In this series, we will try and bring you the stories of people who chose offbeat careers. When we talk about careers and career counselling, the usual route that is taken is aptitude testing, options, earning potential, etc.
But we, at The Children’s Post, wanted to do things differently. What is life like for a profession?
So, we are speaking to professionals and asking them things that matter – what is your life like? What led you to become this? What has your journey been?
Today, we bring you the story of Mr. Uday Nadiwade, who is an inventor! Among other things, he has created a solution for softening water. This solution takes very little space and maintenance, and costs one-tenth of the next best solution, which is a water softening plant. You can see his work at www.dcal.co.in.
How did you get interested in research?
In my school days and childhood, I would have tinkered with my cycle chain to understand why the cycle chain falls so often.
I used to lose the rhythm and sometimes I would also fall.
It was my dad’s cycle and I tinkered with that cycle a lot to understand. I found that if we change the slot on the wheel of the cycle. Then I experimented with the pins of the cycle, and somehow it got ok.
After that, it was the alarm clock. I wanted to know how the alarm clock works. Since I could not tinker with the clock without getting scolded, I would wait for the alarm to ring. Then I opened it. These were mechanical clocks and just opening it and seeing so many gears would completely delight me. How does the alarm ring? Which lever? Sometimes we could not assemble it back properly, but we knew that our reliable watch repair person will be able to put it back properly. When I visited the shop, it would excite me so much to see all his tools.
Even now, I am much older, but if the washing machine in my house doesn’t work, I will not call a mechanic. I will first try to open it myself. Everyone in my house knows that if something is not working, I will try to repair it. I know automobiles really well. I love working with my hands.
I even love plumbing a lot. Then I understand why plumbers don’t do a good job. They don’t always follow the nitty-gritties of the system.
Your education journey
I was an average student. Not the first, not the last. Maths was very interesting for me. I think that if you have a tinkering nature, maths and science tend to come naturally. Languages were bad for me.
After 11th and 12th, I somehow got to NIT Allahabad, and did Mechanical engineering. I LOVED mechanical engineering completely.
I was not really curious about whether I’ll get a job or not. I wanted to do mechanical engineering and I did that.
I was not a topper or anything, but I used to tinker there also. I was the best at practical, not theory. I was a topper at Engineering drawing.
That flavour of practical tinkering was there in me. In our last semester we had to do some project. I loved automobiles so much, that I did a project on that. I used CAD/CAM 30 years ago. I loved the practicals. We had a good professor there. I was his favourite student there.
Looking at my final year project, Tata Motors picked me up. I was the first or second in my batch to get a job, and Tata Motors was a top employer on our campus.
Professional Life
From Tata Motors, I moved to aircraft engines, through a job at GE. Error tolerance in that industry is very low. One has to work a lot to achieve that accuracy. It was a lot of fun. It was a hands dirty kind of job. It meant going to the workshop, talking to the supervisor and the workers. To correlate the theory with what is practically happening.
Then I came to GE’s division called Genpact as Head of Quality. Here again, it was the service industry. It was challenging to apply the same principles to the service industry.
I have never done anything routine in life.
In my last stint, I actually developed a software product in spite of not knowing software or coding at all. I had a patent in our name. It was an analytics product and it is still in use in Genpact.
After that I joined a startup in Gurgaon. I wanted to see how startups work. The founder is a curious intellectual. We did a lot of pioneering work there and innovation in the telecom infra sector.
After that I decided to leave the company and come to Hyderabad and start over. I did some consulting assignments here.
Then, a childhood friend and I came together to build something new. We looked at a few solutions and issues. Some of the things did not work out. We kept experimenting and failing.
My friend and I then identified the hard water issue. He already had the currently available solution – a water softening plant that costs Rs. 40,000. After a lot of trials, we came out with the product that you now know as D Cal. My house was a small lab. My father also helped me do some trial and error. He lived in Maharashtra. He also tested it there. We found that it works. Once we realised that it works, we applied for a patent which was awarded to us.
We are working on an RO water bottle. This will reduce the cost of drinking water from 20 rs to 20 paise per liter. People don’t have to buy bottled water.
Even in water softening, D Cal is only 4,000 rs. The next alternative solution is 40,000. So, the cost benefit is significant.
So, your water softener does not remove the minerals. It prevents them from sticking to the surface of the pipes etc. Is that understanding correct?
It makes calcium and magnesium inactive. They are, by nature, sticky substances. They stick to surfaces. It becomes inert. It just flows through the water. Therefore, it also solves the other problems associated with hard water – hairfall, health issues, etc.
Tell us about something different that you did in running this business.
Even though the product is very low cost, some people do not completely understand or believe it. We have created a demo kit. It has the same chemicals as the main kit. The main kit is suitable for 3 lakh liters. The demo kit is suitable for 1 litre of water. When you try it, you can see a visible difference in the water. So, people can take the demo kit and then order the product. It is shipped from Hyderabad to all over India.