Meera Desai Shah: A Writer's Blog: Re-Iiventions

Hello,

It appears that science and technology come up with an invention almost every day. Some are worth waiting for while the others make you comment, 'oh, wow!' Often the wheel gets reinvented when the original invention gets tweaked and a better model comes. In this post some reinvented wheels are presented.

Meera

Re-inventions

Sagar smiled, "Oh, wow, this is cool."

His younger sister, twelve-year-old Sapna looked up from her homework and asked, "Bhaiya, don't you have any home work? Maybe you are impressed by the homework, I never find it worth saying 'oh, wow' in my homework.

"I haven't even started my homework yet, Dad left this interesting article on my desk, and all I can say is 'oh, wow.'

Sapna put her homework down and came to Sagar, "I want to see the article."

Sagar covered the article with his arms, "Wait, I want you to listen to it first and then see."

Sapna pulled a chair and sat by Sagar, "That's being rude, but okay, tell me."

"Rude or not, I have the article, my rules. You've seen a saw, right? It moves, back and forth and sometimes in a fraction of a second, an accident occurs, your nail or the tip of a finger or a leg or ..."

"Stop telling me all the body parts that get nipped, what's the invention?"

"Well, this saw can tell when your flesh is about to be nipped and it quickly moves away, preventing a chopped nail, a finger ... "

"Stop, I get it, the saw detects human flesh and moves away. Cool. Now show me the picture."

Sagar covered the picture, "Not just now, I am going to tell you about all the inventions and then show you. how the saw dips away."

Sagar shrugged, "OK, or I could just leave ... "

"You'll be the loser." Sagar said, "I am a good brother, I you to learn, come on, sit on your chair."

Sapna made a face, "Yes, big brother, I am all ears."

"The next one is something we could use, and the Europeans too who use bicycles to go to work. It's a helmet you don't see, until you are about to fall and hit your head, then it inflates."

"Ah, I like it, an invisible airbag helmet that inflates before the impact."

"Yeah, exactly, two Swedish design students came up with it."

"No pictures, huh?"

"Nope, later. The next one is, ah, this is good for all the places that don't have too much space or water for toilets."

"Studios apartments?"

"Yes, and then some. This hygienic toilet folds. It uses less water and it's is easier to clean around it. We could use such toilets in all the public places."

"Yeah, and what other invention?"

"It is a Revolution door, it opens or shuts with just a touch of a hand. and can be made from any material -- wood, plastic, glass etc."

"Hmm, not impressed. The next one?"

"This one is about water or any other liquid. You know how liquids stick to the surface of its container? Well, Liquiglide makes the surfaces hydrophobic keeping liquids glide instead of sticking to it. The bottle or container is made from a non-toxic material that hates liquids."

"You mean I won't have to bang on the bottom of my ketchup bottle to get the last drop out?"

"That's right."

"What else? The pictures?"

"Nope, Sapna, I better get to my homework, may be later."

"You are not the only one who can read and understand, give me the article."

"Okay, I am tired of reading and explaining to you, here, read it for yourself."

Sapna sat with the article and read, "Oh, neat, this is totally cool, oh, wow! I am going to show it to the twins. "

"Go, enjoy showing off, now let me study."

Sapna shrugged, and went to Suchi-Soori's room, "Hey, do you want to see something interesting? Find me the picture where the bike rider is about to fall!"

"Oh, I want to find him." They both stood by Sapna and peeked over her shoulders.

Sapna showed them the five pictures and talked about the inventions.

The End