Humans of Hyderabad (HoH) has nothing to do with Humans of New York or Humans of Bombay. HoH is a platform that Rachana Tummula Choudary conceptualised to tell the stories of people who make Hyderabad what it is. Simply put, HoH tells the stories of people like you and me, about friends who meet everyday in the park for morning walks, about flower sellers who have been in the same spot for ages, and so on.
June was an important month for this homegrown group of story tellers. The team chose to tell the story of the growing LGBTQI groups in the city. For which they received some flak and “a lot of encouragement from various sections of society and from followers”, says Purnima Sriram, one of the four HoH team members who are on the field tracking the pulse of the people.
HoH is the brainchild of Rachana, who also happens to be the only woman psephologist in the country. For HoH she works with Purnima, Srinath Chavali, Shreya Vishwani and two other members who freelance. When she launched the HoH page on Instagram it barely had 1,000 followers and the number didn’t change for a long time. “But I was ready to wait and see an organic growth. At the end of the day we want the stories to be genuinely heard. I wasn’t just looking for followers,” adds Rachana, who acknowledges that she was inspired by seeing Humans of New York. “Having said so, HoH is not a reflection of HONY,” she says.
Rachana started HoH in 2014 with just one person to help her. Thankfully, she says, her parents always believed in what she did and never tried to influence or hinder her work. “I have been on my own since I was a teenager. I was sent abroad to study and since then I’ve been standing up for what I believe is right. HoH happened when I was on the field reporting for the 2014 Bihar elections. Being a psephologist, my work involved meeting and speaking to a lot of people. Working on the field, I noticed that when people are asked questions they seem to provide politically correct answers. They are much more honest and logical when they are left in a ‘focus group’ (group discussion) to discuss an issue,” she says.
After returning from her assignment Rachana brainstormed to see what can be done to give a human angle to the things we see on social media everyday. “If it inspires it is good, otherwise it can be appreciated as a story of an individual without being judgemental,” adds Rachana. A Round Table session with 900 members, though not considered a huge number, gave them the confidence to move ahead. “We weren’t expecting a huge crowd. The turnout made us confident. And the stories inspired us,” adds Purnima.
What was originally supposed to last three hours went on for five and everyone listened to each other with rapt attention. “A doctor in her mid-40s earned a standing ovation for her story. She took the platform to speak about being body-shamed by her family for wanting to learn swimming. She, however, took the body shaming as a challenge and confidently wore a swimsuit despite being subjected to adverse comments,” adds Purnima.
HoH is a great platform to begin your day with a positive story. The team works at hard at making their content stand out. “First and foremost we keep away from negative comments and welcome suggestions. Harsh comments are filtered and we leave no room for discussion on it,” says Purnima.
Even if that means losing followers? “It doesn’t matter; one will go, two others will join. There are a lot of people whose stories need to be told. Our page has no celebrities yet and I am okay with it. We seem to know quite a bit about our celebrities and they need a break from our scrutiny.”
Screenshot of Humans of Andhra homepage
Looking forward, the team is working to develop a Humans of Andhra. “We mostly work with freelance writers, consisting of young girls and boys who are doing an excellent job of bringing stories,” says Purnima.
