Mobile 4 Mumbai simplifies bus travel across Mumbai without SMS or GPRS. A quick and easy software download and transfer to the mobile allows a person to search bus routes and numbers with ten key strokes in less than 10 seconds! And the best part is, it works on the most basic mobile phones and is extremely user friendly.

Image courtesy: www.gaonkiawaaz.wordpress.com/

From bus routes to daily local news.

Gaon Ki Awaaz or village voice is a rural news bulletin launched by the International Media Institute of India using the mobile phone as a broadcast tool. News alerts are transmitted twice a day to villagers living in and around the Rampur-Mathura village of Uttar Pradesh, located 76 Km from Lucknow as voice messages, on their phones, in the local language, Avadhi. This is a boon for many of these people who are illiterate. News ranges from weather forecasts to crop price information to thefts to childcare to prayer meetings and more. The services are also used for rural advertising, complaints against social abuses, human rights issues, etc.

What started with only 25 villagers, reached a base of 250 in the first six months. Gaon Ki Awaaz is about empowering the rural masses through information dissemination.

This subtrend speaks of uplifting the masses by involving them in a process that elevates their status and links them to a totally upmarket and niche end product that they will help produce.

Conserve  India, an organisation in Delhi reduces India’s mountain of waste and helps it’s millions of rag pickers. They upcycle plastic bags, tyre rubber, old denims and saris collected by the rag pickers into HRP (Handmade recycled plastic). In collaboration with top designers, Conserve India makes high-end fashion items like handbags, wallets, shoes and belts from the handmade recycled plastic. On an average, a conserve ragpicker earns around Rs.3500 a month compared to a ragpicker who earns somewhere around Rs.1250.

By buying Conserve’s products one not only gets to be a trend setter in fashion, but also gets to help some of India’s poorest people and its environment.

In our busy daily lives how often do we reach out to loved ones and surprise them on special occasions? More often than not the idea is great but we lack the time and energy to plan ! Enter Oye Happy !

Contact oyehappy.com with an occasion, location, budget as well as details of the person for whom the surprise needs to be arranged/delivered – they will come back with ideas from which you choose your desired one. You don’t pay for ideas – only for service of organizing the chosen idea!

Peter Alwin from NID won the 2010 Electrolux Design Lab competition with his design of The Snail, a micro induction heating concept. The Snail is a small portable heating and cooking device that can be stuck directly on to a cooking vessel to heat the contents. Powered by a high density sugar crystal battery, it has integrated sensors to detect the type of food and automatically adjust the time and temperature. A simple touch sensitive interface helps to monitor the process. Healthy food on the move is not a distant dream anymore!



Image courtesies: www.sparkawards.com, www.elephantdesign.com, www.greenlaunches.com

The Go Mechanical Charger designed by Elephant Design for IdeaForge, helps you charge your mobile phone anytime anywhere!  Just crank it by hand with the built in lever or roll the wheel on any surface to power up. This convenient device saves energy and is a boon to many who need to charge their handsets on the go.

We heard murmurs that tradition was all set to make a come back in urban India in its old avatar. Joint families, arranged marriages, age-old forgotten practices and values were predicted to be revived by a society worn thin by new-age driven stress factors. We think tradition sure is back…but with a twist given by smart urbanites who want the best of both worlds! Tradition tweaks is about tradition’s trysts with modern times.

Sanjay Patel’s ‘Ramayana: Divine Loophole’ features a graphic retelling with more than 100 vibrant and whimsical illustrations. Quite a vivid version of the age-old epic, this book is a visual treat, sure to find it’s way into many a book lover’s shelf.

Amma’s Tales is a series of picture books where Indian mythological characters are brought to life through rarely heard stories and fabulous illustrations to appeal to new-age kids. The stories are taken from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas. The latest book in the Amma’s Tales is titled ‘Tail Tales’. The book contains three stories from the Ramayana in which Bali, the Monkey God is the central figure.

Tradition sure does find ways to keep up with the times! (Also see our overlapping examples under the Modern Mythology subtrend for May.)

A self-sustainable venture that works on a non-profit basis, MAYACARE is an all-woman organisation that cares for the elderly. The associates help the old people get their chores done, even as they continue to live in their own homes. They accompany them on doctor visits, read to them, see them off at the railway station/airport, buy medicines, collect medical reports, shop, conduct financial transactions, attend a social engagement and more. A boon to family members of professionals who may be away on assignments, busy with professional commitments or frequent travel!

Food that has a home touch and is served just as the lady of the house would serve her own family members, is the USP of ‘Astha Bhojon’, a Self Help Group, whose 32 underprivileged urban women members use their culinary talents to feed hungry youngsters on the move even as they strive to become economically self-sufficient. Lunch time sees famished IT executives, bankers and other corporate types make a beeline for the cafeterias or the mobile food vans near their office complexes.

Eco-consciousness in India has largely been restricted to the upper and middle class. For the less empowered at the bottom of the pyramid, it has been a constant conflict between sustenance and sustainability! But times are changing. We see a number of small but heart-warming efforts towards the green movement. Wonderful lessons for the urban counterparts who often hide behind inconvenience and expense!