An un educated engineer!

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12 Km. Stone, Jalna-Aurangabad Road,
Village Dawalwadi, District : Jalna
Jalna – 431 203 ( India )
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Uneducated Engineer’s invention for his mother!
By: Manu A B in, Mumbai – Rediffmail.com

Chintakindi Mallesham, a poor weaver from
Sharjipet village in Andhra Pradesh, has
turned out to be a saviour for hundreds of
weavers.

Weavers making the traditional 'Tie & Dye'
Pochampalli silk sarees used to undergo a
painstaking process, moving their hands
thousands of times in a day while weaving
sarees. But not any more.

Thanks to Mallesham's patented device to mechanize this process, hundreds of weavers
in Andhra Pradesh now spend less time on making a variety of designs.

Mallesham started working as a weaver when he was just 12 years old. After his seventh
standard, he had to leave school to spend more time at work. However, he studied during
the night and passed the tenth standard.

"It was disheartening to see my mother work so hard to weave sarees. Despite her
shoulder and joint aches, she used to spend hours weaving sarees to earn some money to
take care of the family," says Mallesham.

And besides his mother, Laxmi, there were hundreds of other women who had health
problems. So Mallesham constantly thought about a device to help them escape this
drudgery.

"I had made up my mind to make a device to help all the weavers. But it was very
difficult to find time to carry on with my experiments. My father and other members of
the family thought I was lazy and did not want to work. They scolded me for wasting
time. So it took a long time of seven years before I could introduce the first prototype of
Laxmi Asu. While earlier it took 5 hours to do the Asu (hand winding process) for one
saree, it just takes one and half hours to do the same work now," says Mallesham.

"There are 30,000 women weavers in Andhra Pradesh who continue to do the weaving
process manually as they cannot afford to buy the Laxmi Asu machine. They are looking
for help as the government has failed to extend any kind of support. It's time for the
society to come together to rescue them from this drudgery. We look forward to people
who can help this women buy the Asu machines," says Brigadier (retd) P Ganesham,
chief co-ordinator, Honey Bee Network, Andhra Pradesh. ( honeybeeap@gmail.com )

Pursuing excellence in rotational moulding.

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The intricate work
Mallesham's family members have been
weaving Pochampalli silk sarees for
generations. It is an exquisite tradition of
double ikat style of weaving with a wide
variety of colours and intricate designs.

The sarees with similar designs on the front
as well as the back needs a hand-winding
process of yarn called Asu. So weavers were
forced to move their hand, over a space of
one meter, up and down around semi-
circularly arranged pegs, 9,000 times to
make one saree.

"My mother had health problems and it was difficult for her to do the Asu for more than
two sarees per day. Other women weavers in our village also faced the same problem,"
says Mallesham. Despite spending 8 to 9 hours doing this monotonous and painful work,
they could not earn enough to sustain themselves.

Tough times
"My mother told me to look out for other
work in the city as weaving sarees did not
fetch enough money. She did not want my
wife also to go through the same trouble,"
says Mallesham.

But Mallesham did not want to leave his
village. By 1992, he started making the parts
of the machine, one at a time. Despite being
reprimanded for trying to do the impossible,
he was determined.

"People told me do not try to be an engineer. Everyone was against me when I was trying
to find a way to help all of them," he says.

"I did not have any savings as I had support my family. It was extremely difficult to get
money to do buy the spare parts and carry on with the experiments. I borrowed money,
took loans at a high interest rate from money lenders," says Mallesham.


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Experiment trail
It was a tough journey for Mallesham to go
against the wishes of the family who
thought it was a futile exercise and total
waste of time and money. But what kept
him going was his ambition to relieve his
mother and other women from this never-
ending drudgery.

He believed that an easy way could be
developed though it could take him years
without any proper infrastructure or money
in hand. He spent all his hard earned savings to make the device. For four years he
continued with his experiments.

"My wife was very supportive and even sold her gold and helped me with cash," says
Mallesham. So by 1997, he could complete almost half of his project.

The city life
After years of hard work, he realised that
staying he village could not help. He
decided to go to Hyderabad to earn more
money. He left home with his machine.
Soon he started working with an electrical
contractor. He earned enough money for
himself and sent money home as well.

"Gradually, I completed the work on the
machine. But it still needed fine tuning on
its movement. I began to spend time
observing how machines run. Finally, I found a machine that moved in a similar motion
that I was looking for," he explains.

Mallesham soon bought the spare parts required for the movement required in weaving.
He was not too sure whether it would work till he fitted the part on the machine. Finally,
the machine worked as per his requirements. The very next day he disassembled the
machine and took it to a friend's house in Aler.


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He showed it to him and tried it for weaving and it worked. It was the culmination of
years of hard work.

Weavers' response
"People in my village were amazed when
they saw how this device worked. After I
sold the first batch, people gave me good
feedback and they also suggested what was
required to make it more user-friendly. I
incorporated those changes," says
Mallesham.

Besides saving time and money, the
machines helps in maintaining uniformity in
design. So the weavers are very happy. With
the Asu machine, 2 weavers can make at
least 8 sarees a month and earn about Rs
3,000. With this machine, instead of two
sarees per day, now six sarees can be woven
in a variety of designs.

Many people who wish to buy the machine find
the price of Rs 15,000 too high.

"The government officials in Andhra Pradesh
have not extended any help to me. Neither have
they taken any initiative to offer a subsidy to
weavers for buying this device. I had approached
the Central Silk Board in Karnataka. They have
agreed to offer a 50 per cent subsidy for the Asu
machine from next year. I hope it will work out," Mallesham says.

Best gift
The Asu has been Mallesham's best gift to his mother. "Tears rolled down her cheeks
when I handed over the first machine to her. Today, I am happy that people have
recognised my efforts. Now they respect me," says Mallesham.


Ph: +91-2482-262000 Fax: +91-2482-262400

"Around 500 Asu machines have been sold across Andhra Pradesh. About 10 machines
have been sold to weavers in Orissa," says Mallesham. He makes 3-4 machines every
month. He has four people to help him at the workshop.
"My life's mission is fulfilled," he says.

"The National Innovation Foundation played a
crucial role in making my innovation a big success.
They gave me a platform to showcase my device at
the exhibition at New Delhi. I got a lot of publicity. I
received the innovation award from President A P J
Abdul Kalam, there can't be bigger honour than that.
I took my family to Delhi for the awards function.
For my mother, it was an unbelivable experience,"
he says, adding that President Kalam appreciated my
innovation.

A great change
Life has changed considerably for
Mallesham. "We did not even have a house
earlier; we were staying with our relatives.
Today, I have built my own house. I have a
computer at home. Whenever I get time, I
read about electronics online. I enjoy
reading and really wish I could get an
opportunity to study further," he says.

For his wife, who gave away her gold to
fund his experiments, he did manage to
buy her jewellery.

Mallesham is a contented person today. He has two daughters and has high hopes for
their future. "My younger daughter is very inquisitive about things, which makes me very
happy. I believe an innovator must always ask questions and find solutions to problem.
As a child I always used to get many ideas. But I could never focussed on any as there
were too many problems in the family," he says.

His advice to youngsters: "If you have confidence, you can conquer the world. If you
have an idea, never let go of it. Keep thinking about it and do everything possible to
make it a success,"


Ph: +91-2482-262000 Fax: +91-2482-262400

Mallesham is now working on finding a solution to make the tedious work in handlooms
easier and hassle-free. This solution can help all types of handloom workers increase their
productivity and save time as well.

You can Congratulate him .

malleshamchinthakindi115@gmail.com ,
Mobile: 92472 82778


An un educated engineer!

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