Karma of the Fallen

 

It was during a visit to an industrial area near Delhi where by chance I came across a familiar steel rebar factory. Now abandoned, its gates locked and bent, with not even a guard in sight. When I asked around, I was told, "Oh, that plant? It’s been closed for years, the owner’s in hiding." Further digging revealed that he and his sons were wanted by banks, private creditors, and government agencies. Their investments in an African plant had also gone belly up.

How the mighty had fallen, I thought.

These were the same people who caused me immense distress and months of sleepless nights, using legal intimidation and a sham arbitration case, appointing their own foreman as arbitrator. All because I refused to get arm twisted to reveal one of my professional secrets - the formula of a surfactant used in fuel emulsification. Finally, it was only my well-wishers in the government that got them off my back.

A clan of arrogant, greedy, egoistic and unscrupulous scoundrels—now bankrupt and hiding like rats, their factory rusting and falling into pieces.

I played no part in their downfall, as it was all their own doing, and nor do I believe much in karma. But I doubt they've learned anything. They were scoundrels then, and they’ll likely remain so till the last day they breathe.

However, this episode made me quit consulting on industrial furnaces and all further development work on fuel emulsification technology. I also left the steel industry behind once and for all. Thereafter, I faced years of unemployment, financial ruin, and the breakdown of my family. Worst of all, it shook my faith in humanity and in my own knowledge, abilities and self-confidence to the core. Yet, despite everything, I never regretted that decision.

It took another decade to repeat the cycle of clawing up and again falling, but this time due to trusting government officials, whose words I have since learnt the hard way, never mean anything, unless it concerns their bribe or cut. And learning first-hand about the absurd inefficiency and red tape within government machinery. People who love to criticize our government have no clue as to how  pathetic things really are deep inside, especially at the upper echelons. So my grand project of dealing with sophisticated watercraft, which included sourcing a hovercraft for the man himself, which was to be used at the Kumbh Mela, all went splat on the ground due to bureaucratic delays and infighting. So it was back to sleepless nights, an empty bank account and a Covid lockdown thrown into the mix for added comfort.

Last year, it was the "currently most well-known Assamese - Tridip Goswami", a Climate Warrior, then one of the top executives of C-Quest Capital India, the Indian subsidiary of the now disgraced Carbon Credit Creating (out of thin air) Snake Oil firm, who tried scamming me out of my Biomass Stove design under the guise of testing out prototypes. Now awaiting his trials at our Supreme Court and the US Criminal Courts for participating in a multi-million Carbon Credit Scam. Meanwhile, infected by an epidemic of schadenfreude, many of the same people who snorted at me for calling him a conman earlier, are sending me messages with links to news stories from around the world.  All gleefully talking or snickering about his forthcoming OEM (Orifice Enlargement Massage) at the hands of American Blacks in a US prison. Yes, Indians can be perverts and bloody racists as well. Appalling but true !

But, here I am, still around, living, working, writing and trying to design and innovate with whatever means I have. And yes, I just got bamboozled by a car transporter whom I foolishly or, due to lack of time in Delhi, entrusted to transport my 18-year-old heap to Guwahati. Not only they took over two months to transport, I was also overcharged by a third and instead of delivering it at home they dumped it over 36 km away, and finally I could recover and take possession of my car only with the help of the police..

Never a dull moment living India and no lack of reasons for the Blood Pressure remaining permanently high... Maybe karma exists after all...