Two of the youngest innovators at the Startup India event at Vigyan Bhavan on Saturday were less than 12-year-old boys from Kerala. The gathering at the Startup India event was surprised by these boys, Abhijit Premji(12) and Amarjjit Premji(10), coming in as invitees along with the likes of Flipkart's Sachin Bansal and Uber's Travis Kalanick.
"Perhaps, my sons were the youngest participants at the event," says Premjith Prabhakaran, their father.
The boys have a curious interest in toys; they not only love playing with them but making their own. "We love making toys and can spend endless hours working on them," say the young toy makers, Abhijit and Amarjjit.
Their toy collection ranges from aircrafts, submarines, windmills, motor-generators, and amphibian vehicle that acts as a car as well as a boat... These toys are made using water-bottles, thermocol, cardboard, paper and basic electronic equipments.
When the Indian toy industry has been estimated to be worth Rs 8,000 crore and out of this only 20 per cent requirements are met by the Indian toy manufacturers, their dreams might just become India's very own lego story.
In addition to immense opportunity, Premjith Prabhakaran mentions a notable point, he says, "Major chunk of toys in India come from China and Italy. Some of them are also made from hospital waste and harmful chemicals. In India, we have no stringent laws to check this menace and this is a sad part."
Their dreams started to take shape on Independence Day last year, when the boys, after hearing the PM's speech asked their father, "Dad, what's meant by a startupIJ" They have come a long way and their recently launched website indianhomemadetoys.com is a host to numerous toys available for online purchase.
Their father, who is an automobile engineer, says, "I was pleasantly surprised to see their creations. Some of them are applications of theoretical concepts often taught to engineering students."
He goes on to say, "They recently insisted for a remote controlled car and we bought them. Sometime later we peeked inside their rooms to discover the car dismantled and their enthusiastic attempts to customise it by using the original parts," says Premjith Prabhakaran. The boys make their own toys, break them and rebuild to create a new toy altogether.
The Startup India event seems to have acted as a launch pad for these young creators. Their parents mention that various bigwigs of the industry met the boys and heartily congratulated them.
One of the boys Abhijit mentions that their innovation is often fueled by self-help videos on Youtube. "Taking help from Youtube videos, I imagine my unique creations. I think that parents should help their kids to purchase raw parts and give them freedom to make their own toys," says Abhijit.
The boys confidently showed the copy of their 1-minute film before the gathering of over 1,000 people at Vigyan Bhavan. The film captures the boys' creation and their unceasing eagerness to define and develop their own toys.
"My sons were often inspired by their architect grandfather. He used to hold them while working on his technical drawings. It seems his teachings have instilled them with passion of creating something new," says their mother Dr Preetha PS, who is professor of botany at a college in Kerala.
The boys are regular customer at electronic equipment shops in their hometown and these shop owners are well aware of their extraordinary skills. They specially arrange the parts required in their toys and regularly call them to make pickups. "The availability of raw material is the major roadblock. Some of the parts are so expensive that they surpass the purchasing power of many Indians, and yet others are unavailable in the market. We are often limited by raw parts, which are the basics to their imagination. Due to part unavailability, my kids have also improvised using scrap material," says Premjith Prabhakaran.
They boys bring back memories of Rajkumar Hirani's film 'Three Idiots' and are the real life examples of its protagonist Rancho. While, Abhijit too aspires to be an engineer, Amarjjit wants to settle as a scientist.