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At a do-it-yourself makerspace called Workbench Projects in Bengaluru, Anupama Gowda’s days are packed with back-to-back meetings and telephone calls. Last Friday, Gowda, the co-founder of Workbench, received an unnerving call.

On the other end of the line was Sibesh Kar, a student of Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, who has spent this past summer at Workbench. Kar’s call came when he was at the Bengaluru airport, telling Gowda that “the shipping service has declined to send the pod”.

Gowda immediately withdrew from her meetings and straightaway got back on the phone. It was going to be