By Anuksha Dey
Mass vaccination is the way forward to get over the second wave of COVID-19. However, getting a slot on the Co-Win portal is quite a struggle, and not everyone is successful. With no official information on the slot updates, it’s easy to miss the vaccine availability. Here is where Philip Tiju Abraham, a 35-year-old Bengaluru-based software architect and hobbyist magician, has created a software tool that notifies Telegram channel users of the available vaccine slots on the Co-Win portal.
Last week, the Whitefield resident created a number of public telegram groups that give real-time updates on the availability of vaccines. His programme tracks Co-Win portal, and immediately sends a notification on the groups as soon as an open slot is shown on the website. The process of tracking the availability of vaccines soon turned into a system that is helping out over 3500 Telegram users in 16 districts across India.
Creating the software
Abraham says he believes in creating software to solve the everyday problems of people. He created an application to track the availability of vaccines 12 days ago, after the government published an open API. “I tried to track the availability of vaccines manually, checking 10-15 times a day… it was painfully tedious,” he told Residents Watch. “So I created an application that would directly send alerts to my Telegram group.”
Going public
The public Telegram channel came about after Abraham’s code helped a few of his friends book vaccination slots for themselves. “I had been struggling to book slots for my parents and myself on the portal for a long time,” says Nelson John, who got vaccinated on Sunday. “The slots on the site get booked as soon as they are announced on it, and you have no way of knowing when the information will be uploaded. You also can’t keep monitoring the Co-Win site manually as the session keeps getting timed out.” Abraham set up a Telegram channel for Nelson, his colleague who is in Kerala after he saw Nelson post about this problem on Facebook. Guided by the notifications on Telegram, Nelson was able to book sessions for both his parents and himself.
On Friday, Abraham opened up his Telegram channels to the public after realising the potential of the app’s notifications. Currently, he is running 32 Telegram channels for 16 districts in India where the real-time availability of Co-Win vaccines can be viewed, including Bengaluru, Chennai, and Mumbai. A complete list of Telegram groups created by him can be found here. “Ultimately, I plan to create channels for every Indian district, but the channels have to be created one by one, so I am creating the groups based on requests,” he says.
How notifications are sent
Abraham, who taught himself how to code at the age of 12, says he created the programme in two hours. “The process was simple. The Co-Win portal’s Application Programming Interface (API) can be used to retrieve information about the availability of vaccines, and Telegram’s API allows you to push notifications to the subscribers of the channel. All I had to do was create channels to link the two and create separate groups based on districts to send out the information.”
A passion for coding, magic and making the world, a better place
Abraham learned coding by himself while at school, and published his first website in 1998. “Resources were rare back then, and there was much trial and error,” he recalls. “But when you have the passion, you can always find a way to learn.” Around the same time, he also began performing as a magician. Soon, he won various awards and certificates of recognition.
By 2004, he created what he claims to be India’s first web portal for magicians, even before going for his bachelor’s degree in computer applications. The site has information about magic, a directory of magicians, and a calendar of magic show events, so people can book the shows online.
Abraham maintains that coding and magic are still his passion. He uses his magic to spread the message of peace, religious harmony, equality and non-violence. He believes in using technology to make life simpler and easier for everyone.
P.S: There is no authorised mobile app for vaccine registration, except Aarogya Setu for Android and iOS. Alternatively, you can log into the Co-WIN portal using this link and click on the “Register/Sign In yourself” tab on top right to register for COVID-19 vaccination.
