Foreword: This week, I invited my good friend, Moksh Juneja, to share the fascinating tale of his travels to a remote village in South India with the help of his tweeps (Twitter friends whom he had never met IRL.) Though this piece was published earlier in an Indian newspaper, I asked Moksh if I could share it on my blog since it's a great story of the power of 140 characters and building a network, one tweet at a time. Moksh is a well-known name in the circle of social media influencers in Mumbai and is regularly quoted on social media trends and issues in leading publications.

By Moksh Juneja



I had to make an emergency visit last month to a remote village in Kerala called Thevalakkara. And Kerala, for me, is as good as Germany — I’d never been there and I don’t know the language. In moments of crisis, we think of our friends — and I thought of mine; my Twitter group.

The first person I thought of was @suddentwilight who, I remembered, studied in Kerala. Assuming she would be able to guide me, I gave her a call. She hadn’t heard of the village I was to go to, so she connected me to someone in her list — @nithinkd — who, although based in Delhi, belonged to Kerala. In fact, his native town is close to the place that I had to reach.

Hearing my exact situation, @nithinkd guided me through an itinerary. I sent him the name of my destination through a DM since I couldn’t pronounce it. He advised me to book my air tickets to Trivandrum and assured me that the logistics in Kerala are very manageable. After taking printouts of the tickets, I called him in panic. I’d booked tickets for Trivandrum, but the printout read Thiruvananthapuram.

A Stranger Offered Me His Car
He offered me his car to drive to the remote village. Just a reminder — I haven’t still met @nithinkd. To pick his car up, I need to reach Kollam. And to help me get there, he connected me to @bijunarayan.So I flew to Thiruvananthapuram, took the Volvo bus to the city, and then met @bijunarayan, who had taken time off from work to help me reach Kollam. He picked me up from the bus stop, took me to Trivandrum station, and bought me a ticket to Kollam.

Before we took the train, we went to this coffee house and I surprised both of us with the amount I ate. I hadn’t realised how hungry I was. While I was hogging on the dosas, idli and coffee, he connected me to @BaluKLM, who travels daily to Kollam from Trivandrum. (It’s how far Pune is from Mumbai).

In Safe Hands
I met @BaluKLM at the platform and realised that even though I hadn’t met these guys before, I was in safe hands. In the local train, we talked, and our conversations this time weren’t restricted to 140 characters. When we reached Kollam, @BaluKLM dropped me off at @nithinkd’s doorstep. Aunty had already received the call from her son, and she handed me the car keys.

Although @BaluKLM left, I wasn’t still alone. @nithinkd was taking me through the directions to reach Thevalakkara. In case of any eventualities, @BaluKLM had already informed @Ivan457, who stays close by in Shaktigualangara, that I was in town. Thanks to my Twitter friends, I reached the village in good time.

As I sat ruminating about Twitter, I realised the power of social networking. It helps in emergencies and is an excellent if you need to plan a trip, because it connects you to people who help. For this trip, the world became flat for me, and I have only my Twitter gang to thank for it.