Trell-a-tale: Tales of Mumbai via photos go viral

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a bunch of IIT-Bombay students believe in telling rather shorter tales through pictures.

Students of IIT-Bombay talk about the success of this idea which lets you revisit the forgotten places of Mumbai city, through pictures on social networking sites.

Twenty-two-year-old Pulkit Agrawal along with Dhawal Goyal, Bimal Kartheek Rebba and Shaina Lemos came up with the idea of building a platform to bring like-minded people together in order to form a community.

The four went on to start the ‘Trell-a-tale’ page on social media only two months ago and it has already received much attention. Their Instagram page has a whooping 30,000 followers already.

 

A photo posted by Trell a Tale - Mumbai (@trelltalemumbai) on Jan 18, 2016 at 10:44pm PST

Pulkit, one of the founder members, says, “As we scroll through our newsfeed on social media, what we find is that only memes, selfies, videos, etc. are growing popular among netizens. It was high time we changed it and brought better content for like-minded people. Our idea was to build a community that is interested in knowing the hyperlocal activities of Mumbai city. Thus, was born ‘Trell-a-tale’- a platform that narrates routine stories that are mostly missed out in our daily-busy lives.”

 

A photo posted by Trell a Tale - Mumbai (@trelltalemumbai) on Dec 23, 2015 at 7:16am PST

The team started off without any big strategy. “We didn’t want any publicity or exposure nor did we seek for praises. It is both surprising and shocking for our entire team to receive such a massive response in a very short period of time. We started off with changing the lives of our followers instead they ended up changing ours by giving heartwarming feedbacks,” adds twenty-three-year-old Dhawal Goyal, also the co-founder.

 

A photo posted by Trell a Tale - Mumbai (@trelltalemumbai) on Dec 11, 2015 at 7:39am PST

Several collaborators from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata together work towards making Trell-a-tale a huge hit among youngsters. “Our team is growing. As soon as we started posting cool stuff on our pages, we received direct messages from several people from across the country, wanting to know if they could contribute to the platform. We were more than thrilled to take them all on-board. The entire team is not paid for their work. Our aim is to basically showcase the true side of any bustling city and these talented collaborators help us reach our mission,” believes Bimal Kartheek Rebba, 27, an IIT-Bombay alumnus.

 

A photo posted by Trell a Tale - Mumbai (@trelltalemumbai) on Jan 15, 2016 at 9:25pm PST

After the unanticipated success of Trell-a-tale’s Mumbai chapter, the team has now started similar pages for Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata as well. And whats more is that the team has even started ‘Trell-a-food’ page for foodies across India.

Trell-a-tale is not just another platform doing normal listings, the contributors ensure to narrate beautiful stories through every picture. “We all miss our college or school addas where we have made life-long memories. Unfortunately, not many get the chance to revisit these spots. Now, what we do is make our followers relive those memories through our pictures and tales. Our content writers are playing a huge role in their spot-on descriptions added with every picture. It’s all about reconnecting to something that we have lost, forgotten or never-seen-before places in the city,” points Dhawal.

 

A photo posted by Trell a Tale - Mumbai (@trelltalemumbai) on Jan 19, 2016 at 3:33am PST

Trell-a-tale team also organises photo walks for the community to help build a bond of emotion with the city. “A city gives you so much more than your degree, job or a roof to live under. We believe it gives us emotions, memories and a soul. Our job is to capture these and make you stop for a few seconds at what you have missed out in life,” says Bimal with fervor.

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