So here’s a small thing which I did. Interestingly it was hard to find the solution, though there is simple configruation which I finally discovered and it works. Hope this is useful. I am also sharing the context here, on why I had to find a way to solve this.

Context

Just like all the other million blogs, we also have an E-mail subscription service at www.ghumakkar.com. We use MailChimp (disclaimer : if you click and sign-up for a paid program I get something in return). It been going well with Mailchimp.

In one of the recent WPBeginner blogpost, they covered all the smart ways to get more leads viz. emails sign-ups. One of the methods was to use a ‘Call to Action’ button at Facebook.

Ghumakkar has a FB page (www.facebook.com/ghumakkar) and we have 85K odd fans/followers. So I thought that I must add this button, allowing readers to quickly sign-up for our once in a week email.

And then I discovered that If I could only find that button. I did a lot of search, read posts but no luck. It was frustrating since everyone said that it is there but it was NOT there on my page.

I infact looked at a solution posted by someone at FB but no, it doesn’t work

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/312169205649942/?ref=u2u

FB and WPBeginner and everyone is asking me to click a button, only if I could find it.

So, if you are like, then read for another couple of minutes and hopefully you would get rewarded with this button on your FB page.

Problem

I want to add a button on my Facebook page. FB tells me to look for a button which says ‘Add a Button’. I looked everywhere but can not find it.

Solution

1. Go to your page and click ‘Settings’. You would see something like this

2. Click ‘Edit Settings’

3. And choose ‘Business’ as your new Template.

And Voila, refresh your page a few times or just restart your browser and you would see the shiny, blue, “Add a Button” button.

Hope this was useful. If it worked for you, then please leave a comment. If there are other small issues which I can help solve, do not hesitate to mention.

Source

So a new travel app hits the stores and a request for review comes along. So here’s my short review on ‘ClearTrip’ iOS app. I tried this on an iPhone 6 for a few hours, switching between making notes, trying new features and getting a sense of what it is. My intent was to look at this app from the usability, experience as well as functional angle and whether I would recommend this or not. And after my review, my answer is that it is indeed something which must be tried. There is more work to be done but I could sense the promise. If you do not want to read my detailed review, you can click here and download it for the Apple App store.

Lets take a deep dive to understand it more.

The app is divided into into five tabs viz. Flights, Hotels, Trains, Trips and then a bunch of other things. The clear division between Flight/Trains/Hotels is really good because that keeps one focused on one activity. It helps a person to get done quickly on what he wants to do. On Mobile, there is a value in keeping things simple, to the point and functional. While it needs to be functional, it still need to be inspiring or a compelling design. Here is what the ClearTrip app looks like,

And here is what TripAdvisor App looks like. The first UI has three scrolls.

And even if you manage to find ‘Flights’ amid all the numerous options, the ‘Flights UI’ is not inspiring at all.

While the first few seconds experience was refreshing, this is not to say that Cleartrip app doesn’t have fluff. It has and quite a lot of things. I am not sure on why would they want to do it. I still earn for a day when we have more apps which look like ‘Uber’ than these feature-rich, cluttered apps. But the good thing is that all the other fluff is tucked separately under ‘More Options’ and hence it doesn’t distract you. I did’t venture much there because to do a good job of reviewing it, it would have taken a lot of time.

Now, lets double click on the initial experience. After going through the download and the usual messages where the app wants to know your location and wants to send you notifications, you finally get to see the ‘Landing Page’. It is really really clean, plush i.e. a lot of white and sans-seriff font, understated and classy, and a clutter free UI. The first screen is indeed gives one a refreshing, light feel and that would go a long way in ensuring that users stick to it and not move to other tabs.

The other tabs viz. Hotels, Trains are in the same scheme but interestingly the treatment is not same.

In Flights, all the input fields are prominently displayed and then there is big ‘Red – Call to Action’ button i.e. ’Search Flights’. When you go to ‘Hotels’ page, you see a different thing.

That was quite a surprise. It looked as if two different UX personalities are working on these two screens. You would not want to do that.

So enough of experience talk, lets get down to some real work. I tried looking for a return flight ticket from New Delhi to Kolkata on the Oct 2nd weekend. It was a breeze to select dates, airports, number of travellers etc. But even on a Airtel 3G connection, the system timed-out. Thats a bummer.

So I tried again and with-in a minute, I was able to select a flight, enter all my details, and move to last step. It allows one to skip registration, as long as one is able to provide an email address which is good. On the last step (step 4), when I finally clicked ‘Continue Booking’, the app got stuck.

