What they don't teach you in B Schools: How to get rich from scraps
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 21 2011 -

The villain with the streak of genius has always been a fascinating character and from the Lex Luthor in the immensely successful Superman franchise to the Penguin and Joker in Batman to Arbaces in the Last Days of Pompeii to Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, all of them have in one way or the other managed to grab the attention of the public.

In fact Shylock has become a more popular character than say Antonio, otherwise the Hero, in the classic from Shakespeare with many an adage related to his character.

Maybe it is the devil within us which entered the system of the human race the day Adam and Eve bit into the forbidden Apple but there is no denying the fact that the ugly side of mankind has always managed to thrill the people.

Jack the Ripper's disrepute spreads far and wide, but can anyone remember the name of the detectives who managed to track down Charles Sobhraj ?

It is this fascination with the darker side of man's persona that has always intrigued mankind as a whole and it is not without reason why special branches of studies have come up to specifically study the mental make up of criminals such as Sobhraj or Jack the Ripper or even the Jackal, who straddles the world of fiction and fact.

Manipur has not been lagging far behind in producing its own version of a Mr Natwarlal or a Sobhraj or even a Jack the Ripper. The geography is different and so is the social and economic topography between the "illustrious" villains which we have mentioned in passing and the super villains we find in Manipur today.

However there are certain common strands which string these "personalities" together and one undoubtedly is the presence of a fertile mind. No villain or crook can hope to succeed without a fertile mind and while in the earlier days it may have needed the attributes of a brute with extraordinary physical strength, the demand of the modern day is much more than this.

It requires a deep understanding of which way the wind is blowing and this means so many things. It requires a rich, fertile mind, which can come up with the most complex of plots and of course the ability to execute the agenda without leaving a trail. White collar crime, is another term used to describe the sort of thievery and plain looting of public money in this dotcom age.

Manipur may lag behind the other States of India in infrastructure, development, trade and commerce, education, in fact in everything that one can think of, but not when it comes to mastering the art of beating the system and laughing all the way to the bank.

The recent story of recycled LPG cylinders which hit the front page of the State dailies is a case in point. A duffer would never have had the imagination nor the "wisdom" to come up with such a grand idea of applying the strokes of a genius on the cylinders and send them back to the bottling plant, where the cylinders were first of all announced unfit for use and condemned to the scrap dealers.

It needs not only a fertile brain to pull off such a caper, but it also needs skills to disguise the condemned cylinders and pass them off as something fit and usable ! Get rich over night by turning the scrap junkyard to a gold mine ! These are lessons not taught in any B Schools in the world !

In as much as the stroke of the genius is visible in the racket of recycled cylinders, it remains true that in the camouflaged portion or part of the cylinder one can clearly see the web of lies and deceit which together go on to make up the system that is behind the flourishing black market, the atrociously long time that the consumers have to wait for the next delivery and of course the palatial mansions and buildings built by the agents or dealers.

The sidekicks who exist on the fringes of the system also lead a comfortable life, if one takes into the account the speed in which they switch from their cycles to the motor bikes and from their motor bikes or scooters to the four wheelers.

Fortune favours the brave has come to mean that money finds itself a cosy place to live in the vaults of those who are imaginative enough to put their heads in the line of fire and bleed the public and consumers.

The great fillip provided to these class of people is the presence of a value system which gives social legitimacy to wealth earned under dubious means as well as the presence of institutionalised corruption which has come to define the set ups of the Government.

At the moment accusations and counter accusations are flying thick and fast between the drivers of the LPG carriers and the distributors/agents and while the villain could be anyone, the fact remains that more than 800 condemned LPG cylinders have made their way into the kitchens of the consumers.

Now this is worrying. This may not only result in keeping the Fire Brigade busy, but could also lead to loss of human lives, not to speak about the loss of assets. But then of course who cares.

The fascination with the genius streak found in the villainous characters of man's history continue to fascinate the people of Manipur and with a system which has already taken firm root ready to support anyone trying to emulate the bad guys from the world of fiction, anything goes, as long as one is clever enough not to get caught.

There is as yet no vaccine to inoculate the would be villain or culprits but the formula should be easy to find as it is there in the great human institution called society.

The only hitch is unlike HIV/AIDS or the different types of Hepatitis, no one is ready to conduct any real time experiments and stay put in the laboratories, which in this case is self introspection.

So while the Antonios and the Bassanios will be condemned to a life of obscurity and anonymity, it is the Shylocks and Lex Luthors who will continue to multiply here.

Good guys finish last.