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Jugaad: Engineering solutions, improving lives – desi ishtyle

Santosh — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 03:46:07 +0000

How Santosh Ostwal quit his job, did some jugaad and bettered over 10,000 lives. [Economist blog]

Couple of year back I had a post on “Indian farmers texting their way to prosperity” in which I discussed the likelihood of wireless technological innovations happening in rural Indian with almost zero Internet and computer involvement.

People complain about the folks in rural and backward areas of India getting left out of the information gold rush. That is a pretty myopic view because you don’t have to sit in front of a computer with keyboard and mouse for “information”. That is so 90s. Pretty much anyone in India, who earns some amount of money, can afford a mobile phone these days, and that is not hyperbole. And guess what the easiest and most convenient way to access information is? An entire set of people numbering greater than the population of the USA are bypassing computers altogether, but still getting information. Hope some entrepreneur minded person is listening.

This thought process stems from the concept of jugaad a.k.a the ability to make the most of existing resources and improvise and innovate. The timing of that post was right around the big crash and most of the world had not yet started feeling the complete effect of the recession engulfing the globe. Fast forward two years, frugal is in. Entrepreneurs are embracing lean practices is kick start their business ventures. Jugaad has arrived on the main stage. But what would one do jugaad for? To save the world or build the next Facebook app?

If it were up to Santosh Ostwal, his answer would be to save the world. The [Economist blog] has an incredible story of how one man applied his engineering ingenuity to help farmers in rural India at great personal cost.

Ostwal first stumbled on this problem when he visited his grandfather.

In 1981 Mr Ostwal, then an adolescent, visited his family’s village near Pune during his summer vacation. Every midnight, his 82-year-old grandfather (who had lost a leg to gangrene and walked with a stick) would walk a mile to switch on the water-pump to ensure that his oranges were ready to ship the next morning.

His first solution a.k.a jugaad was simple but effective.

He started with a $2 alarm clock. The farmer set a time, and the sound of the alarm fed into an interface that signaled the coil of the pump’s starter. It was a user-friendly technique, but the alarm could be set only once; the farmer still had to walk to his fields to switch the pump off. Mr Ostwal would scooter to the fields himself at midnight and take out his multi-meter and oscilloscope, and he began to win the farmers over.

His second jugaad ran into some hilariously suspicious babudom.

In 1998, he abandoned the alarm clock and considered a remote control that would use a radio frequency allocated to him by the ministry of communications. He first had to convince the ministry that his remote control was not capable of deploying a bomb and that he could be trusted with it.

By 2001, he had quit his job, lost his apartment and was literally leading a hand-to-mouth existence. However, the desire for a solution spurred him on.

For about 9 months, I was not having any bread and butter at all. Me, my wife and my two kids… I was driven out of the house by the house owner and really came on the road in 2002. I was unable to fuel my innovations anymore. Sustainability was totally finished. But (at the time) thanks to mobile phone technology, one fine morning of Ganesh Chaturthi in 2003, I thought to myself, ‘why do I have to go for these licenses? Why can’t I try the same technology by using wireless connectivity of the mobile phone? I immediately tried the same technology with wireless connectivity of the mobile and surprisingly, I can tell you within 15 minutes, I got the result using the bulky Motorolla T 180 mobile ha ha ha! So instead of investing in a license, I piggy-backed on the wireless connectivity of the mobile phone.

Per Ostwal, the biggest impediment he faced besides lack of funds and resources, was resistance from the very farmers he was trying to help.

Farmers were not accepting this as a problem of theirs. They would tell me that this is routine work for us and our sons. Why do you worry so much? Walking a couple of miles daily is no big deal. What other work do we and our sons have? Let them work hard and appreciate the food that they get at the end of each day!

However, he did not let any of this disrupt his pursuit for a solution to the problem that plagued him from childhood. There is a happy ending to this story.

Today his solution – a mobile-phone adaptation that triggers irrigation pumps remotely – is saving water in India and helping more than 10,000 farmers avoid several taxing, dangerous long walks a day.

