A shift from hating to accepting the changes that life toss upon us.

We all have experienced change and have gone through a lot of changes in life. Change may be not very pleasant, but sometimes we are not left with an option other than embracing the change. 

The changes I have been through most of my life is that I have never really lived in one particular place for a very long time. For college, work, etc, I was always moving and visiting a lot of new places. The thought of going to a new place, the new environment, new people, and new culture is all exciting and sounds very good. But in reality, it isn’t the case. Every single time you move to a new place, you have to get settled in that new environment. You have to look around for all the stores. You have to make contact with new people all over again. 

If you are a kind of a person who is happy sitting at home, and like to live in the sort of a cocoon, then you would hate this life of continuous travel and movement. Though there are always some bad things in any situation, it is the way you look at the things that will make you happy and adjust to the new situation. 

I personally, used to detest this kind of change. I was sick of moving from one place to another. And half the time, I would rather sit in my couch with the laptop or the TV on. But later on, I started to understand and realise that if this is my life, I better get used to it and start to love the change. 

Once I changed the way I looked at the things, I saw a new perspective to every single small detail in the new city I am in. The culture, the type of people in that particular city are very different from the ones I was living among earlier. It has given me huge insight into how people behave due to cultural differences, even within one country. 

I started visiting all the unique buildings and cultural traditions of the new city. Now, I don’t think twice about moving to a new place. Because of my travel and as I have lived in many places, my exposure and knowledge about the people across India have increased. And they are helping me to adjust to any new circumstance. Because I have interacted with people from multiple cultures, I know what is good and what is bad. It has made me a better individual who is more supportive. I am now able to actually listen to what everyone is saying, and not just pretend to listen. 

I would advise anyone to accept change with a whole heart, for it would make you a better person. 

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A new perspective to life

It is not every day that we look at something that gives us hope for future and fills us with optimism. There are certain incidents, though seemingly irrelevant, would give us the courage and hope. 

Recently, I was watching a serial with my mother. I usually don’t like to watch any local channels. But that day, I thought I will just sit with my mother and see what is so enticing in those local regional serials. I sat with her for an hour and was watching the serials with her. I was asking her the story of each and every thing. She was more than happy to tell me who is who and what is going on right now. I was glad that though I was bored, she was happy to tell me about something she likes. 

After few minutes, I thought if anyway I have decided to watch these for some time, I would better see what exactly is going on in those serials. I started listening.

There was this one particular scene where one of the main character comes in a bike from somewhere and he is quite thirsty. He sees a road side shop with eateries. He asks for the food. He observes that the girl in charge of the shop is not only selling the food, but also studying. He becomes curious and asks her what it is that she is studying. She replies saying that she is studying in school and her mother is not well. Her father has left them for another woman when she was a child. It is her mother who takes care of her by working in this small road side shop. 

Today her mother is sick, and she doesn’t have another option other than waiting in the shop to earn money for them to live. And she is studying because her final exams are about to start and she has to score a lot and get into a very good college. 

Even in a situation where she has to work to earn her day’s living, the girl in the serial was very positive and filled with hope and ambitions for the future. I thought about how we are, we have better things to live with, yet we crib about the things we don’t have. If we don’t get a small thing, we make a big deal out of it. Never once have we thought about how people who earn their daily wages live. They lead a fuller life with what they have than crib for things they don’t have. 

By watching that serial that day, I realised that we should be grateful for what we have and by looking at the ambition and the positivity that they girl portrayed, I was filled with joy and hope for future and about what I could do with life. And not just worry about things.

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The welcomed change

 Sometimes by birth, upbringing and associations you develop a perspective about a particular person, object or situation. Sometimes this perspective will remain intact throughout your life. But sometimes when you actually come across such a situation or interact with such a person, you may realize that the perspective that you have had in your mind for so many years is now suddenly being challenged. I too had such a perspective in my mind for years together which was challenged and certainly changed one year back.

I am currently a second year MBA student in Mumbai. After the end of first year we all are supposed to undergo a 2 month long summer internship in some company. I was selected by an FMCG company to do internship. Most of my classmates had Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore as their job locations. Unfortunately my job location was Ranchi. I was certainly not happy with it. First of all, I never visited this city. I didn’t know about this city at all. Secondly I was the only one from my class to go to Ranchi for internship. Thirdly I was supposed to make arrangements for my accommodation. Luckily for me one of my closest friends is from Ranchi and it was decided that I will stay at his place during my internship.I have always lived in a nuclear family. I could never relate to the concept of joint family. I actually hated the concept. I always thought that how can someone live with so many people around. No privacy, too much interruption, too much interference from everyone. You can not do everything you want. I had never asked and my friend had never told me. Just a day before leaving for Ranchi, I came to know that my friend is living in a joint family. I was tensed and so were my parents. It was decided that I will stay there for a few days and mean while look for some PG. Once I get some PG, I will shift there.Anyway, I reached there. As expected I was given a warm welcome. I thought that anyway I am going to live here for few days only so lets start talking to everyone.


