Lakshmi Menon, this pretty hearted girl and lady is a phenomenon. I am honoured to be very closely related to her as first cousin and her creative wonders.. She does little little things which makes big big difference in peoples lives. To mention just one of the many is her wicks (ammoomma thiri) project. She created a divine occupation for senior citizens in the old age homes, work which they could do at their age, elevating their self esteem, an income to enable them to meet a few simple desires and find meaning in their life at this late stage. She distributed threads, for them to roll into wicks to light oil lamps in the temples. This simple and noble act of hers got a huge recognition when she was called for a program anchored by Amitabh Bachchan, the super star of Hindi films (just in case you did not know) in star plus, a TV channel. She is on to spread this as a movement across the country, for the many aged women to take care of themselves.
Look what she is up to, now. She is replacing plastic pens with paper pens. Read the pen storyboard in lakshmi’s words.
Here is some startling info about plastic disposable pens.
Bic sold its 100 billionth disposable ballpoint pen by 2005
A pen is 5,5 inches long
x 100 billion = 8,680,555 miles
The circumference of the earth is 24,900 miles
100 billion pens laid end to end would circle the earth 348 times .
Its cheap to buy. Nobody is thinking of its cost to destroy.
She is replacing the plastic case encompassing the refills by paper. She simply rolls papaer over the refills. You do not have to cut trees for the paper. She uses waste paper and calls it upcycling of paper. She says its not her original idea, however she is one of the implementer, not sure who else is doing it. It is an eco friendly project and she wants to make sure it spreads and wants to postpone the inevitable damage to earth by plastic.
I use these pens. The pictures will not tell you how effective they are, we doubt its strength and the convenience of the grip, while writing. Absolutely no problem.
This is not a sales pitch. I am very excited by her wonderful deeds and wants to share with as many as possible.
Corporate like wipro and a few banks have recognised its value and ecofriendliness and are regular customers for the product.. I wonder, International women’s day has something to do with her date of birth, 8th March. Happy birthday.
Her actions talks everything about her
There was an article about her in manoramaonline. To understand her actions
http://english.manoramaonline.com/lifestyle/society/the-lakshmi-of-small-things.html
after that please visit her site http://www.goodkarmafoundation.org
Rajmenon's Blog 
Lakshmi phenoMENON
Good point, title changed to PHENOMENON
Dear Sir
Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful information and photos. This is really very encouraging and inspiring thing for any body, particularly to those who are interested in developing some hobbies, some interest in certain field, in their life.
Lets all wish Lakshmi all the very best in her life’s journey, and expect many more such things from her.
We may all get ideas, what is important is to implement them effectively, otherwise, an idea is useless. Lakshmi has her own ideas and takes ideas from others and implements them if it has social significance.Its the implementation that makes her extraordinary. Here my intention was to introduce Lakshmi and more her deeds, like paper pen, reducing the indestructible plastic usage and reduce the damage. Thank you for your appreciation.
My good wishes on Lakshmi പേനാ Menon’s birthday. Thanks for the images. They really look great. Marvelous design and neat work by elders.
Hi Sakthi, lakshmi pena menon, good one, that could have also been the title of this post. She has got Preethas drawings which she plans to introduce in the pens.