CONFESSION: WRONG CATEGORY!!! WRONG CATEGORY!!! Blame it on my patience- I did not have the patience to get the topic mouthpadded and hence writing under a WRONG CATEGORY! If you are looking for any opinion on the book, please hop on to the next review right away. SORRY! this review has nothing to do with the book.
Or wait a sec. Maybe it has. What I am writing here IS related to title of the book. The quotidian gifts that science has given us. The small mercies. Think "science", and almost immediately our mind is filled with a vision of heavy gadgets, sophisticated machines and complex algorithms. But we forget that the beauty lies in simplicity - it’s the simplest of discoveries that have made all the difference to our lives.
So, how about showing gratitude to those people whose inventions are like adding salt to your food... not life savers but they do make life a lot BETTER. So, please ask me who all I would like to thank?
1) I hate clocks but cant do without them! They seem to be pushing me. They seem to be ordering me to rush. Noone knows when the first clocks were invented. But each of the early civilisations show some or the other form of them. Apparently an early prototype of the alarm clock was invented by Greeks around 250 BC. They built a water clock where the raising waters would both keep time and eventually hit a mechanical bird that triggered an alarming whistle.
2) There is no bhaji without a knife! Imagine eating the whole of cabbage or the whole of jackfruit. So, God bless whoever invented Knife... but then WHO? Got this interesting information from net. "Necessity is the mother not the father of invention because women invented knives! Estimates of their invention have recently been pushed to the 2 and a half million years mark. The first knife may well have been a scraper used to remove fatty tissue from hide or something similar used to process food in some manner. And the wielder was likely a woman. "
3) Sewing Needle: A stitch in time saves nine, they say. How true! Whats a piece of cloth if it was not stitched into a beautiful dress. The first sewing needles were made of bones or animal horns and the first thread was made of animal sinew. The first eyed needles appeared in the 15th century. The needle has given Bollywood many a romantic scenes when the heroine stitches the button onto heros shirt.
4) Lock. Let me get philosophical. What a world it would be if we did not have to use lock and key. Alas! But thats not to be. We do need locks. Yes, on our doors, on our cupboards, on our luggages. Thankfully, mind needs no lock and free to roam anywhere! How profound! The oldest known lock was found by archeologists in the Khorsabad palace ruins near Nineveh, Iraq. The lock was estimated to be 4, 000 years old.
5) Shoes : You may say I missed out mentioning WHEEL. But you must understand that much before riding comes walking. You can walk where you cant ride on wheels. Plus the health benefits offered by walking cannot be ignored. What better comfort than a shoe for that. Shoes have surely revolutionised all "walks" of life. Again, I know not the origin. Maybe one of the readers can help.
Some Taken-for-granted Inventions of the Modern Era:
1) Elastic. What better invention to keep things in place without toppling. Elastics are everywhere I can think of. They are surely important to hold things together. Thomas Hancock was an English inventor who founded the British rubber industry. In 1820, he had patented elastic fastenings for gloves, suspenders, shoes and stockings.
2) One type of Doc I want to avoid is the DENTIST. Having given up a wisdom tooth, I know what a pain it is - probably next only to child birth. So, a special thanks to the Chinese who invented tooth-brushes from the natural bristle on the necks of cold climate pigs (YUCK)! Toothpaste was used as long ago as 500 BC in both China and India; however, modern toothpastes were developed only in the 1800s.
3) Traffic Signals. If automobiles have revolutionised the world of travelling, traffic signals ensure that there is no bumper-to-bumper affair! The point is how many follow them? Anyway, the world’s first traffic lights were installed near London’s House of Commons in 1868. They were invented by J P Knight.
4) Imagine a life without remote in todays world. Can you? We complain of the fat and the tiers and yet wont get rid of that 6-letter-word -remote. So, you may like to thank The Zenith Radio Corporation who created the very first television remote control in 1950 called "Lazy Bone." They sure succeeded making a lazy bone of many of us!
WISHLIST
Self Cleaning House. And apparently this has already been invented. Check this out. https://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blgabe.htm. "The walls, ceilings and floors of the house are covered with resin, a liquid that becomes water-proof when hardened. The furniture is made of a water-proof composition, and there are no dust-collecting carpets anywhere in the house. At the push of a sequence of buttons, jets of soapy water wash the entire room. Then, after a rinse, the blower dries up any remaining water that hasn’t run down the sloping floors into a waiting drain." I WANT THAT PLEASE!
Tablets for supplying the essential Vitamin P - Patience. I am in dire need of these!
Hubby Mood Detector and Purifier - So, when I ask him to take me out shopping, he is all smiles.
Parent-Child-balancer - So, they both are in synch. So, there are no showdowns when they both are doing homework. So, there are no wild tantrums in a shop. So, a child accepts "NO" from parent gracefully and parent knows when to "give in" to childs wishes! Sigh!
Review Writer - Some 10 days back, I completed an year on MS officially, as a member! 37 reviews in 1 year? Pretty bad rate. But heres belated wishes for myself and hope I find that Review Writer soon! I BETTER WRITE AT A FASTER PACE! Do some MSians already have this invention?
CREDITS: Most of the above information, courtesy https://inventors.about.com/. Infact, I could have mouthpadded for that site after gulping those patience pills!
OK Friends, let me know whats on YOUR WISHLIST!