How did it all start?
The tale of myskoolbus app had beginnings that most parents can relate with. For our Co-Founder, Pooja, dropping her child at the bus stop and picking him up later in the evening was a part of daily routines. But what she considered a daily chore turned nightmarish when she missed the bus an evening and had to frantically wait for a whole hour before she could get to the school and pick up her worried child.
Except that the worry and anxiety she carried in her heart gave way to a resolution to do something about it. Why not an app to help parents and school authorities keep track of the school van details? That is how the team at trackNOW evolved. Pooja recounts, “Has anyone ever thought of the plight of a mother who is eagerly waiting for the arrival of her kids from school and when they didn’t show up on time? I have personally experienced that and the incident left me traumatized.
It was a festive day and I happened to accompany my friend to an exhibition at The Grand Bhagwati. The exhibition was on home interiors and house decors and we found it very interesting. Like most women we got so engrossed in shopping that we did not quite realize how fast the time sped by. Only when the alarm set in my phone started ringing did we realize that it was time to pick up my younger kid from the stop. But the pickup point was a further 15 -20 minutes away from Grand Bhagwati, and to add to the bad luck we got caught in traffic jam. I can still remember the frustration and nervousness that I went through as we rushed to the stop as quick as possible.
By the time we finally managed to reach the stop of Subhda colony, the bus had already left with my kid. We immediately tried calling the transport manager but the connection failed and when the line got through, he instructed us that the bus had already left and my kid has reached Satellite campus. We were very worried and when we rang up the Councilor, she informed that the bus had reached Sunderban campus. The bus was on the move and we kept missing it. We didn’t know the route the vehicle was taking and by the time we got any updates the bus was already far away.
Had we been given notifications about bus location or known the bus route, it could have been very helpful and timesaving. There was no way to know where my son was and I wish I could have avoided all that worry. We later came to know that the bus passed through TGB, where the exhibition actually happened. If only we knew that, we would have waited there and avoided all the panic.
I discussed this incident with my friend and we both agreed that this is not a rare happening. We really wanted to help parents in a similar fix with a solution that will let the parents take note of the location of their child and act accordingly in time of emergencies.
With the daily chores and hustle and bustle in our busy lives, it is really difficult to juggle between work and home. As a mother, it is expected of her to make her family the priority. Children, especially when they are young, needs to be constant cared for. As a professional and as a mother, it is my responsibility to manage their studies and ensure that their lives are flowing smoothly. Picking up my kids from school and dropping them for school are only part of the many chores that make me a mother.
As we worked on the problem, we realized that the delay from the parent is just one side of the coin. There are numerous other scenarios in reality where parents undergo similar anxiety. Many a times it so happens that in rainy season or festive occasions, the bus gets stuck in traffic and there is an unexpected delay, which worries the parent. Anything from a heavy rain or unannounced school holiday to water logging, heavy traffic and even accidents can result in such delays. Every parent would wish for any reliable updates regarding their child during such times. We cannot always avoid those. But we can deal with those efficiently!”
Every mother might have similar tales to tell. Stories of counting minutes till the kids show up or getting worried sick when they do not arrive on time. If you’re a minute late from the standard dropping time, you would be clueless of the location of bus and unable to trace the same. If the school van got into a traffic block or some emergency cropped up, it gets messier. Why not create a user friendly app so that parents and authorities can get real time updates? Thus the idea behind myskoolbus was born!