So I went back and made some changes and again the button wont budge. Since I could go back and change a few things, it occurred to me that it is waiting for me to input the mobile number. I would have appreciated some subtle feedback, may be a highlighted edit box, but once I figured that out, it was a matter of just a couple of more clicks and one is done. I am truly impressed by this fluid/clean workflow. Bravo.

The first tab is the most polished. I would guess that most time was spent on this tab and it is visible. Great job indeed.

Now lets move forward and do one more test, this time lets try to book a Hotel. The search was nifty and the Auto-Suggest works very well. I was able to get a list of hotels for the destination I searched.

For each hotel, I could easily access the TripAdvisor reviews and ratings, price, photos, location. Since it is a mobile app, I would have preferred more options like (Near you) as well as some connect with my social-landscape (your x friend has visited this hotel) but I guess these features would come up soon. Overall, I was satisfied with the hotel booking workflow though I didn’t spend as much time as I did on the flights screen.

Moving on, the train thing looked similar to Flights. So it was hard to understand on why Hotel tab looks and feel different.

The initial screen loads faster, one can enter the search criteria, look for trains they want to, and to book it they would need to sign-in. My guess is that IRCTC must be forcing ClearTrip to have more user-data but just like flights, it would be convenient if one can just enter their mobile number and email address and book a train ticket.

Finally, the 4th tab talks about ‘Trips’ which you have booked via Cleartrip. And then there is a whole lot of options under ‘More’ having tools for currency conversion, something called waytogo and so on. I think this flab can be cut and app can be made more focused.

So all in all, the flights experience was refreshing, clean, un-cluttered, easy to interact, large icons and worked well. Same is true for Trains. Hotel booking is pretty comprehensive with all the details easily available though the experience is different than flights and Trains. And then a whole lot of goodies to kill your time while your waiting for the boarding call.

Good job Cleartrip. Go ahead and download now – Apple – http://bit.ly/11uEicM

I haven’t tried the Andriod, Windows Phone and Blackberry flavours but the app is available for those platforms as well.

Hope you liked the review and I do get more requests for more such reviews.

Somewhere over applying for school admissions, passports, visas and similar stuff that called for a birth certificate, the original paper eloped on the pretext of an attested copy. It was never seen again despite serving innumerable summons and cupboard-bookshelf-bags-bagsinsidebags-files ransacks.

We decided to get it reissued even though the child had the passport, aadhar card, a school admission and all that. She was born in Noida and registered in Gautam Budh Nagar. As I looked up I found out tremendous work that has been done in digitizing birth and death records over the last couple of years. But our case was from ten years ago. Secondly, they do not have all districts of Uttar Pradesh covered under this project yet. It sounds encouraging as you are just supposed to fill up the district, the registration number and you get to see the records! It tried all possible combinations. Online tools did not help.

I came across “Jan Suvidha Kendra” in Noida in Sector 19 where the SDM’s office is. On the government website it seemed to offer a lot of help. I tried to learn more about it but there wasn’t much, except for a blogspot page (that claims to represent the authority) that carried a lot of negative responses. Still, the whole deal looked simple and achievable.

One fine rainy morning we decided to land there with the photostat copy (the last one left) of the child’s birth certificate. The Jan Suvidha Kendra is located near the telephone exchange in Sector 19, where perhaps the Income Tax office was also functioning from. It was a typical UP government set-up in an erstwhile school building that had the staff sealed in classrooms and operating out of windows and partially opened doors.

It took 5-10 minutes to figure out our window, stand in a tight bundle of inexistent queue, and be able to speak with the guy. As we spoke the words “birth certificate” he politely slashed a refusal. The service had been moved to a Civil Hospital in Sector-39, effective from March’15. There was also a notice about the same, pasted on his window. But that was for new registrations. We were already registered, only needed a copy from the government.

