A Conversation with Bhavesh

Introduction

I am currently pursuing my Master of Arts in English Literature. I have completed Part 1, and had the opportunity to attend the DigiAble course by Aesthesis Foundation. I am also a tabla player and a poet who writes in multiple languages, including Marathi, Urdu, and English.

What was your daily routine before joining the DigiAble course, and what's different now?

Bhavesh: I post my poetry on Instagram, but I wasn't very consistent — not in my posting schedule, and not in my colour palette or visuals, which is what helps people feel engaged. When I joined the course, I was introduced to how to enhance engagement and how to keep a consistent colour palette. That's improved my posting frequency and my Instagram activity a lot, and I've been gaining followers as well.

What is the biggest change you've noticed in yourself?

Bhavesh: The biggest change is that I'm now able to talk to people about the history of AI, not just how to use it. Earlier, I only knew how to use AI tools — what prompt engineering is, how to write prompts, how to get my work done. But now I also understand the background. I wasn't aware of the history going back to the 1950s — I just knew about Sam Altman and how he came up with the idea for ChatGPT, but nothing about what came before that.

When it comes to social media, as I mentioned, I wasn't aware of how visuals should look — because I'm a visually impaired person, totally blind, I can't see the visuals, the colours, or how something is presented. So what I did was use AI to understand what kind of visuals would suit my poetic style and my poems, and I've been moving forward with that approach.

When it comes to digital awareness — a few days ago, my mom sent me a link. I clicked on it because it was about a laptop, and I need one. But when I clicked, it turned out to be a phishing link. The digital awareness training from the course was really helpful here — now I don't think I'll click on links like that again, because I have that experience and knowledge now.

What would you say were the most valuable skills or tools you learnt during the course?

Bhavesh: The most valuable thing I learnt was about keywords — I wasn't aware of keywords in social media before, I only knew about hashtags, like everyone does. I learnt about keywords later.

When it comes to AI tools, Tanmay Sir introduced us to many different tools and told us what each one could help us get done — things related to blogging and other AI tools. I tried a lot of them, and whatever worked for me, I kept using.

What change have you noticed in how you use technology, before and after this course?

Bhavesh: I use technology much more carefully now. Earlier, I wasn't very cautious about keeping strong passwords — I used to use the passwords Google suggested and just save them to Google, then forget about them. That's gone now. I create my own strong passwords with letters, numbers, and so on, which really helps — even if someone tried, it would be really hard to crack them.

So this course helped you become more digitally aware and watch out for scams?

Bhavesh: Yes.

What is your overall review or feedback of Aesthesis Foundation and the course?

Bhavesh: I've been connected with Aesthesis Foundation for a long time. The first course I did with them was the Fundamental Course, and that was a really nice experience. Master was our coordinator, and he was such a nice friend — he's become a friend of mine now, a really nice guy. What I learnt in the Fundamental Course helped me a lot. The poetry I write today is a plant that grew from seeds planted during that course.

There was a ma'am, Pranjali Kurgaonkar, who taught us creative writing. I learnt to write essays and started using metaphors and similes in my work. It was a wonderful experience.