Time started passing and slowly I started liking my stay there. In fact I stayed there for two months and never shifted to a PG. It was nice, a complete new experience for me. In my house I am the one to decide when do I want to sleep and when do I want to get up. Here dadi would come to my room at 6 30 in the morning and wake me up. I had to play video games with bablu, I used to go to play cricket with Vikash. The entire two months were like a vacation to me.


I never expected that I will enjoy the company of so many people but I actually did. I miss them sometime. I make sure to talk to them once in a while to relive the same warm experience of togetherness.


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Nano tubes for tumours

Liver cancer has a new treatment option available. The nano tubes when implanted into the liver tumours work from inside the tumour cells. They dont affect and damage the neighbouring tissues.
To get an idea of how tiny these tubes are, imagine 75000 nano tubes arranged side by side will be about the width of the human hair.
These nanotubes were developed by scientists at University of Texas and Rice University. They tested these nano tubes by implanting them into the livers of rabbits with artificially induced tumours in the livers. The rabbits are then exposed to radio waves.
On exposure to radio waves, the nano tubes produced heat that destroyed the tunour. Researchers hope that this method has the potential to treat other types of cancers as well.
For a better future!

Biofuel from microbes

Researchers of US have found a new source of renewable energy: Bugs. These microbes like plants use solar energy to grow. The scientists have found that the fat by-product of these microbes can be used to make high energy fuels like biodiesel.

There are other researchers who are researching on fuel from corn, soybeans and switch grass. This microbial bio fuel is a better alternative because, the arable lands will not be used mainly for biofuel production.

These microbial fuel is a great invention. When it becomes available for everyone, it will change the world of renewable source of energy and help preserve the mother Earth for few more billions of years. 

The chameleon heels

Here is a solution to the problem of every woman, who wants to show off wearing stilettos, yet worry about commuting with the stilettos on. The bother-and-sister team have designed a CAMiLEON Heels that can drop nearly two inches in seconds.

You simply have to pull, tuck and lock the lower part of the heel, which contains a steel rod inside a hidden cavity under the arch. The 3 ½ inch stilettos will be down to a more manageable 1 ½ inches for the commute.

Wear these normal heel with stilettos anywhere without a worry!

We should try this for Swachh Bharat.

Many in Buenos Aires were inspired to recycle and dispose of their wastes including paper, plastics and glass. This is because a designer “Patricio Forrester” designed a bin ‘Feed the cow’. Because of its unique and funny-looking design, everyone were inspired to dispose of their waste.

In India, with the Swachh Bharat initiative, this could be a nice idea. Inspire people to dispose their waste into the bin and not on the roads.

When we have people who steal the bins kept for Swachh Bharat initiative, we really need a phenomenal initiative and awareness to change the mind-set of the people. We need to change the way people think of waste management and implement the changes.  

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A solution to the raising problem of population

In India, one of our major problem is the steadily increasing population. With the rise in population, the land available for every person reduces. Already there is huge shortage of land that people keep building tall buildings to accommodate everyone.

One alternative that is on the rise is the Dutch way of living! The Dutch to tackle the increasing population, started building houses on the sea front, water front, etc, below sea level. It is like a ship with a house built on it. These amphibious homes have hollow concrete foundation that acts like the hull of the ships, rising and falling with tides. This structure is connected to the mooring posts that keep it from drifting away.

It is an enhanced ‘ecoboat’ design where the water and wave energy will be used to heat the home and filter sea water for drinking.

You don’t have to go on a vacation to stay on a house boat. Wait for few years, you will probably build your own house boat! '

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Wireless charging of Mobile phones

A lot of inventions and innovations are making the day. But this one is very special for everyone. There are millions of times in every one’s life that they have either forgotten to charge the mobile, or take the charger to the work place, or lost the charger. A few minutes without the mobile phone is unimaginable. It’s become our life force.

To overcome this forgetfulness of human, scientists in MIT have figured out a way to charge mobile phones wire-free. Like Wifi, we now can look forward to WiTricity. The phones can recharge itself.

It just needs a transmitter that creates electromagnetic field, that powers up anything from a TV to a light bulb, within a 2 meter range.

The bright side for Mobile phones!! 

Innovations that would save the world – Part II

Green Stove

A stove that works more efficiently (using 70 percent less fuel) and cleanly (95 percent fewer harmful emissions) than traditional methods. This stove is invented by African Clean Energy, a South African company. This is a battery powered appliance that recharges via a solar panel, and it also has a USB port to power mobile phones and laptop.