Do you know of any other inspiring entrepreneurial stories like these? Please share them with us in the space below.

Miscellaneous links:
NanoGanesh

The Macaca nation turns 62

Santosh — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:32:51 +0000

India turns 62 today, old enough to draw social security benefits.

Kids like me who grew up in India in the 80s and 90s read about Nehru’s historic “Tryst with destiny” speech made to the Indian Constituent Assembly. Fast forward a few decades, students wanting to capture the essence of this speech, may do so thanks to the U-tubes. (Video below)

Here’s another historic clip (entirely in Hindi) of the last British soldiers to leave Indian soil. As symbolic as the gesture was, it was indeed a momentous occasion after nearly two centuries of oppression and occupation. Again where were these damn u-tubes as my history teacher tortured me by reciting such events verbatim from a textbook?
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Of note from the above clip, the Governator of Singapore, delivers a speech (3:00 mark) where he proclaims that India would become a major economic power. At that point in history, we can only assume he was but paying lip service to the audience without really believing in his own words. The economic progress was a few decades late in arrival but one has to wonder what he would’ve thought about his words being semi-prophetic.

Another video our readers would find interesting is a newsreel announcing the independence of both India and Pakistan. [U-tubes]
The newsreel mainly features Dickie Mountbatten and shows him playing both sides like an used ~~Michael Jackson~~ Shankar Jaikishan audio tape.

There goes the model minority myth!

Runa — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:32:12 +0000

A brawl in a Sikh Temple in Vienna ,Austria took an ugly turn. Armed men fought one another in the temple premises, ending up with at elast 11 people getting injured.

Witnesses said the fighting erupted between worshippers in a dispute over the sermon.Police said at least six men, one wielding a gun and the others knives, attacked the preacher. Other worshippers rushed to his aid, resulting in the melee

(link)

The brawl reportedly erupted when the attackers objected to the sermon, claiming the preacher insulted the holy book. The Times of India has a video report here.

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that organized religions – each and every one of them – are the cause of most of the world’s problems!

Hallucinating icons: Microsoft ishtyle

Santosh — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:54:16 +0000

Karhik (via email) points us to this spoof of a Microsoft ad by Sarcastic Gamer (via Engadget). The spoof features a desi kid and subtitles in Hindi. To be noted: the girl shows the drawing of a dog while proclaiming “mere paas billi hai” (I have a cat). Is this was an oversight on part of the spoofers or a deliberate dig at the bugs and easter eggs in MS software?

The Original Desi Uncle

Runa — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:18:22 +0000

A classic MTV India Ad – enjoy !

NB: Cyrus Broacha for the uninitiated is an MTV India VJ !

Intel Features Ajay Bhatt

Karthik — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:02:29 +0000

Intel has an awesome new ad featuring Ajay Bhatt, The Co-Inventor of USB. For your viewing pleasure…

Finally an ad that breaks the stereotype, well kinda… What do you guys think?

RIP Feroz Khan

Santosh — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:55:05 +0000

I’m not much into writing tributes for dead Bollywood personalities but this maker of über stylish movies way ahead of their time in terms of trends, certainly deserves a mention. With stylishly made potboilers like Dharmatma, Qurbani and Jaanbaaz, often imitated never duplicated comes to mind. FK was famous for his guy movies – stylish, fast paced, foot tapping music, phoren locales, dazzling music videos, stunning women and packed with action. The best part? He was unapologetic about any of it. His movie making style would spawn hundreds of copycats throughout the 80s and well into the 90s.

Dharmatma, was his watershed movie. Not only did he try to adapt Oscar winning The Godfather to Indian sensibilities, he did so by filming the first half of the movie in the rugged pre-Soviet invasion Afghanistan countryside. On-screen he romanced two of Bollywood’s top leading ladies, Hema Malini and Rekha, and off-screen he called Hema Malini “baby”, and she liked it! He would go on to don cowboy gear and complete the perfect South India trifecta by romancing Sridevi on-screen in Jaanbaaz. At this point we’d like to interrupt our narration – Bollywood ishtyle – with a Feroz Khan number.

