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What an inspiring story. I grew up in a lower middle class family and I have two sisters. I know that my sisters and mom could not afford to use napkins becaus
by solutionyogi 15y ago
What an inspiring story.
I grew up in a lower middle class family and I have two sisters. I know that my sisters and mom could not afford to use napkins because paying for the school fees was more important. As the story mentions, my sisters will take time off from school during those days.
His price of 12 rupees (25 cents) for 8 napkins is unbelievably cheap. That means a napkin costs 1.5 rupees which is less than a cup of tea you can buy at a road side stall in India. And I think 75%+ of his target market should be able to afford it.
BTW, you should visit the company's website, they have more details there:
http://newinventions.in/ http://newinventions.in/
- tibbon 15y agoWhat I love about this story is how it shows the strength that can come from diversity of perspective. Quite honestly, as a middle-class male in America, I had personally never considered this problem. I never considered the cost or availability of them. There are some problems that can never be solved by the top earners, because we often don't know there are problems! Of course, this is why we also fail so spectacularly when architecting solutions for hunger, education, sanitation, etc in other countries. We don't really understand the problems, so how can we make solutions? I'm also stunned at the inventor's wife, since she left him thinking this was just a ruse to meet younger women, but perhaps there's something cultural there that I'm unaware of. If I said I was going to go research these here in the US, I'd be terribly shocked if my girlfriend left me over it.
- inerte 15y agoI had the same thought, but maybe our research would "feel" like a research. It would have forms, focus groups, funding, schedules... a very different situation than his, I presume.
- tibbon 15y agoNow that I'm thinking about it, its probably a bit around the lines of "Talking to women about private and inappropriate things would lead toward inappropriate actions. Men don't talk about this, so you must have some other motivation". Still a bit unreasonable, but its hard to say.
- afterburner 15y agoReactions in more traditional societies always seem more paranoid. That said, we don't necessarily know the whole story. Maybe he was so focused on the research he alienated his wife.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- tewolde 15y agoNecessity is truly the mother of invention. Stubbornness being the daddy.