Bike stolen? Mahesh’s device can help

Well, we all know necessity is the mother of invention, but how many of us actually tried this out? Almost every grade’s Science text book talks about great inventions and discoveries in the same breath, students, teachers and parents read the stories with great enthusiasm, but how many went hands-on to invent something new? In some schools, as an applied project, students are supposed to brainstorm upon new inventions and the school awards them with Budding Scientist award! This is quite a boost all those ‘potential’ geniuses who have the ‘itch’ to create. Be it Dexter’s lab or Barbie’s designs, it’s all about inventing something new.

Science Days in schools are great platforms to show case prodigies’ inventions. As said by stalwarts, nature is a huge classroom which nurtures and trains open-minded, curious individuals, into seething seekers. Labelled as Grass Root Innovators (GRI), these masterminds have redefined inventions.

Coming from a low-income group of Ravalkola village near Hyderabad, P Mahesh, the first one in the series of GRIs talks about his novel device to Young Hans. Mahesh was always fascinated by entrepreneurs. He used to watch his friends taking up to entrepreneurship to eke out a livelihood. For comfort and convenience these friends purchased motor bikes on loan and pay EMIs regularly. Their growth was slow, nonetheless steady.

On a fateful day in 2011, Mahesh learnt that his friend’s bike got stolen and the boy was at quandary. Police report and other efforts did not yield any result. It was a double blow to his friend as h had to continue to pay EMI. Deeply disturbed with his friend’s hapless state Mahesh wanted to find a way where the stolen bike could be traced. He worked hard with limited resources he had and devised a fool proof method to retrieve the bike.

It works like this:

On purchase of a bike, a SIM card is obtained and fitted in a device discreetly on the motor bike, which is not easily traced back. It has its own power and is dormant always. The owner himself need not know where the device is fitted. What he needs to do is to remember the cell number of the SIM card fitted on his bike. The service provider will be providing life time charges for keeping the SIM card and its number active though it is inactive all the time.

In case the bike gets stolen, the owner visits the nearby police station and informs them the SIM card number of the device fitted on his bike. Police will approach the service provider to give a call to the bike and trace its geographical location. Once a call is made to the bike by service provider, the device gets active and makes noise and shouts “this is a stolen bike.. stolen bike..” the voice can grow louder and louder by proper programming. The thief will have no means to stop the audio as he does not know the location of the device. The social shame that causes due to the audio will make the thief to run away leaving the bike. In the meanwhile the Police can close in on the location and retrieve the bike to the owner.

Thoroughly excited with its value and potential, Mahesh went door-to-door talking to people and those probable partners to start this as a business venture. Three years of extensive ‘search’ for investors, bore no results. In fact he says all the giant networks appreciated his invention but turned it down, saying it wasn’t a lucrative deal for them.

Disappointed, Mahesh shelved this idea and took up to machine tools. He now works in a factory, as a daily wage worker, that cuts cotton trees to manufacture bio-degradable fuel. The impact of Mahesh’s innovation is tremendous , so are the socio- economic benefits to the young people who live in the lower rung of society , but who are the noble ones who see value in this and give the much-needed break to this young genius?

In spite of its great utility, You can reach Mahesh on +919553554832.