Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 18.4.21
Disaster and Innovation
Human history has shown disasters often give rise to inventions. In April 1815, a volcano erupted in Mount
Tambora in what
is now Indonesia. It was one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded
history. A shattering blast blew the mountain apart on the evening
of April 10. The
blast, pyroclastic flows, and tsunamis that followed killed at least 10,000
islanders and destroyed the homes of 35,000 more.
What followed the
eruption was even more destructive and disastrous. A vast plume of dust
and ash spread around the world, blocking out the sun and reducing global
temperatures. In China the cold weather killed trees, crops and water buffalo.
In North America a “dry fog” reddened the sun and there was summer snowfall in
New York. Harvests failed in Europe. Food prices soared and tens of thousands
of people died from famine and disease. Large scale riots and looting broke out.
Horses, the primary mode of transportation starved or were slaughtered, as the
high price of oats forced people to choose whether to feed their animals or
themselves.
This last predicament prompted Karl von Drais, a German
inventor, to devise a personal-transport machine to replace the horse: a
two-wheeled wooden contraption which he called the Laufmaschine (literally,
“running machine”) in 1816. Sitting on a saddle, Drais propelled it by planting
his feet on the ground and pushing every few metres, while steering it using a
tiller. The tricky part was keeping it balanced while gliding along, which took
some practice.
Drais’s invention didn’t replace the horse: the weather returned
to normal, leading to a bumper harvest in 1817. Even so, enthusiasts continued
to improve on his design. The crucial addition of pedals occurred in France in
the 1860s. Other refinements included better brakes, a steel frame, lightweight
metal wheels and a chain to drive them. By the late 1880s these elements had
been combined into a recognisably modern design: the bicycle.
An invention prompted by the challenges of a global crisis thus
ended up in a device that became part of everyday life across the world. Over
one billion people ride bicycles.
What innovations might the coronavirus outbreak spawn? The
possibilities are endless.
Breathing
here is Injurious to your health
Jyoti
Pande Lavakare has recently published a book on poisonous air that we are
forced to breath in many cities of the country including the capital city Delhi. Hardly any one seems to care about the
slow poisoning of an entire population except for those who are suffering the
most or are vocal enough to raise their
voice including the author of this book.
There
are over 70,000 scientific papers
linking air pollution with harm to human health. Lavakare in her book
mentions a 2018 Lancet study
which says “India’s dirty air killed an
astonishing 1.24 million people in 2017.
Contrast that with Corona death toll
one and half lakh in 2020. Death by air pollution is not attracting
public attention and Government intervention as
it is a slow killer. Many are not
concerned with the fact that pollution shaves
of anything between 4.3 (average) and 10 years (daily ) of life
of every Indian.
Particulate
matter and toxic gases that poison our air come from a wide range of
sources, right from the humble cow dung
cake fuel of rural India to the emissions of factories, power plants, vehicles,
agricultural and urban waste incineration, firecrackers and much else in between.
Tackling all this requires innovative solutions and coordinated policy effort
piloted by a political will to put the health of people before all other
considerations. It needs citizens activism to prioritize the issue.
‘Lazy citizens make lazy governments’,
writes Lavakare in the final pages.
Word of the Year
The word of the
year refers to any of various assessments as to the most important
word(s) or expression(s) in the public sphere during a specific year. This
tradition started in 1971 in Germany in 1971. The American Dialect Society
started the English-language version in 1977 followed by others and in other
languages.
Oxford Languages began to choose Hindi word of the year in 2017.
In 2020 it chose ‘Atmanirbharata’ as the word of the year. "In an unprecedented year, 'aatmanirbharta'
found resonance with a wide cross-section of people as it is seen to be an
answer to the revival of a COVID-impacted economy," said Oxford University
Press India managing director Sivaramarkrishnan Venkateswaran.
The year 2020 saw Oxford Dictionaries
expanding its word of the year to
encompass several "Words of an Unprecedented Year". Its words are chosen
to reflect 2020's "ethos, mood, or preoccupations". They include
bushfires, Covid-19, WFH, lockdown, circuit-breaker, support bubbles,
keyworkers, furlough, Black Lives Matter and moonshot.
In the recently held Seventh Language Conference held at Puri,
Odisha I urged the linguists attending the event to begin this tradition of
choosing word of the year in different Indian languages. It will throw up many
new words to encapsulate the present day concepts, moods and things.
Tailpiece: Why wear a mask?
Cartoon by Ravi
Yama to Chitragupta: "You
went to the earth, what happened?"
Maharaj: "People are wearing
masks. I couldn't recognize many of them. So, I brought only those who weren't
wearing any mask."
(Courtesy: Social Media)
***
Anthology of this weekly column
published in 2020 has been published in book form. Should you want a free e-copy,
please write a mail to sephalicommunications@yahoo.in
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