0:00:01.332,0:00:05.417
So I tried to do a small good thing for my wife.

0:00:05.417,0:00:07.779
It makes me to stand here,

0:00:07.779,0:00:10.433
the fame, the money I got out of it.

0:00:10.433,0:00:13.966
So what I did, I'd gone back to my early marriage days.

0:00:13.966,0:00:15.895
What you did in the early marriage days,

0:00:15.895,0:00:18.714
you tried to impress your wife. I did the same.

0:00:18.714,0:00:21.549
On that occasion, I found my wife

0:00:21.549,0:00:23.720
carrying something like this.

0:00:23.720,0:00:25.960
I saw. "What is that?" I asked.

0:00:25.960,0:00:29.229
My wife replied, "None of your business."

0:00:29.229,0:00:31.320
Then, being her husband, I ran behind her

0:00:31.320,0:00:32.856
and saw she had a nasty rag cloth.

0:00:32.856,0:00:35.824
I don't even use that cloth to clean my two-wheeler.

0:00:35.824,0:00:38.626
Then I understood this -- adapting that unhygienic method

0:00:38.626,0:00:40.927
to manage her period days.

0:00:40.927,0:00:42.712
Then I immediately asked her, why are you [using] that unhygienic method?

0:00:42.712,0:00:46.250
She replied, I also know about [sanitary pads],

0:00:46.250,0:00:49.325
but myself and my sisters, if they start using that,

0:00:49.325,0:00:51.909
we have to cut our family milk budget.

0:00:51.909,0:00:53.228
Then I was shocked. What is the connection between

0:00:53.228,0:00:54.693
using a sanitary pad and a milk budget?

0:00:54.693,0:00:57.183
And it's called affordability.

0:00:57.183,0:01:01.505
I tried to impress my new wife by offering her a packet of sanitary pads.

0:01:01.505,0:01:04.666
I went to a local shop, I tried to buy her a sanitary pad packet.

0:01:04.666,0:01:06.259
That fellow looks left and right,

0:01:06.259,0:01:08.700
and spreads a newspaper, rolls it into the newspaper,

0:01:08.700,0:01:12.484
gives it to me like a banned item, something like that.

0:01:12.484,0:01:16.283
I don't know why. I did not ask for a condom.

0:01:16.283,0:01:20.404
Then I took that pad. I want to see that. What is inside it?

0:01:20.404,0:01:24.359
The very first time, at the age of 29,

0:01:24.359,0:01:26.434
that day I am touching the sanitary pad, first ever.

0:01:26.434,0:01:31.494
I must know: How many of the guys here have touched a sanitary pad?

0:01:31.494,0:01:36.134
They are not going to touch that, because it's not your matter.

0:01:36.134,0:01:39.362
Then I thought to myself, white substance, made of cotton --

0:01:39.362,0:01:42.703
oh my God, that guy is just using a penny value of raw material --

0:01:42.703,0:01:45.257
inside they are selling for pounds, dollars.

0:01:45.257,0:01:50.071
Why not make a local sanitary pad for my new wife?

0:01:50.071,0:01:53.080
That's how all this started, but after making a sanitary pad,

0:01:53.080,0:01:54.476
where can I check it?

0:01:54.476,0:01:57.702
It's not like I can just check it in the lab.

0:01:57.702,0:02:00.652
I need a woman volunteer. Where can I get one in India?

0:02:00.652,0:02:04.232
Even in Bangalore you won't get [one], in India.

0:02:04.232,0:02:09.636
So only problem: the only available victim is my wife.

0:02:09.636,0:02:14.236
Then I made a sanitary pad and handed it to Shanti -- my wife's name is Shanti.

0:02:14.236,0:02:15.540
"Close your eyes. Whatever I give,

0:02:15.540,0:02:17.152
it will be not a diamond pendant

0:02:17.152,0:02:18.701
not a diamond ring, even a chocolate,

0:02:18.701,0:02:22.205
I will give you a surprise with a lot of tinsel paper rolled up with it.

0:02:22.205,0:02:24.156
Close your eyes."

0:02:24.156,0:02:27.230
Because I tried to make it intimate.

0:02:27.230,0:02:30.441
Because it's an arranged marriage, not a love marriage.

0:02:30.441,0:02:32.960
(Laughter)

0:02:32.960,0:02:36.539
So one day she said, openly, I'm not going to support this research.

0:02:36.539,0:02:39.655
Then other victims, they got into my sisters.