The person was extremely helpful, compassionate, realistic and creative. He heard us out and ruled out a possibility of getting such kind of record out. At all. As our role demanded, we probed him more and requested him to suggest how we could get it. The fact is that our daughter is registered, ten years ago, has a functional identity, has all other papers except for the original birth certificate. How do we get that? “Sir woh toh mil nahi paayega. Ho nahi sakta” (Sir, that can not be arranged. Not possible), he replied with a very simple solution, “aap ek kaam karo, naya banwa lo. Hospital ke papers hain?” (do one thing, get a new one made. Have hospital papers?). I had all hospital papers but we told him that we did not want to create another registration. It sounded absurd and illegal. The friendly staff went on, “aisa karo, hospital se ek naya discharge slip nikalwa lo. Unke paas sab hota hai, copy hi toh nikalwani hai” (then do one thing, go to hospital and get the discharge slip again and we will see). Yes, that’s what we though before coming to you and we refused. “Toh yeh karo, ghar ka janm dikha do!” (do this, show that the birth happened at home!). This sounded like the limit, and we realised that this Suvidha Kendra was not going to be that suvidhajanak after all. We walked out, of course with random suggestions from onlookers, bystanders and fellow applicants – “banwana toh padega. baki aapki marzi hai” (you would have to get it done, rest all depends on what you really want).

All of this took less than half hour and that was too little the time to make anyone give up on project duplicate birth certificate.

We decided to go to the place where they were doing fresh registrations. Hoping that they would have a better suggestion to make. Our next destination was the Government hospital, near Mahila Police Thana.

After going inside the sector and looking for it at various stops, we finally found the hospital. It is located right on the main road, just above the underpass that connects sector 49-50 to sector 34/25.

The hospital is under construction and there is a very small building that even Google reads as “Makeshift Government Multi Speciality Hospital”. The highest chance is that you would miss it, unless you know exactly where it is. It is next to the Women’s Cell/Police Station in Sector 39, Noida.

As you go inside the small shed-like structure, you’d be directed to the last unit that has the registrar office. You walk to the end and reach the Birth and Death Registration counters in two parallel facing rooms. We walked in.

We explained the case to the gentleman sitting and he was extremely helpful and in a good mood. We were lucky to have reached the right counter of a mid-level manager. He asked us to write an application, attach an ID proof, the copy of the certificate and go to the other room where he would take this request and guide us further.

We got into the other line (a short one) and were asked to fill up a form. Once done, since it was an old case that needed intervention, we were asked to meet the senior manager and get him to sign on the same. The process requires for the authority to accept our application and then we need to pay a sum of Rs. 120 to an SBI branch where they issue a challan towards the same head. We are supposed to get back with the same and present the same to one of the counters and they issue a new certificate.

So now, we are done with the processes and are supposed to collect the certificate on the 24th. All fingers crossed.

I have been wanting to share this for a while but better late than never. So yesterday when I got an email from Laura of Asylum, on whether I would be interested in getting some safety tips around this, I thought that it is time to write a small post on it.

First, a few words about my inspiration of this post viz. Steven Levit. When I read the book, I tremendously like the pace of the book, very lucidly written and more of actual events, incidents, a lot of data and very little of words-of-wisdom (or Gyan, as we call it here).

For this particular case, here are some figures for you to ponder.
“In 1997 alone (the last year for which data are available), 742 children under the age of 10 drowned in the United States last year alone. Approximately 550 of those drownings — about 75 percent of the total — occurred in residential swimming pools. According to the most recent statistics, there are about six million residential pools, meaning that one young child drowns annually for every 11,000 pools.

About 175 children under the age of 10 died in 1998 as a result of guns. About two-thirds of those deaths were homicides. There are an estimated 200 million guns in the United States. Doing the math, there is roughly one child killed by guns for every one million guns.”

And here is the link of complete story – http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2001/07/27/levittpoolsvsguns/

Incase you want to buy this book, and read it in more detail then please click on this cover. It is a very interesting read.

Now getting back to the dangers of the pool. I live close to Delhi, India and we have a swimming pool in our apartment (or Condo as they say it in US) and about 4 years back, there was an unfortunate incident of a young buy losing his life. With-in my family, one of my cousins has lost her son in the village pond (which probably the closest thing to a pool). So it is just not plain-figure-speak but something which has happened (and continue to happen) in our lives. Though it is extremely sad, but probably if you pause for a moment and look-back, may be there was someone you know has been hit by this ‘drowning danger’.

With winters withering pretty quickly, all the pools are now going to get back in action and no better time to remind ourselves of some of the safety-tips, guidelines and things to watch out for. This is coming from Sue Mackie, Executive Director of United States Swim School Association.

Very appropriately title as ‘Don’t Forget to Pack Water Safety Skills For Spring Break’, here is the short and very effective things which one must do. I have not changed the language and Sue is writing from the perspective of ‘Spring Break’, but this applies to all, whether your neighbour hood pool or the one you find in your hotel.

