Is Harshad Mehta the only one? (EPISODE 25, LIFE LESSONS)

Picture courtesy: The Quint

Hi friends and welcome to Life Lessons.

In the long history of India, there are many scams that created havoc in those times. Scam in simple words is the trick or deceptive scheme used to cheat a group of people. One of the scams which came to light and become popular in recent times is the scam of 1992 by Harshad Mehta. This was the scam that was wound around the investments in share market. Not only this there are many such scam that may or not become famous. In this context, the question is- Is the scam always in large scale? I got the answer, but before I can state it, I need to state a chronicle.

Disclaimer: Due to some reasons I have changed the names of people and places but I tried to keep the underlying tale crisp to the point. This Chronicle and its attributes are not pointed towards critisicing or commenting the lifestyle or habits of anyone.

The Chronicle:

There was a man in my town called as Rama. He was basically from a village near our town known as Rudrapur. Due to this reason he was commonly called as Rudrapur Rama. He was not from a sound background in his initial days. There was no proper home to live in Rudrapur. During his youth, he used to come to the main market with some eatables in the morning, sell them and return to his village by dawn. But he had a strong desire to come out of this horrible lifestyle he was in. In the thought of which he was waiting for a right opportunity.

The same daily routine was going on for few years. One day he planned to do a bigger transaction so that he could get more money in short time. He planned to procure Madhuca long folia flowers, commonly known as “Vippa Puvu” in Telugu at a price of 10paise per flower to sell it in market. But some miracle took place. After his initial procurement, the price of the same went up to almost Rs 2 per flower. He got to know the news and procured as many flowers as he can before it became public. Within few days, he bought and exported some more trucks full of Madhuca flowers on credit to various shops. The turnout turned out very well and he got profit in lacs at once. This was the ultimate turning point in his life.

Picture courtesy: Wikiwand

NOTE: Trading of Madhuca was illegal.

For the first time in his life he saw a large amount of money. Felt contented his riches; he got married and had children. He was continuing his business and started saving further.

He didn’t let this money go in vein. He planned to buy lands in his village which were comparatively low on price compared to that in town. After few years when the prices of lands grew up, he sold lands in Rudrapur and bought a piece of land near to town and established a food processing firm on the same. This was the time when he started to gain identity and respect in the public. He started concentrating on turnover of his food processing firm. He started to look at various means where could get large profits irrespective of thinking whether it is legal. Soon he started to earn huge amounts of money yearly. Gradually, he entered real estate business and owned a large number of lands in a decade. As a part of which he owned lands in the market of the town. Soon he arranged a good match for his children.

Few years ago, he planned to start a car showroom in the midst of the town, and in a year, he made it happen. He started a car showroom in the midst of town. Everyone in the town and community talked about him. He turned to one of the big shots in the town. He started to offer diaries printed with logo of his business to various respected officials of the town. He was seeing the peak time of his life by then.

But all during his life, he was not transparent in his sort of business as elucidated above and the way people percepted about him. He always looked at other means for attaining more profits. He always went for illegal means to make himself in safe position irrespective of the market outside. In the year of 2020, where corona was eating up many people, time has come for him too. He has some land dispute with some people and as a part of which he visited public places. After few days, he got infected with Covid, he was completely bed ridden for few days and the day finally came when he left this world all of a sudden.

Observations:

The tale I elucidated in the above lines is the one which I have seen myself. This story made me to get into appropriate perception. Not only in case of Harshad Mehta or Rama, but also many other people this is applicable. It may be irrelevant but is a fact to understand that it is very difficult to get riches in short time. Money takes time to get make itself. But this concept does not apply to some people, because they take advantages of the loop holes in the system and/or go through offensive ways to obtain greater profits. 

This is not the story of Harshad Mehta alone; same is the story of almost every person who has made riches abnormally. It is quite strange when we notice such attitude of some people. When one technique gets successful, they look for more such offensive techniques to obtain riches. And the sad truth is they all are respected and given identity for their riches until proven guilty.

Now at this point, you all might have a question in your mind- What is the need of knowing such stories? This question has multiple answers:

1.       Learn what must and must not be done in a transaction or a business.

2.       There are many people who get jealous by looking at these people. It is important to know the underlying truth and be happy that we are living a happy life in fact without any threat due to offensive deeds done.

I hope the episode makes it clear about what I want to share. There are many people from different parts of the world who brought out riches using uneven means. Some may come to light, and some may not, but there is always a threat to the deeds they do.  Same is what Harshad himself has explained in one of his last interviews. He rightly said it is not an offence or crime until it is identified and proven guilty.

Hope you like this Episode.

For more episodes check out my site:                                                                   

ajiteshippili.blogspot.com

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