No bullocks, get hitched to Santi

For Jagani, bringing the original idea to fruit was a struggle, a process that stretched from 1994 — when he hit the concept — to 1996, when Santi reached the prototype stage. And all it took for him was to stick to sheer commonsense, making the most of his basic metalworking skills — welding and drilling.

Today, though, Jagani speaks with ease about resetting the gearbox to muster more power with less speed, of synchronising differentials, and so forth.

Jagani devised Santi by removing Bullet’s rear wheel and replacing it with a trailing two-wheeled attachment. Devises for ploughing, weeding, and sowing can be fitted on to the attachment as required. The trial-and-error process took months, held up many times by lack of funds. ‘‘Finally in 1996, I had a working prototype ready,’’ he says.

Help came in 2000 from Shrusti, a voluntary group based in Ahmedabad that supports innovation in sustainable technologies. The group provided Jagani with lathes, and automated cutting, welding, and drilling machines. ‘‘Despite the odds, I was determined to make it. And my interest drove me to finish it,’’ he says. Jagani, in his mid-forties, has won recognition, valued more than commercial success by innovators. In 2001, he won an award from the National Innovation Foundation, a group run by Professor Anil Gupta of the Indian Insititute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Last year, Jagani was invited to demonstrate his innovation at the Commonwealth Summit in South Africa. A fifth-standard passout, he explained Santi’s design and development process to renowned professors of agriculture technology.

All that hasn’t made Jagani any cosy. ‘‘Santi still has one problem,’’ he says. ‘‘It cannot move in reverse. And I’ve been trying to devise a reverse gear.’’