Spring Break Water Safety Tips

• Create a verbal cue that must be given by an adult before children can enter the pool.
• Select a parent to be the designated “water watcher”. This adult should not be drinking alcohol while children are in or near water.
• Always go with children to the hotel pool. Do not let them swim unsupervised. Just because you are on vacation does not mean you are on vacation from being a responsible parent. Don’t allow children to go to the kiddie pool without adult supervision. Lounging in the adult pool while your kids are swimming alone is an accident waiting to happen.
• Do not use water wings or pool floats as a substitution for supervision if your child is not a strong swimmer.
• Take time to familiarize your children with the pool they will be swimming in, i.e. where the shallow and deep ends are, where stairs to get in and out are located, where they can and cannot swim.
• If visiting a beach destination, do not rely on lifeguards to constantly monitor your children. You cannot be sure how experienced a lifeguard is and should never assume. It might take a new guard time to notice an unsafe situation and you need to be ready to react first if your child needs help.
• Before allowing children to wade into the ocean, explain to them that they need to constantly be watching for waves that could knock them over and other potential dangers. Parents should constantly be on the lookout as well.
• If cousins and relatives are swimming together, gather the adults of your extended family and create an agreed upon set of pool rules before the kids are allowed into the water. It is also important for the adults of the group to meet and discuss each child’s skill level prior to allowing the kids into the water so everyone has the same expectations of what is normal or an emergency.
• If you have a pool at home be sure to take precautions before traveling. Secure fences, gates, door locks and covers so an accident does not occur while you are away.

Hopefully, it makes us all a bit more safer.

I didn’t want to finish this story on a sad note, but for the greater good , let me share more on what Levit writes.

“As a father who has lost a son, I know first-hand the unbearable pain that comes with a child’s death. Amidst my grief, I am able to take some small solace in the fact that everything possible was done to fight the disease that took my son’s life. If my son had died in a backyard pool due to my own negligence, I would not even have that to cling to. Parents who have lost children would do anything to get their babies back. Safeguard your pool so you don’t become one of us.”

So folks, be extra careful when you have children around a swimming pool or an water-body and do read Sue’s list of tips. Hope this post is useful to you and do make the most of Spring-Break.

After the recent unfortunate incident of Rape by one of the Uber drivers, (http://www.firstpost.com/india/full-text-uber-india-releases-statement-delhi-rape-case-1837919.html), everyone thought that Uber would do something about it. The banning was a knee-jerk reaction by ‘Delhi Government’ but they needed to do something, at least some response which people can see as a response.

Uber came out with a statement
Below is the statement issued by the taxi service:
Our thoughts are with the victim of this terrible crime and we are working with the police as they investigate. We will assist them in any way we can. It is also our policy to immediately suspend a driver’s account following allegations of a serious incident, which we have done.
Safety is Uber’s highest priority and in India, we work with licensed driver-partners to provide a safe transportation option, with layers of safeguards such as driver and vehicle information, and ETA-sharing to ensure there is accountability and traceability of all trips that occur on the Uber platform.
– Evelyn Tay, Uber Spokeswoman

Yesterday, I recd the following email from Uber

Two snapshots for posterity (and to document the date and time of Uber’s email)

And more of the message

I felt better and hoped for better. As I finished reading the message it said very clearly in the end that if I have any questions then I can just reply back to this email or send a tweet.

And I did reply to the email on Friday morning. The only reason I wrote it to see if they really respond. My whole premise was on the fact that this particular driver was already ‘FLAGGED’ by one of the commuters, Nidhi Shah,in the past. Here is the source of the story – http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2014/12/10/uber-rape-case_n_6298094.html

And here are the tweets by Nidhi

So Über knows that they were alerted and they should have paid attention. So now they are writing to their customers and assuring them of a response, So I wrote a small email,

I sent this at 1000 hrs on Dec 12, 2014. As I write this post, it is 1800 hrs on Dec 13. More than 32 hours and no response.

Makes me think that Uber (or at least Uber India) is still non-responsive. Sad.

————————————
Update on Dec 19

So I finally heard back, after 6 days. My guess is that they were trying to hire community managers (And my guess is that this person could be on a contract to kind of respond and keep SoMe community pacified than any real hands-on support)

Here is the response

And as you could see, there is no mention of being apologetic for responding after 6 days. I am gonna get my money off PayTM now.