I wish 9. Cloud suckers!

I wish (rain) clouds could simply be sucked up from one place and spewed out in another. This should be the most efficient method to provide (rain) water where it is required the most and moving it from where it might be in excess.

Water is and will continue to be the most sought after human necessity. Our best attempts at solving this issue have been restricted to creating massive dams (thereby destroying habitats) or installing expensive desalination plants or creating canals and diverting or joining rivers or drilling them out from the underground reservoirs. All these methods seem pretty intrusive and intensive.

We all know that there are some places which experience floods due to excessive rains and not far from these would be places that experience drought! Also, we human beings have been 'moving' water for thousands of years. Now, conceptually, it appears that moving water in the vaporous state (clouds) should expend the least energy and encounter the least obstacles (clear skies). That's exactly how nature has been doing it since the rain-cycles ever started on this planet! What if we could hook up airships (or drones) with some suction mechanism and literally move the clouds to wherever they be most required? Once there, they could be seeded for rains.

The 'I wish' series will be short posts highlighting simple, interesting, innovative and useful twists to daily random routines and objects. 

I wish 8. Rubber bodied cars

I wish cars would be built entirely out of rubber, atleast most of their outer shells. This is something I've been dreaming of since my college days and I just got reminded of it recently by someone else.

Imagine, never having to worry about scratches or dents! Imagine you crashing in to the car in front and all that both of you do is smile, wave at each other and drive off (dodge-em cars :)! Imagine, most of the car made out of a bio-material (rubber)! Less use of metal and plastics.

I know the material is a challenge to work with and may not have all the characteristics required to be an exoskeleton, but that does not make this implausible!

The 'I wish' series will be short posts highlighting simple, interesting, innovative and useful twists to daily random routines and objects. 

I wish 7. Sloped toll-booth roads

I wish the roads leading to toll-booths at toll-plazas would by design be inclined at say 15 degrees. The slope (and suitable awareness drives) would enable folks to just switch off their engines and use their brakes to cruise in to the toll booths, pay up, fire their engines and zoom off!

Now, I know a few toll-plazas in India are pretty crowded and some people get stuck for upto half an hour, in bumper to bumper traffic, just to reach the booth and pay the toll. In a toll booth close to where I am, there are 16 lanes each in either direction and at peak traffic time, atleast 20 cars crawling in each. On an average, lets assume 15 minutes queue time. That's 32 cars x 15 mins worth fuel wasted every minute. Not getting into the exact math here (it would be great if someone could fill in here :), but I guess that would result in significant fuel savings, not to mention the value of time saved, headaches avoided and pollution reduced!

I know the ideal solution would be to not have the toll-booth itself or to be able to bill cars as they simply travel, but that's some time off in the future. Till then?

The 'I wish' series will be short posts highlighting simple, interesting, innovative and useful twists to daily random routines and objects.