why do i wait for all the dreams to cross the boundaries
but not all boundaries, they should sparkle only in my sky
dark as it is,
but not await the reflection from
a fractured moon
that has lost a small part
which i gifted
top you
near a sufi’s grave
the other day
bin bandhano ke jeeney ko aatur
bin bandhano ke jeeney ko aatur
ek geet aaj bandh gaya
koi sur jo gehra tha, bheetar se ubhra tha
behney se rah gaya
chalo usee bandanwar ko phir se taangey
jisney badhaon ko roka
lekin bandhano ko na toka
One Idea You Need To Know in 2011: The Floating Bicycle ::: nicole in Forbes
One Idea You Need To Know in 2011: The Floating Bicycle
Nov. 5 2010 – 4:20 pm | 127 views | 0 recommendations | 0 comments
This post is part of an ambitious project at Forbes Magazine to crowd source the cover of our January issue with “Names You Need To Know in 2011. Click here to submit your ideas for names and ideas that have potential to shake things up in the coming year. The best suggestions will run in the magazine.
In the wake of this year’s devastating floods in Pakistan, I’ve become personally intrigued with a name few have heard of, Mohammad Saidullah, and his simple, yet potentially life-saving idea: the floating bicycle.
I learned of Saidullah and his amphibious bicycle through the Honeybee Network, the organization created by Indian business professor Anil Gupta that aims to track innovation in India’s rural villages. Since 1988, Gupta has been traversing India in search of inventions that are changing the lives of the country’s rural poor. The network now boasts 13,000 inventions, from a foot-pedal operated washing machine to a mobile phone-activated irrigation pump that saves farmers the time and hassle of manually turning on/off water in their fields. More recently, Gupta worked with the Indian government to establish the National Innovation Foundation, which helps scale grassroots innovations, formalizes their intellectual property rights and is ultimately helping transition India’s rural masses into self-sustaining entrepreneurs.
In the process, the Honeybee Network is drawing attention to entrepreneurs like Mohammad Saidullah, who developed a simple contraption out of necessity that now has the power to save thousands of lives.
Saidullah arrived at the idea for a floating bicycle during one particularly grisly flood season in his home state of Bihar, India. Like many in his town, Saidullah used a bicycle to get around and a boat to cross a river to procure basic flood provisions in a nearby city. He thought if only he could make his bicycle float on water, he could save the cost of hiring a boat to cross the river and catching a bus once he arrived on the other side.
It took Saidullah three days and just over $130 dollars to create his amphibious bicycle. He named it the NOOR Bicycle (after his wife), and claims he can now assemble a model for half that much.
Such a simple invention with the power to transform the lives of so many should be a shoe-in for our cover. I’m interested to hear what you think? Does this simple contraption have the potential to scale in 2011? Are there similar innovations worth highlighting on our cover?
Click here to view the main page of this project.
Click here to read a longer explanation of our crowd-sourcing idea.
Story of a missing pearl
Story of a missing pearl
One day a little girl, naughty and a bit unpredictable was playing with dried leaves under a tree. The birds were taking bath in a pool of water nearby. She asked the birds, why were they feeling so hot, it was not so warm after all? One of the younger bird replied, do we take bath only when we feel warm outside, what if I was feeling warm inside? The little girl had not thought about that, but being not given to easily accept defeat in argumentation, she asked, “that is ok, little bird, but then tell me, why do you flutter your wings so hard after taking bath, why not let the water evaporate slowly and slowly so that you can keep cool longer?” The bird was not going to let the girl get away with that. She said, “you know, when I flutter my wings, some drops look like pearls when sun rays pass through them, some fall on dried leaves with which you were playing and some soak other birds tempting them to also take bath”. And as if as an after thought, she added, that the leaves which received drops of water, became manure faster, did not fly with the breeze too far, being heavy and enriched the roots of the trees under which we are talking. But some drop disappear, in the thin air. She asked the bird, “do u know where?”
The little bird was speechless, she did not know, but do you?
the sparkle has lighted a quiet corridor
the ambers have not dried out yet
the fire that was lighted by you years ago
in the sea of unquiet jungle
has embraced
all that was left
maa kaali, today is the day of light
today when the whole world is lighted
why do i see darkness of amavasya
why is sudden silence
engulfing the entire shadow
of yesteryears
that i hovers like a smoke over the lamp i lighted
and the light does not get scattered
will u bestow your blessings
today
for a moment