[Boy wonder: Mohammad Hassan (13) with his mini cooler and other inventions at a learning centre run by non-government organisation Chintan in New Delhi on Friday. (Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma/The Hindu)]
New Delhi: 13-year-old Mohammad Hassan, whose father could not afford to buy a cooler to beat New Delhi's scorching heat, built one from scrap after watching Doremon - a cartoon show on TV.
As reported by The Hindu, Mohammad Hassan, who lives in a one-room house in a small neighbourhood of ragpickers near Bhalswa landfill with his family of five, requested his father about three months ago to buy a cooler. But his father replied that his family of ragpickers was not in a position to afford the luxury.
Months of hard work, and permutations and combinations later, he was finally able to gift his father a mini cooler made from waste he collected from Bhalswa landfill.
Hassan’s mini cooler is battery-powered. The body of this portable cooler is made from cardboard, the grill from wooden sticks, wings from plastic bottles fixed to a motor and the regulator knob from a bottle cap.
“My father said if I study hard and my interest in science continues, I will one day pull us out of poverty. Now I want to make a full-size cooler so that my mother doesn’t sweat in the kitchen and my father can relax after he comes home from work,” said the science genius.
Hassan stumbled upon the idea to build a mini cooler while watching a cartoon show on TV with his friends.
“Doremon created a fan using discarded material and it blew away the villains. I decided to try it out but failed. However, I kept at it and it took multiple attempts to come up with the final model,” added Hassan, while surrounded by his classmates at the learning centre run by non-government organisation Chintan.
Besides the mini cooler, Hassan has also built mini models of motorboats using plastic bottles, pencils and batteries; an electronic trash collecting car made from the box mobile phones are packaged in and a discarded battery-operated car; and a mobile charger. His next project — a mini airplane — is also underway.
His teachers at the learning centre said it is an achievement for a child as young as Hassan to develop interest in studies, let alone invent things from scrap, as families here generally push children into rag-picking from an early age since it adds to their income and helps put food to the table.
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