0:02:39.655,0:02:43.052
But even sisters, wives, they're not ready to support in the research.

0:02:43.052,0:02:46.094
That's why I am always jealous with the saints in India.

0:02:46.094,0:02:49.653
They are having a lot of women volunteers around them.

0:02:49.653,0:02:51.349
Why I am not getting [any]?

0:02:51.349,0:02:59.437
You know, without them even calling, they'll get a lot of women volunteers.

0:02:59.437,0:03:02.520
Then I used, tried to use the medical college girls.

0:03:02.520,0:03:05.129
They also refused. Finally, I decide,

0:03:05.129,0:03:07.980
use sanitary pad myself.

0:03:07.980,0:03:10.111
Now I am having a title like

0:03:10.111,0:03:14.288
the first man to set foot on the moon.

0:03:14.288,0:03:17.456
Armstrong. Then Tenzing [and] Hillary, in Everest,

0:03:17.456,0:03:19.345
like that Muruganantham is the first man

0:03:19.345,0:03:23.257
wore a sanitary pad across the globe.

0:03:23.257,0:03:26.521
I wore a sanitary pad. I filled animal blood in a football bottle,

0:03:26.521,0:03:29.207
I tied it up here, there is a tube going into my panties,

0:03:29.207,0:03:31.831
while I'm walking, while I'm cycling, I made a press,

0:03:31.831,0:03:34.147
doses of blood will go there.

0:03:34.147,0:03:38.175
That makes me bow down to any woman in front of me

0:03:38.175,0:03:41.153
to give full respect. That five days I'll never forget --

0:03:41.153,0:03:43.809
the messy days, the lousy days, that wetness.

0:03:43.809,0:03:49.463
My God, it's unbelievable.

0:03:49.463,0:03:54.224
But here the problem is, one company is making napkin

0:03:54.224,0:03:56.640
out of cotton. It is working well.

0:03:56.640,0:03:59.648
But I am also trying to make sanitary pad with the good cotton. It's not working.

0:03:59.648,0:04:03.232
That makes me to want to refuse to continue this research and research and research.

0:04:03.232,0:04:04.933
You need first funds.

0:04:04.933,0:04:08.251
Not only financial crises, but because of the sanitary pad research,

0:04:08.251,0:04:11.967
I come through all sorts of problems, including

0:04:11.967,0:04:14.370
a divorce notice from my wife.

0:04:14.370,0:04:17.465
Why is this? I used medical college girls.

0:04:17.465,0:04:20.319
She suspects I am using as a trump card

0:04:20.319,0:04:22.775
to run behind medical college girls.

0:04:22.775,0:04:26.018
Finally, I came to know it is a special cellulose

0:04:26.018,0:04:28.426
derived from a pinewood, but even after that,

0:04:28.426,0:04:30.428
you need a multimillion-dollar plant like this

0:04:30.428,0:04:33.790
to process that material. Again, a stop-up.

0:04:33.790,0:04:37.550
Then I spend another four years to create my own

0:04:37.552,0:04:40.215
machine tools, a simple machine tool like this.

0:04:40.215,0:04:43.459
In this machine, any rural woman can apply the same

0:04:43.459,0:04:46.303
raw materials that they are processing in the multinational plant,

0:04:46.303,0:04:49.995
anyone can make a world-class napkin at your dining hall.

0:04:49.995,0:04:53.212
That is my invention.

0:04:53.212,0:04:55.935
So after that, what I did,

0:04:55.935,0:04:59.398
usually if anyone got a patent or an invention,

0:04:59.398,0:05:02.941
immediately you want to make, convert into this.

0:05:02.941,0:05:05.991
I never did this. I dropped it just like this,

0:05:05.991,0:05:09.575
because you do this, if anyone runs after money,

0:05:09.575,0:05:13.292
their life will not [have] any beauty. It is boredom.

0:05:13.292,0:05:15.303
A lot of people making a lot of money, billion,

0:05:15.303,0:05:17.457
billions of dollars accumulating.

0:05:17.457,0:05:19.703
Why are they coming for, finally, for philanthropy?

0:05:19.703,0:05:23.220
Why the need for accumulating money, then doing philanthropy?

0:05:23.220,0:05:26.529
What if one decided to start philanthropy from the day one?

