and thought processes. A great use of resources and information always attracts an audience and generates interest in people to know more about the untold culture.   Thank you ILF for giving this opportunity and helping many people learn and grow. It’s an experience to cheer on for a lifetime!  

The views, information, or opinions expressed above are solely those of the author(s) involved and do not necessarily represent those held by India Lost & Found and its creative community.

Hi, I’m Nandini Dhoot …

 A law student by profession, a creative art admirer by heart. Indian Architecture has always captivated me and so has photography. Easy going and funny, that’s how I like to describe myself because as they say, YOLO. Apart from this, I am a zentangle artist and love dancing too. A mix of all these makes me who I am and that’s what drives me to live life in the best way possible.

Inherently, I feel that maybe I was an archaeologist in my previous birth, or sometimes I even feel that I missed the boat in this life! Thinking back, childhood memories of various trips taken, I recollect that the mementoes I collected were things like a rock chipped off from a historic site we visited, or a brick which had an imprint, small trinkets like these. Flash forward 2021…and we all know what a year 2020 was!!  I found myself at a loose end, with my children both grown up and me having a lot of free time on my hands. Scouting around different avenues and trying to find something I love was a tall order!! My daughter on her IG page came across ILF and they were looking for interns!!! I just jumped at the opportunity! The work being done by ILF seemed absolutely marvellous! I was super super excited, I applied, after which I spoke with Amit Sir, who shared the ILF vision with me…. And the rest as they say is HISTORY!   

“History’s like a story in a way: it depends on who’s telling it.” ~ Dorothy Salisbury Davis. 

Being part of the Narrator team has been extremely satisfying, it gives me a deep feeling of satisfaction and pride that I am able to contribute in my own small way in creating the vast digital map of India. It may not be anything but every word counts and so does every site. Baby steps… Writing was also something that I had thought I might have wanted to do at some point, especially as a travel writer. So my work at ILF ticks off two items on that bucket list… Archaeology (tick) and travel writer ( tick), puts me in a happy place. I get to virtually travel to all these wonderful and unique sites lost and forgotten, only to be brought alive by India Lost & Found.

The various models bring out the best of the site, from all angles and I particularly enjoy writing, which is a conversation between 2 characters, animate and inanimate which brings out the details of the site, in a beautiful manner, often humorous. When I was approached to write or put up something for the blog, I was thrilled and after giving it much thought, I thought that instead of me writing or putting up something about ‘a’ particular sites or sites, I would write my thoughts about my journey here till now, hoping that it will inspire more like me to join the ILF family and be a part of shaping our rich cultural and historic heritage.

The views, information, or opinions expressed above are solely those of the author(s) involved and do not necessarily represent those held by India Lost & Found and its creative community.

Hi, I’m Karishma Agarwal …