The Cheerpod
This product was inspired from a walk in the Aravali Biodiversity park in Gurugram, Haryana, as a part of a Sustainability course at NIFT, New Delhi.
The calm and peaceful environment in the park with light breezes running past you, sunlight sparkling and spreading through the trees and the soothing sound of Albizia Lebbek’s seed pods is a perfect place for meditation, calming your mind and I could just spend every morning there. Walking through the park, I found these dried seed pods fallen in bundles. I picked one up and I wasn’t able to put it down for hours, I kept shaking it slightly, listening to the beautiful sound it made, making music with different shaking techniques. I’ve kept it with me since and use it whenever I’m anxious. I shared it with my peers and also noticed that it attracts many babies and they enjoy it so much too. This is how I got the idea for a toy/stressbuster, which helps you calm your brains and your babies. It really just cheers you up, hence presenting to you, The Cheerpod.
The product is very sustainable and can be made very easily, even at home. All you need it a walk in the park, collect these dried pods and coat them with non toxic varnishes like wax coating, linseed oil, mineral oil which are safe for even babies to use. The product brings you closer to nature and also bridges the gap between urban and rural communities. It is so down to earth, literally also, haha.
Getting into the details of the product, we need 5 of these dried seed pods, rivets and varnish to make one toy. You can get a bottle of 295 grams of oil for Rs. 685 which has around 20 tablespoons in it. You need one tablespoon to coat each leaf. Apart from this, you can rivets in bulk for very cheap, Rs. 2/3 only at stores. The dried pods off, are free of cost. But it should be kept in mind that the harvest of these trees is done without costing the environment and the ecosystem, rather a sustainable harvest will be set up for the same. Including everything and adding miscellaneous costs, one toy can cost around Rs.150/200 if you have 5 pods in each. At home, even one can be sufficient and the price can be as low as Rs. 50. If mass produced, the price for each toy would be between Rs. 100- Rs. 150 considering the discounts given on raw materials that are bought in bulk. Hence, this product serves as a sustainable, inexpensive, eco-friendly product, suitable for all ages. The product is safe for children, so you can “leaf” your child alone with it.
Albizia lebbeck is a species of Albizia, native to Indomalaya, New Guinea and Northern Australia and widely cultivated and naturalised in other tropical and subtropical regions. English names for it include lebbeck, lebbek tree, flea tree, frywood, koko and woman’s tongue tree. The latter name is a play on the sound the seeds make as they rattle inside the pods. Being one of the most widespread and common species of Albizia worldwide, it is often simply called siris, though this name may refer to any locally common member of the genus. You can check out more about the plant here : https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Albizia+lebbeck
Albizia Lebber at Aravali Biodiversity park : https://youtu.be/iG1ffjPnUec
