|
|
Honey bee publish details |
| More
Information |
|
|
|
|
| Title |
Tales from North India: Kamal's Finds |
|
|
| Details |
A Visionary
Over fifty-years old, Kartar Singh has made a medicine for the eyes using Calotropis. When he was a child, a knitting needle entered Kartar’s eyes and since then he had pain and vision problems in dim light. Once, an itinerant herbal healer gave him a medicine which alleviated his troubles. But then he lost contact with the healer. Nevertheless it convinced Kartar that there was a cure and he set about discovering it. He figured that sight was related to sunlight and that the secret lay there. Observing all plants to find which was related to the sun, he remarked that aak (Giant milkweed, Calotropis gigantea) was one plant that seemed to relish harsh sunlight. So he extracted a little milk of the plant and put it into his eyes. It was very painful. He tried diluting it in water and cow-milk, with better results, but the potion was still too strong. Thinking further about the problem, Kartar deduced that the plant's alkaloid content would not be as high in the mornings and evenings as it would be during the afternoons. This was the final step towards achieving his goal. He now collects the milk of aak at 4 p.m. and then makes kajal (kohl) out of it, for easy application in the eyes. Soaking cotton in the diluted milk for five or six nights, he makes wicks of it and then burns it to collect the soot in a small vessel. He distributes the medicine to people free of cost. Kartar Singh is a mechanic by profession, with a school education that lasted only up to class ten. Still a lot of insight, wouldn’t one say?
Blowing them Away
Jagdev Singh and Jagtar Kaur, a couple from a village in Ludhiana, have together designed an electric smoke-blower. Jagdev Singh is an agriculture sub-inspector in the Punjab government, holds a diploma in agriculture and has had a stint as a professional bee-keeper. His wife, Jagtar Kaur, is a school dropout and manages their beehive at home. Faced with the problem of how to drive the bees away when collecting honey, it was her need that propelled the making of this electric smoke-blower to fumigate the beehive. Normally, she would put an old rag on fire and then blow hard to drive the smoke towards the hive. Some of the smoke would inevitably go into her eyes, causing pain. The two of them went to the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, to see if the formal sector could supply them with a solution. There they came across the concept of using a motor to drive the smoke in the desired direction. While PAU still pondered the idea, the couple came home and designed their smoke-blower themselves.
The device is operated by a nine-volt battery to which a small motor is attached. As before, a small piece of burning sack or cloth, placed near the motor, is used to make smoke. The motor acts as a blower and the smoke comes out from the nozzle, which imparts direction to it. Part of the daily hey-ho for this homely woman innovator!
A Simple Solution to a Complicated Problem
Ram Vilas heard his neighbours quarrelling and was distressed. Whenever there was a power-cut, the husband and wife would argue over who would locate the candle and who kept it where the last time round. Why should they fight over such a simple matter, thought Ram Vilas. Let me do something about it. So he designed a gas candle, which is nothing more than a very simple attachment of a gas lamp kept permanently beside the gas stove. All one has to do is turn the knob and voila, you have a candle to light, always at hand. Obviously the first piece was given to the quarrelsome couple next door. Wonder what they are fighting about now.
Ram Vilas has other, more complex, innovations to his credit. He is a Haryana-based gas mechanic, who works for an LPG cylinder agency as a vendor, and makes his unique three-wheeled delivery vehicle run on ‘empty’ LPG cylinders. (See HB 13(2): 10)
The Spirit of Enterprise
With his father’s death, a twelve-year old Amandeep Singh of Dhaipi village in Ludhiana realised the need to support himself and his mother. Aman began with a small video-game shop in his home, with a simple remote operated console, that drew a good crowd from the village children. Business was good for a year, before the village seth realised that it was really too good to be missed, and bought a state of the art video game equipment costing Rs 12, 000, with a steering and pedal to simulate the experience of driving. Offered more at the same rates, the village kids flocked to the seth. When business began to suffer, Amandeep had to think of something. He went to the local kabadi (scrap dealer) and bought a steering and a pedal. Then he figured out a way to connect his remote operated console to the steering and the pedal, and put it up for grabs at a reduced price. Soon, all the business was back with him. A bright entrepreneurial future ahead. |
|
|
| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 13(3): 9 & 23, 2002 |
|
 
|
|