In the developing world, half the population still cooks with dung, coal and wood, which results in air pollution which leads to premature deaths. This invention of clean green stove will help reduce the number of deaths by pollution and also make the meal preparation easier.

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A safety kit

A Bangladeshi non-profit organisation, BRAC has created a low cost solution to reduce the maternal mortality rate. It is a Rs.25 home delivery kit that contains basic items for safety. BRAC has distributed more than 2.6mn kits that has reduced the maternal mortality rate in Bangladesh by more than 50 percent in the past decade.

This is an affordable solution to reduce the maternal mortality across the world. It is estimated that more than 800 women die from infections and haemorrhages incurred in pregnancy complications.

An inexpensive Maxi Pad

In Rwanda, 18 percent of menstruating girls and women, on average miss 35 days of school and work every year because they cannot afford sanitary pads. Sometimes they resort to unsafe alternatives like using rags, leaves, mud, etc. These can lead to infections and other diseases.  Sustainable Health Enterprise (SHE) based in Rwanda makes sanitary napkins from banana tree fibres. The pad costs about Rs.2 apiece. This has reduced the infections and the women and girls now are safe and hygienic during the periods. 

Biodegradable plastic

To save the earth from plastics, a lot of activists protest against the use of plastics. A few years back the shopping malls started this trend of charging for plastic carry bags hoping it would deter the customers from buying carry bags. They hoped that the customers will bring their own carry bags and reduce the plastic consumption. But (Fortunately for the stores, and unfortunately for Earth), customers dint mind paying little bit more for those plastic carry bags. There was no reduction in plastic consumption.

Recently, some activists protested saying that majority of the waste is non degradable plastic that is harmful not only to environment but also to the future generations. And they wanted a ban on use of plastics.

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When we think about where the plastics are being used, it is literally everywhere. The packaging material for almost all the product in the market is plastic. It is because, plastic comes cheap.

Some researchers in Australia have found a new material called ‘Plantic’. It looks and feels like plastic, only that plantic is made of starch and is easily dissolvable in water and degraded by earth. The company should start thinking about switching from plastic to plantic for some products at least. 

Non sticky salt

Some researchers in India have found out a way to keep the salt non-sticky and let you sprinkle the salt freely on your dishes.

A little moisture in the air is taken in by the salt and the tiny cubes of salt particles gets dissolved in the moisture and they stick to one another. You might have been used to the salt becoming lumps after few days. The difficulty you face is when you have to add that tiny pinch of salt to your dish to make it extraordinary. You will not be able to take the amount of salt that you need. You will probably end up adding more salt than needed.

This new invention of adding an Amino acid to salt crystals while salt production, drastically reduces the amount of moisture the salt can absorb. This will let your salt be free of stickiness. You can now sprinkle only that tiny amount of salt on your plate. 

Innovations that would save the world

Water Wheels

Two South African brothers created a Q-Drum that can be rolled or pulled across any hard and bumpy terrain, without causing a leak. The Q-Drum is made of a super-sturdy poly-ethylene. It can hold up to 50 litres of water. This drum is multipurpose as it can be used to transport grain and other food items.

This will change the way the women and girls in rural areas gather water. Most of the rural areas don’t have water nearby, they are often located far from their homes. They often forgo school and employment because of the necessity of bringing water. This invention will change their life dramatically. The women and girls need not shoulder the arduous, time-consuming task of gathering water for living.

LifeStraw

LifeStraw is invented by a Swiss company Vestergaard. It is a portable filter that eliminates 99.9% of all waterborne bacteria and parasites. Each straw of LifeStraw can clean up to 1000 litres of water. This device has been distributed in more than 64 countries.

Sanitation and hygiene is a biggest problem in the world. Availability of clean drinking water is another. One in nine people in the world lack access to clean drinking water. As a result, more than 3.4mn people die every year because of water borne diseases. Children are hit the most. Almost 2 mn of these 3.4 mn is children. This innovation LifeStraw will save millions of life in the world.

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Test of Vinegar

Cervical cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. This is mainly due to the lack of medical professionals and also affordable diagnostic tests.

An easily administrable test with Vinegar is shown to reduce the cervical cancer deaths by nearly one third. It is a diagnostic test devised by Jhpiego, a non-profit organisation in association with John Hopkins University. They are working to make this test available all over the world. 

Innovations of the New world

Inventions and innovations have changed the way we live our life today. Some inventions like mobile phones and internet have changed the way we communicate, and socialise. The invention of wheels changed the way we commute. There are millions of such inventions and innovations around the world.

There are some recent innovations that will change a lot of things in the near future.