As much of a flamboyant movie maker as FK was, he was particularly picky about the music in his movies. The effect of his movies’ soundtracks on Bollywood music often gets overlooked. [GlamSham]

To mention Feroz Khan’s contribution one would have to start with Dharmatma.

Dharmatma:
The song “Kya Khoob Lagti ho”, with combination of a mouth organ and bongo as the accompanying acoustic instrument is still one of the all time favorite romantic songs that transcends across generations.

Of course, no mention of Feroz Khan is complete without the movie that made him a household name, Qurbani. He, brought sexy back by re-igniting the trend of carbaret dances in Indian movies, O Laila, anyone? While Qurbani was hardly the first movie to feature a cabaret number, it was one of the first to do so with the lead female actor. In modern Bollywood terms we call them “item numbers”.

QURBANI:
It was indeed a milestone in the Hindi film music as it had happened for the first time in all probability where two music directors were used in a film,

Not only did FK romance a much younger Sridevi in Jaanbaaz, but he made the world cringe at the sight of Anil Kapoor’s hairy chest in the song “Jaane Jana”. Jaanbaaz also had the country western tuned “Har Kisi ko” (featured in above video) and the S&M inspired, “Ek to kum zindagaani” (with an English remix).

Yalgaar, was one of Feroz’s biggest duds. How else can you describe a movie in which a much older Feroz Khan calls a much younger Mukesh Khanna “dad”? So what is Yalgaar doing on this list? Well, it turns out much of current day Hindi movie soundtracks draw their roots from the trend started by Yalgaar.

With YALGAAR Feroz Khan introduced for the first time the popular club music popular in the clubs of London, which was retro, funky and contemporary. It was only after YALGAAR that the Punjabi music of the London club variety characterized by beats of Dhol and heavy strumming of guitars became a norm in the subsequent Hindi films.

Quite a trendsetter this Feroz Khan guy was. RIP, dude.

Fridev?Patinto?

Runa — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:30:53 +0000

Yup – we sold out. After years of sneering at the Peoples,OK Magazines and TMZs of the world – we decided that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
So : Here’s to our latest desi Brangelina – call ‘em Fridev,Patinto whatever. In fact , send us your best suggestions and we will use the moniker that we like the best and give you credit.

Freida Pinto and Dev Patel are a confirmed item.

Patel’s mother Anita has confirmed to a British newspaper that the pair are very much a couple.

“First it was the film and now everything else seems to have slotted into place,” Mrs. Patel is quoted as saying in Monday’s Daily Mirror.

“Life can’t get any better for him. Freida is really beautiful, and I am really happy for them.”

(link)

The rumors started re-circulating last week, when the happy couple was spotted cuddling in Israel. Tip:Santosh via email)Click here (link) to see photos.

Frieda, 24 is filming her latest movie around Jerusalem but took the night off to meet Dev in a cosy bar where they sipped white wine

Slumdog 2: Rubina’s story – UPDATED

Runa — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:30:56 +0000

When the world collectively applauded for the Slumdog children on stage at the Oscars this March, I applauded too. But in the back of my mind there remained a niggling, uneasy feeling . Everyone thought that Danny Boyle and the producers had pulled of a masterful PR coup by flying in all the child actors for the Oscars in L.A.. I could not help but think of G.B.Shaw’s “Pygmalion” . Some of the main child stars were actually from the slums in Bombay and the trip to L.A. was their first flight ever ( and maybe first vacation ever). What bothered me is that no one – certainly not most of the Western audience – would ever comprehend exactly what these kids were going to return to , once the Oscar high was over.

When the kids returned, Mohammed Azharuddin was slapped by his father in full view of the press for the “crime” of being too jet lagged to deal with the reporters’s questions. Rubina Ali returned to an ugly scene between her biological mother ( who left when she was very young but returned when Rubina became famous!) and her father. And in the latest scandal :

Following a sting operation by a British tabloid, nine-year-old angel-faced Rubina Ali, who starred in Slumdog Millionaire, has been caught in the midst of a tug-of-war.

