'Power-packed' jeans: Wear them and fear not pickpockets

Varanasi (IANS)- Imagine a pickpocket trying to steal your wallet but getting a 220-volt jolt! Wearing a special pair of jeans - designed by a Varanasi school dropout using basic scientific principles - might just help avoid a hole in your pocket.

The jeans have been designed by Shyam Chaurasia, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi district. That's not all, with slight modifications, according to him, you can make all your garments "power-packed".

"You just need to fit a small battery-operated kit in the garment that you want to make power-packed," Chaurasia, 21, told IANS. Varanasi is around 300 km from Lucknow.

"While I designed the kit to counter pickpockets, the same can be used very conveniently in other clothes, primarily in women's T-Shirts and other garments. It could also give electric shocks to molesters," added Chaurasia, who left his studies after failing twice in his high school examinations.

And if you thought the battery-driven kit requires a good amount of investment, you are wrong. "It's just Rs.300 and its upgraded version can be developed just by spending around Rs.100 more," said Chaurasia.

The kit developed by Chaurasia comprises thin copper wires, which appear as normal stitches on the back pockets of the jeans, capacitors that collect and store electricity, electromagnetic switches, resistance and a 3-volt battery - all packed inside a plastic case of spectacles.

"Whenever you want to use the kit just attach the two thin wires of the jeans with the hand-held kit that stores the battery and other small electronic items and switch it on," Chaurasia said.

"Those who try to put their hands into the jeans will get an electric shock and remove their hands quickly in a reflex action," he added.

"Those wearing the jeans need not worry as they will not get any kind of electric shock while wearing the garment even when the switch is on," Chaurasia said.

"It's the rubber coating inside the pockets that make the jeans completely safe for the wearer," he added.

Explaining the working of the kit, Chaurasia said: "It works on the same  principle as an inverter. It changes the DC (direct current) into AC (alternating current) which renders the shock of 220 volts."

"Electromagnetic switches, capacitors and the battery have been connected in such a way that these make the 3-volt current generated by the battery rise to 220 volts," he added.

Chaurasia's kit has become quite popular in Varanasi where people are visiting him to get a kit designed for their personal use.

"Though I have decided not to design any kit for the people approaching me, I am eagerly waiting for a company or an organisation that could help me produce the kit on a large scale," said Chaurasia, who teaches students at a private school here how to make science models.

"If that happens, I am sure the kit would get takers from across the country," he added.

He has already developed several innovative items, including a helmet gun with a wireless trigger. Last year, Chaurasia had developed a 13-barrel helmet gun, which can fire in all directions.

He has many admirers in Varanasi.

"It's just great. Chaurasia is in a real sense applying the practical knowledge of science. He will definitely become a role model for many students," said Ankur Kumar, an engineering graduate and resident of the Sarnath area in Varanasi.

Aviral Asthana, who aspires to become an engineer, said: "Chaurasia has shown all of us how innovative items can be made not only by experts or scientists but by commoners. He would definitely give a competition to the experts if he gets  proper guidance."