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Inventions that are beyond tomorrow

Mandira Nayar

NEW PROGRAMME: (From Left) Discovery Networks India managing director Deepak Shourie, National Innovation Foundation executive vice-chairman Anil Gupta and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research director general and National Innovation Foundat ion chairman, R.A. Mashelkar with an amphibious bicycle in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Seventy-year-old Mohammad Saidullah does not wait for boats. He can literally "walk" across water without any magic. No Leonardo da Vinci, he invented an amphibious bicycle that "wades" across water to get to his wife, Noor, during a flood in Bihar.

This romantic twist in the tale apart, his invention is not only about the power of love but also about the greater power of imagination. While there may be many other inventors like him in the country who might not have studied the complicated theories of higher physics but have the ability to think out of the box to come up with completely new solutions to old problems, Saidullah is just one of the "discovered" geniuses that India has.

While he was unable to come to Delhi because he was unwell, his invention -- a bright orange bike -- was one of the highlights at a Discovery Channel press conference this past Wednesday.

The channel has tied up with National Innovation Foundation and will be airing short films on a few grassroots innovators in the country like Saidullah during its programme "Beyond Tomorrow" starting this coming Monday. The programme talks about new inventions around the world that will be an integral part of the future. Dressed in tight blue denim jeans and wearing a denim jacket, Prem Singh Saini with four mobile phones is the face of the new generation of farmers in Haryana. Having stopped going to school from Class X, Saini has done what most mobile manufacturers have not managed to do -- use his mobile phone to switch on and off tube-wells.

"You can also switch your AC on and off with the mobile phone. I have also made a robot. It's important that people realise that a boy from a small village in the country can invent so many things, " he said.

Incidentally most of the inventors that came to the Capital with their unique products had other discoveries to their name and were not first-time innovators.

From Remya Jose of Kerala who has a paddle-operated washing machine to Mansukh Prajapati of Gujarat who has his own refrigerator company "Mitticool", these innovators have been working hard to make the lives of others more comfortable.

To keep vegetables fresh for up to five days, Prajapati has made a refrigerator that does not consume electricity and costs only Rs. 2,000. "It takes about eight days to make. The best part of my fridge is that the taste of the vegetables remains the same, unlike regular fridges. Now am working on an "R-O", in which the salty water gets separated, " said Prajapati, a potter by profession.

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