Taking for granted

The English idiom Take for Granted succinctly represents the outlook of most people marked by underestimating the value of any of the things in use making life more comfortable than before, particularly the inventions as common as the telephone simply because it will always be available. The 16th century English proverb Necessity is the Mother of Invention, the author of which expression is unknown, although ascribed to Plato, underlines the factor of necessity, the primary driving force for most inventions. Among the inventions that are common place in our times but not bestowed the value it deserves is velcro, the ubiquitous hook-and-loop fastener. Maybe, condom also has suffered the same fate.

If the simple definition of invention, that it is a creation of something that has never been made before is accepted, one is left baffled at the thousands of tasty, nutritious and tongue-tickling dishes in their thousands consumed with boundless delight by the land’s masses but with no knowledge who were their inventors. It is considered not either worthwhile or necessary to gratefully remember the inventors of such commonly consumed snacks such as masala dosa or idli. The grandmothers, who gave hundreds of such snacks in years long past, are hardly given the credit.

The factor of craving for making life easier and even less expensive is well-taken, but the consequence of disrupting industries that have provided livelihood to the workforce is a serious matter that may not loom large in the minds of the inventors. The example of plastic has no equal as an example of that consequence.

Two inventions, namely fire and wheel, the first derived from nature and the second 100 per cent product of human imagination, stand out as examples of what life would be like without either of them. Each year countless new products, result of invention, appear on the market. Their creators ensure exclusive credit and also monetary benefit from their exploitation by industry by patenting. Countries are ranked for the number of patents granted by the authorised global agency each year. Inventions and innovations, subject to rigorous screening for their newness and utility based on 80 indicators, are reckoned by the World Intellectual Property organisation, an agency of the United Nations for computing Global Innovation Index. India has reportedly figured among the top 50 countries as an elite member of the club among 126 countries.

Products and processes emerging in the form of inventions are sure to cause excitement. Taking the examples of nuclear weapons and plastic, it behoves the inventors to be wary of their disaster consequences and taking things for granted. Even the renowned Physicist Albert Einstein regretted his famed formula E=mc2.