Chapter: Award Winning English essay writing topics, sample examples for school, college students and Competitions. International Essay Contest for Young People 2011 Award Winning Essays.
A Bright Spark
"There is a sufficiency in this world for a man's need but not for
a man's greed." The words of the Mahatma spoke to me as I waded though the
polluting fumes of car congested India. Ability to withstand the unbearable
heat wave wearing thin, I retired to the cool solace of a building shade
nearby. Man's actions confounded me. Then, something caught my eye. In the
corner of the street, a man was pedalling away furiously, as if for a purpose.
Curiosity stoked, I went closer and to my pleasant surprise, I saw that it was
connected to a computer. Feeling interested, I felt that I had to know what was
going on. Thus, I approached the man regarding what his big idea was.
"Oh, this contraption was given to me by someone from an
environmental awareness organisation. If I pedal, it powers my computer,"
the man mused. Stunned, I took a closer look at the design of the wonderful
invention. Being ingeniously simple yet generating enough power to power a
computer and even a few light bulbs at will, this machine stoked my curiosity
about generating clean power-power without emissions. This was the holy grail
of energy production. What a boon that would be to countries like India and
China where the evils of environmental degradation and global warming were
destroying the livelihoods of people and the beauty of the country.
Going deeper into zero-emission technology, it dawned upon me that the
technology had to be accessible to the masses. What good is a technological
breakthrough if it cannot reach the man on the street? Thereafter began a quest
to find a solution to the world's energy problems. One of my major aims was to
make sure it was affordable. Being a student, I could only conceptualise ideas.
Some of them had coincidentally been attempted before, but I pursued my
original ideas and tried to use the scientific knowledge I had acquired until
then to design these contraptions. One of them was an electromagnetic engine
which used electromagnetism to move a piston. Modelling this engine was a
mammoth task-one which my father and I undertook and completed.
When Marconi broached the idea of transmitting signals by air, those in
the scientific community labelled him a lunatic. Today, we know him as the
inventor of the wireless radio. Mavericks are seldom, if not never, not laughed
at or cast aside. It was disheartening when the same things happened to me.
Many of the people, whom I spoke to about my ideas for a low cost zero-emission
mode of energy, only appeared to agree with me although their consciousness
could not accept this new and abstract idea. Dismissals were what I received
from some of the more candid people I brought up this idea with. Inspiration
and not defeat welled up in me whenever my ideas were disagreed on.
One day, I hoped that those very people would look back and say to
themselves, "Maybe I should have listened to that guy."
Even today, I am still reading journals and articles trying to keep
abreast of the latest trends in clean energy. Promise pervades where bleakness
reigned supreme once. From time to time, I think of small inventions that could
push us towards achieving this vaunted goal. I pencil them down onto paper and
then review them to see if they make sense. 'Eureka' moments
are rare but the joy of inventing is fuel enough for me to continue in my
quest. In my country Singapore, many research institutes such as The Solar
Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) are spearheading research to get the
next breakthrough in renewable energy. Advancing these worthy causes is
definitely one of, if not my main, life's goal.
The passion for lighting up this world without blighting the world with
smoke burns brighter than the Sun-the best natural source of energy-in my
heart.
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