Tag: imagine

Rolling Gear

Rolling Gear

Last May, Indian airline companies reduced the permissible weight limit on checked-in bags [domestic sector] to 15 kgs. The international limit ranges from 23 kgs (or lower?) to the more generous likes of Emirates that allows up to 30 kgs (Economy) and 50 kgs (First Class).

The average suitcase weighs between 3-6 kilos. What remains is what you get to fill. Now the lightest bags in the market are quite expensive. And not too rugged either. A few trips and you’ll know.

So while most of us feel restricted by the weight limit, I’m sure you’ve wished bags were light enough to allow you to carry stuff weighing exactly the permissible weight limit, if not more.

Wait. Carry more than weight limit? How’s that even possible? How could you carry over 23 kgs when the limit is 23, and yet not have to pay for it?

Before you read ahead, let me confess, I don’t have an answer for it yet, but I’m hoping this post will spark some genius in you to start working towards a solution to make bags and other things [try shoes, school bags, cars, anything] lighter. That would be useful, wouldn’t it?

Growing up, I often imagined the possibility of having bags lined with an airtight casing of a gas less dense than air. Hydrogen or Helium, for instance. Imagine being able to carry 30 kgs of your stuff, and the Hydrogen or Helium compensating to bring the final weight back down to 23 kgs.

Simple as it sounds, here’s why it isn’t possible. Hydrogen is extremely flammable and can diffuse easily [with the tiniest crack], making it extremely difficult to carry, and dangerous too.

Then there’s Helium. Helium is unfortunately too expensive to be a viable option. To put into perspective, you’d need 974.3 liters of it to lift 1000 grams (1kg). You’d be better of paying for excess baggage.

So, till we find a solution for it, stick to traveling light. And think of ways that bags and other things could be made lighter. You can’t imagine the things you could move around easily then. Imagine the energy and fuel that will be saved in doing so too.

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I Wonder If You Can

I Wonder If You Can

Think about any random man-made problem that the world faces; financial meltdowns, corruption, greed, poverty. Also, inequalities, ethnic violence, crimes against women and children, “man-made” natural disasters, and so on.

Wouldn’t it be easy even to just grasp the magnitude of these problems if they all had just one or a few common causes? And simple causes too? Then just preventing those causes would cause miracles. If only life was that obvious.

No, I haven’t been drinking (or just blabbering). In an endeavor to find simple answers to problems, after much brooding, I have concluded that most of these man-made troubles have two common causes or roots. Yeah, just two.

They are, Perspective and Imagination [the lack of both, I mean].

Imagination is the faculty or action of forming new ideas, concepts, etc., of external objects not present to the senses. Perspective, simply put, is a point of view.

Putting it into simpler examples, say you’re waiting patiently behind the wheel, say fifth in line at a signal light. Another vehicle, drives past you in the wrong lane, and as the light turns green, tries squeezing into your lane, increasing the chance of you missing the light. You’d get pissed, right? Now imagine another situation where you are with friends, it’s Saturday night, and you’re late for a party. Taking all desperate measures to reach sooner, you find yourself revving away in the wrong lane, hoping to cut your way through the fleet of cars waiting at the light. That would surely tick off some drivers around you, right? That’s about perspective. You identifying wrong when you are being wronged, but you choosing to ignore wrong when you aren’t affected (or rather, when you are benefited) by it at someone else’s expense.

Perspective 2

image: link

There are situations where perspective may not work. Because ‘perspective’ requires two or more people to be involved in the same or similar/related situations. For instance, you may have been born into a comfortable middle-class household. You wouldn’t have the faintest clue about what it is to stand in long queues merely to collect water for home. Or about what it is to wait in line to use a common bathroom. When employers haggle regarding employee salaries, in their defense, they might not have the right perspective. They might not be able to perceive employee standard of living, their hardships, etc. That’s where imagination comes in. What you don’t have much clue about something, you need to discuss, probe, get more information. And then create an image to better understand another’s perspective.

Imagination

image: link

If people could imagine or have perspectives on the implications or repercussions of their actions on other individuals, they would most likely not do something wrong. Because, they’d be able to imagine what being at the receiving end of their inequality or injustice would be like.

[Imagine – Lennon]

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Look forward to your views. And if you liked this one, consider following/subscribing to my blog (top right of the page). You can also connect with me on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

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