We all know about the famous monuments in Delhi like the Red Fort, Qutub Minar, and Jantar Mantar. But Delhi is a hub of heritage sites that we often overlook or don’t know the story of! Well, you can now know about them all, thanks to Walking Past (WaPas), an app developed by four students who wanted to help people reconnect with the city’s history.
Students Create App That Helps Rediscover Delhi’s History
Vihan Tampi, a class 12 student, grew up exploring historical heritage sites with his father, Chandrashekar Thampi, a heritage expert. He would go around the city and listen to his father tell him in great detail about all the hidden treasures of Delhi. However, over the years, he saw how the structures degraded due to negligence and pollution.
So, Vihan thought of doing something about it and got together with his fellow students of Shiv Nadar School in Noida –Arnav Vij, Aryan Bardeja, and Karissa Gupta. They created an app called WaPas (Walking Past) to solve this problem. According to The Better India, this app’s name is a clever play on words which signifies people walking past monuments. Also, ‘WaPas’ means ‘going back’ in Hindi, capturing the app’s essence of rediscovering people’s lost connection with Delhi’s heritage sites.
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How Does ‘WaPas’ Work?
The Better India explains that WaPas is a pocket-sized heritage guide. When you’re walking around Delhi, it sends a notification if you’re near any of the 500+ historical sites in its database. The app uses GPS, AR, and geotagging to let you know about any interesting heritage site nearby.
They worked with mentors from Adobe to make the app user-friendly. You can listen to information on WaPas, save it for later, and even get detailed stories about each site. Currently, the app is available for iOS users and the team is planning to release an Android version soon.
So, are you excited to explore the hidden gems of Delhi with WaPas? Let us know in the comments.
Cover Image Courtesy: Flickr (representative image)