With Easy Hai tech sessions, two sisters are helping push all the right buttons - Hindustan Times
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With Easy Hai tech sessions, two sisters are helping push all the right buttons

Hindustan Times | By
Sep 27, 2020 12:03 PM IST

Their most popular modules are Entertainment (how to post and interact on social media, share files, stream music, edit photos, etc) and Productivity (e-calendars, syncing of email and more).

Can I zoom into my video and crop it? Should I keep my Bluetooth on all the time or my GPS? Can I add more items to my online groceries order? On every family Zoom call, sisters Shreya and Surbhi Bajaj would field at least a few such questions.

Surbhi and Shreya Bajaj conduct Zoom classes to help people learn to use their apps and gadgets. Their primary tool, they say, is patience.
Surbhi and Shreya Bajaj conduct Zoom classes to help people learn to use their apps and gadgets. Their primary tool, they say, is patience.

The stream of concerns was never-ending; the chaos of a family video call was not the best place to address them. So, four months ago, the siblings decided to try and help in a more organised manner.

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“We started holding basic smartphone familiarisation sessions on Zoom,” says Shreya, 30, who runs a restaurant and sports centre in Chennai. At each session, the women would explain the basics and the logic behind each move, so that new app downloads, for instance, wouldn’t confuse the user all over again.

By June, the sisters had cobbled together a syllabus of sorts, and decided to expand their reach. “We posted a five-session schedule on Instagram. We decided to call it Easy Hai, to reassure people,” Shreya says.

In two days, they were getting calls from across the country — Chandigarh, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Udaipur, Raipur. “We were pleasantly surprised. We started realising that this was a much larger problem than we had realised.”

Their primary tool, the women say, is patience. “One thing we hear over and over is that our clients’ families get impatient when helping,” says Surbhi, 26, who helps manage the family’s pipes and packaging business in Bengaluru.

Feedback is crucial too; modules on making a photo collage, editing videos, posting on Instagram and exploring camera features have all been added on demand.

“We charge 150 per class. If anyone wants a more advanced class on how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, make a poster online etc, we charge 800 for three sessions,” Surbhi says. Most of their business comes via WhatsApp.

Sometimes they offer a two-for-one discount, says Surbhi, laughing. “One gentleman in Bengaluru, a senior executive, needed help with his new iPad. So he and his secretary attended the classes and at the end he said ‘Kitna achcha hai! Mazaa aa raha hai’.”

Sapna Ghatiwala, 50, a jewellery designer from Mumbai, attended her first Easy Hai class two months ago. “It was about how to take better pictures. I thought I was okay with tech, but then I realised there was so much more to learn,” she says. “Since then I have gone back again and again for more classes. I have learnt how to manage my email better. They are so patient, and continuously explain till we are satisfied. The best thing is they are so affordable.”

The most popular Easy Hai sessions are the modules on Entertainment (how to post and interact on social media platforms, use file sharing apps, stream music, edit photos, make a photo collage, etc) and Productivity (e-calendars, syncing of email, appointments and payment getaways, etc).

For each batch of students, a special WhatsApp group is created. It stays live through the three-day sessions. Students are also given homework, which is checked and discussed in class the following day. By the end of a module, participants are also learning from each other and have a network they can lean on.

“I was looking for someone to guide me on how to do more with my food pictures as I conduct cooking classes and want to publish a cookbook,” says Chandrika Desai, 73, from Bengaluru. “Shreya and Surbhi turned out to be excellent teachers. When I would ask my children or grandchildren, they would immediately take over and do the task for me. That didn’t help me learn. The Bajaj sisters don’t give us the fish, instead they teach us how to fish.”

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Madhusree is a feature writer who loves Kolkata, is learning to love Mumbai. She loves to travel, write and bake

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