0:05:26.529,0:05:30.077
That's why I am giving this machine

0:05:30.077,0:05:34.015
only in rural India, for rural women, because in India,

0:05:34.015,0:05:36.491
[you'll be] surprised, only two percent of women

0:05:36.491,0:05:39.832
are using sanitary pads. The rest, they're using a rag cloth,

0:05:39.832,0:05:43.692
a leaf, husk, [saw] dust, everything except sanitary pads.

0:05:43.692,0:05:46.079
It is the same in the 21st century. That's why I am going

0:05:46.079,0:05:49.620
to decide to give this machine only for poor women across India.

0:05:49.620,0:05:53.001
So far, 630 installations happened in 23 states

0:05:53.001,0:05:55.637
in six other countries.

0:05:55.637,0:06:00.119
Now I'm on my seventh year sustaining against

0:06:00.119,0:06:05.137
multinational, transnational giants -- makes all MBA students a question mark.

0:06:05.137,0:06:08.422
A school dropout from Coimbatore, how he is able to sustaining?

0:06:08.422,0:06:14.522
That makes me a visiting professor and guest lecturer in all IIMs.

0:06:14.522,0:06:19.685
(Applause)

0:06:19.685,0:06:22.530
Play video one.

0:06:22.530,0:06:27.702
(Video) Arunachalam Muruganantham: The thing I saw in my wife's hand, "Why are you using that nasty cloth?"

0:06:27.702,0:06:32.015
She replied immediately, "I know about napkins, but if I start

0:06:32.015,0:06:35.914
using napkins, then we have to cut our family milk budget."

0:06:35.914,0:06:40.335
Why not make myself a low-cost napkin?

0:06:40.335,0:06:43.116
So I decided I'm going to sell this new machine

0:06:43.116,0:06:45.198
only for Women Self Help Groups.

0:06:49.976,0:06:53.182
That is my idea.

0:06:54.429,0:06:59.144
AM: And previously, you need a multimillion investment

0:06:59.144,0:07:02.644
for machine and all. Now, any rural woman can.

0:07:02.644,0:07:04.513
They are performing puja.

0:07:04.513,0:07:21.527
(Video): (Singing)

0:07:21.527,0:07:26.113
You just think, competing giants,

0:07:26.113,0:07:28.004
even from Harvard, Oxford, is difficult.

0:07:28.004,0:07:30.888
I make a rural woman to compete with multinationals.

0:07:30.888,0:07:32.458
I'm sustaining on seventh year.

0:07:32.458,0:07:34.719
Already 600 installations. What is my mission?

0:07:34.719,0:07:36.580
I'm going to make India

0:07:36.580,0:07:40.584
[into] a 100-percent-sanitary-napkin-using country in my lifetime.

0:07:40.584,0:07:42.569
In this way I'm going to provide not less than a million

0:07:42.569,0:07:44.627
rural employment that I'm going to create.

0:07:44.627,0:07:48.183
That's why I'm not running after this bloody money.

0:07:48.183,0:07:49.683
I'm doing something serious.

0:07:49.683,0:07:54.032
If you chase a girl, the girl won't like you.

0:07:54.032,0:07:56.430
Do your job simply, the girl will chase you.

0:07:56.430,0:07:58.781
Like that, I never chased Mahalakshmi.

0:07:58.781,0:08:03.651
Mahalakshmi is chasing me, I am keeping in the back pocket.

0:08:03.651,0:08:08.107
Not in front pocket. I'm a back pocket man.

0:08:08.107,0:08:11.679
That's all. A school dropout saw your problem in the society

0:08:11.679,0:08:13.711
of not using sanitary pad.

0:08:13.711,0:08:16.011
I am becoming a solution provider. I'm very happy.

0:08:16.011,0:08:18.854
I don't want to make this as a corporate entity.

0:08:18.854,0:08:22.857
I want to make this as a local sanitary pad movement

0:08:22.857,0:08:25.710
across the globe. That's why I put all the details

0:08:25.710,0:08:29.074
on public domain like an open software.

0:08:29.074,0:08:33.636
Now 110 countries are accessing it. Okay?

0:08:33.636,0:08:37.636
So I classify the people into three:

0:08:37.636,0:08:44.558
uneducated, little educated, surplus educated.

0:08:44.558,0:08:48.449
Little educated, done this. Surplus educated,

0:08:48.449,0:08:49.853
what are you going to do for the society?

0:08:49.853,0:08:53.620
Thank you very much. Bye!

0:08:53.620,0:09:04.937
(Applause)