The clay fridge: India's rural innovation
Small ideas that make big changes
Mansukh Prajapathi, an 8-year old, wakes up at 4 AM. It is not for soccer practice, but to walk miles to dig clay from the ground. His life is like a scene out of a story called "How hard can childhood get?"
His dad is a potter, which sounds artsy until you realize that in India, being a potter means three things: backbreaking work, barely any money, and exactly zero respect. ("Marry a potter's son? No way!" says every parent in the neighbourhood where Mansukh lives).
Mansukh grows up and earns a modest living as a potter. Then life decides to really test him. When Mansukh is about 30 years old, an earthquake wrecks his home in Gujarat and smashes all his family's pots to pieces.
A newspaper writes a heartbreaking line: "The poor people's fridge is broken." That phrase printed in the newspaper gets stuck in Mansukh's brain like a pop song chorus.
Clay pots are nature's refrigerator because they keep water cool without electricity.
With that line from the newspaper still stuck in mind, Mansukh has this crazy idea: “What if I make an actual fridge from clay?” Everyone around him thinks he is crazy.
"You're not an engineer!" some say.
"Clay belongs in art class, not kitchens!" some laugh.
But Mansukh doesn’t care.
For four long years, he tries and fails. And fails some more.
He loses all his money. He is forced to sell his house. Each time he fails, he hears the phrase "I told you so" (almost a million times by then). But he does not give up.
Every week on The Lighter Side, I share one fascinating news story with my readers. Names like Marie Curie and Thomas Edison dominate our science textbooks as iconic innovators who inspire greatness. But what about the everyday scientists among us?
Today’s story about Mansukh isn’t fiction. It’s real. His innovation—a refrigerator that runs without electricity—does more than address rural India’s needs. It has sparked a wave of sustainable products that make our planet safer.
I hope you enjoy his story.
Mansukh’s efforts eventually paid off and he created the ‘MittiCool’ fridge
It is a magical clay box that keeps food fresh for five days without a single watt of electricity. And get this - it costs less than a new video game. The clay box refrigerator sells in 300 stores across India and even gets shipped overseas. Not bad for a guy who started with nothing but broken pots and stubbornness.
The science behind how clay keeps things cool
The cooling process in a mud water pot is based on three simple principles: evaporation, heat transfer, and thermal insulation.
Evaporation - Clay pots are porous i.e. they have tiny holes in them. When we store water inside the pot, a small amount of water seeps through the pores and reaches the outer surface of the pot. When this water meets the air, it gets heated and evaporates into water vapour.
Heat transfer: For water to evaporate, it needs to draw energy. The water outside the pot draws this energy in the form of heat from the remaining water inside. So when heat goes out of the water inside, the temperature inside the pot drops, giving you refreshingly cool water.
Thermal insulation: Clay is a poor conductor of heat. The thick, earthy walls of the clay pot slow down the heat transfer from the outside environment to the water. This is why once the pot cools down, the water inside remains cool for a long time.
Here is the coolest part (pun intended) about this innovation!
Mansukh isn't alone. Across India, there are people solving big problems with simple, cheap solutions. Smart professors call this "frugal innovation," but really it's just common sense: make things affordable, make them work well, and actually help people.
There's just one problem.
Few want to fund these ideas.
The government offers financial help to fund the initial research efforts of people like Mansukh. But, rarely do people like Mansukh avail of these funds because it involves filling piles of paperwork. Clearly, potters don’t go to special training schools for accountants where they are taught these skills.
Rich investors are often ready to invest in ideas without asking entrepreneurs to do a lot of paperwork. But, unfortunately, they don’t invest in ventures led by rural people like Mansukh. They would rather throw money at the next viral app that will sell video games than at something that actually helps poor families.
Despite all these odds, inventors like Mansukh keep going. Even as you are reading this, there are many in India’s villages looking at problems and thinking, "There's got to be a better way!"
We can do our bit to help people like Mansukh
His company now sells a range of products made from clay - from water bottles, clay based cooking wares right upto the wonderful Mitticool refrigerator. Here’s where you can find his products to buy them online.
Disclaimer: I do not earn any commission or fees from any of the products that you buy from Mansukh’s company. As part of my research to bring real news stories for Lighter Side, I try to do my bit to write about the journeys of innovators like Mansukh Prajapati.
Here's my question for you: If a guy with nothing but clay and determination could change lives... what is stopping you? I hope that you'll be the next one to look at something ordinary and see extraordinary potential.
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