We are scavengers of technology -- they say. Technologies acquired have become long since obsolete. Technologies were never transferred, some declare, they were only transplanted. Many experts have analysed this issue before. I will not pretend to be yet another. We should however get a decent bargain, you will agree, for our skills. Like body shopping. The solution shall recognise our strengths and also the limitations. I shall not elaborate. As I  told you I am not an expert. But before you proceed any further --

Le'mme BLOW MY TRUMPETS first!

We  used to frequent a shop in Paris. It was called Art de  Brocolage. It was a haven for us, penny pinchers, to look for interesting bargains. We bought our first modular bunk bed there. We  acquired the music systems by mail order. There were sold  as kits. The component knocked down (CKD) packages were only half as expensive as the fully assembled machines. The kits came  with full printed instructions and sign writing. My first home was sold to me at half price. The living room in the basement had intentionally not been assembled. It was left as an exercise to the student --  which was myself! I completed the plastering and plumbing after occupation.

The kind of pleasure we derived when we put the pieces of the bunk bed together or when the LP record started playing through a system assembled entirely by ourselves was something unique. We felt that we had fully earned the rebates offered. They were bargains that kept the shopkeepers and the consumers  immensely satisfied.

As a kid I spotted an article that told how to build a crystal radio receiver. We located an earphone -- which must have been a world war surplus. With some enamel wires and screws, the shopping list was complete, except for an item that should technically be classified as a diode. In the west, one could get many things from the corner drug store, but a diode cannot be ordered in the next door paan shop here. So the author had suggested a substitute. It was a kind of ore stuff dug out locally and available abundantly in any native medical shop.

To make the long story short, I assembled the crystal radio with satisfaction and had many hours of listening pleasure. I still assemble crystal receiver equivalents for my grand children. The effort demanded now is only a hundredth. We never built a monument for that visionary who brought the do-it-yourself technology so near, so accessible and therefore so meaningful.

There was a shop in the SouthEx - not long ago, that sold computer components and subsystems. You could walk in to be greeted by the friendly sales girl who loved to sell you not only a  floppy but also, a peculiar IC regulator for an SMPS that has been stoned. The shop exists today -- but there are no more interested in selling a quick action fuse that costs only a couple of bucks.

What do they do then ? They are in bigger business. They  sell total solutions, information systems, data processing centers or desk top publishing. You do not approach them for nails or hammers but only for fully finished, furnished homes! They now sell value addition rather than components.

The unemployed youth next door says that he can get bananas from the market. He is convinced I must take rest. I tell him I am not ready to part company with my money. I would respect a  better value addition. Can he get me a gas service immediately? A phone, a measly three tier berth by the GT next to depart? No. He cannot get me an out of turn allotment from the City Development  Authority. He can neither have my house reassessed by the Municipality. Can he do something about my income tax? Or my passport  application move faster? No. Unfortunately he has not known any such trade.

This morning he offers to wash my car. He wants a thousand bucks. He is not greedy -- he lets me know, politely. If he can get such jobs in six households, he can collect six thousands. He can then make a decent living. He may wash cars, may be two hours every day.  The rest of the time he can watch movies in the cable TV and attend discos in the evenings.

When  I was young I wanted to be an engine driver. I thought the duties were limited to just blowing the whistle, once a while. I also wanted to be the one in the band to beat the drums -- loudly. The  young man next door has not grown up beyond that. Everybody needs  to contribute -- contribute to the society and to himself for a living.

So long as we expect that somebody else will provide us the pagers, cell telephones, E-Mail or Internet and we will merely wash or carry them from the retail outlets to the market place, we will continue to be like the young men next door. Transfer of technology should foresee local adaptation and ensure performance. Our value addition has to be something positive, something technical, something creditable and something about which we can be proud. It may not be limited to flipping the switches or just changing the battery cells. Nor can it be a campaign carried only from billboards on every utility pole.

Blowing your own trumpet, can generate a lot of noise. Can it add value?