Since the news broke that Rubina’s father Rafique Qureshi was allegedly trying to sell his daughter to a Saudi Sheikh for a whopping Rs 1.8 crore. (link from TOI)

Rubina’s father Rafiq Quereshi claims that the allegation is trumped up and stems from his estranged wife ( Rubina’s biological mother) . He further claims that he thought he was conducting a transaction for Rubina to act in another film and that he has no intentions of selling her.Per the Indian express, Quereshi has been arrested.

(tip Videsh via Tipster)

Indian cops spent several hours quizzing Qureshi and are now on a prowl to obtain video recordings of the meeting at which the deal was supposedly brokered, reports ‘The Sun’.

It may turn out that the “sting” was a storm in a teacup. Rubina herself says:

I don’t know what happened. While returning my father asked me if I would like to go to Saudi Arabia. I said yes (link)

Either way its pretty heartbreaking that things are bad enough in India that the plausibility of the story is so high. All is not lost however. Moved by hearing the story, a Quatar based business man has stepped in with the offer to pay for her education

The businessman Abdul Rehman Vanoo said, “I watched on TV that her father was trying to sell her to an Arab couple. I don’t know how true this is but I feel that the girl must be having problems because of all the developments.” According to Vanoo, he believes in her talent and that is why he decided to help her achieve her dream. “We will sponsor her education no matter how expensive it will be.” (link)

UPDATE 1: Mumbai police have cleared Quereshi

Indian police said on Wednesday they had no evidence to suggest that the father of a child star in the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire” tried to sell his daughter.

(link)

Matthew Perry: Y’all brown people look the same

Santosh — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:14:43 +0000

This one seems like right out of an episode of Friends. [Cinema Blend] (tip Karthik via email)

Chandler: “I see brown people”
img: via Cinema Blend

Most desis (including yours truly) love Friends, plain and simple. Matthew Perry’s bumbling Chandler Bing was one of the most endearing characters, giving him instant name recognition even among desis.

Well, apparently the love, was mutual, at least between Perry and one brown person, M. Night Shyamalan.

He explains, “I was at the People’s Choice Awards a while back and that night I met all the Sixth Sense people; M. Night Shyamalan, Haley Joel Osment. So I met them, I spoke with them for a few minutes.”

The former Friends star first met the filmmaker (Shyamalan) at a Hollywood awards show during promotion for 1999 movie The Sixth Sense, and he was delighted when he encountered the man he was convinced was Shyamalan on another night out years later.

No surprise Chandler …. errr…. Matthew Perry, was happy to meet Shyamalan again and proceeded to hang out with and apparently the two had a great time.

Then a few years later I was out at this place in Hollywood and M. Night Shyamalan walked up and said hello. I was like, ‘Oh my God, come sit down, please join us.’ We sat there for a few minutes and everybody sort of filtered out and it was just me and M. Night Shyamalan. Pretty great, great guy, very talented.

No Chandler Bing episode was complete with some sort of gay innuendo.

“We talked for a little while, and then I started to realize, you know, he likes me. Laughing at everything I say, really enjoying me. We’re not really talking about show business, just sort of bonding. At one point, about an hour into it, he says, ‘You know, I know this other place, it’s opening night’, and so we go to the carpool, he gets his car and I get my car and I follow him all the way across town. On the way there, I started to think, ‘Ok, this guy really likes me.’

Well, no Shyamalan movie is complete without a surprise ending.

We go to the next place, we’re hanging out. …Another hour passes, he goes to the bathroom, he comes back, and then… I realize it’s not M. Night Shyamalan. It’s just an Indian guy who looks a lot like M. Night Shyamalan!

Getting back to Chandler, he was known for dumping women he dated abruptly without any explanation.

I hightailed it out of there. I felt dirty.”

So there you have it, a story involving Chandler Bing that sounds like an episode of Friends, with a M. Night Shyamalan surprise twist ending. And, by the way, Matthew Perry think all brown folks look the same.