Selling A 'Hoax'

THE Indian scientific community may have rubbished Ramar Pillai's 'discovery' of a herbal fuel, but from new year's day, the Tamil Nadu school dropout is producing his concoction at Idaiyankulam, 80 km off Madurai, to sell it at      Rs 10 a litre.

The local response has been encouraging and Pillai says that though the initial capacity is about 30 litres, he is confident of increasing it to 1,000 litres a day  in a couple of months. Unruffled by allegations that Pillai's venture is a hoax, scooter owners are queueing up in hordes to buy the cheap fuel.

On a visit to his shop, this correspondent saw Pillai extracting 22 litres of fuel from his assembly of tubes and make-shift beakers. A test ride on a TVS-50 scooter, filled with the herbal fuel, proved successful. In fact, the pale green liquid smelled like fuel too.

Pillai insists that the parliamentary committee was wrong in calling his discovery a hoax. The committee, which based its conclusions on the report of the Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehra Dun, contended that "the herbal fuel is a mixture of hydrocarbons boiled in kerosene with dissolved camphor". Pillai discounts this theory. According to him, camphor dissolves only when heated to 117 degrees Celsius, and that he produced his fuel at less than 100 degrees Celsius.

According to some scientists at the Madurai Kamaraj University, Pillai may have stumbled upon a non-fossil alternative through herbs and his ignorance of science makes him insist that the fuel he produces is petrol.

And to further complicate matters, he is paranoid about talking to any one about the 'wonder herb'. Assuming that he is not a hoax, the only credible way for him to get out of the jinx is to take some expert into confidence and give scientific basis to his discovery.

Whatever be the veracity of his claims, it's a fact that Pillai is producing a liquid that propels vehicles. And though the locals feel that this cannot be a con job because it would be mindless to buy petrol at Rs 25 and sell it at less than half its price, Pillai could perhaps be spending from his own pocket to lure investors in the herbal petrol project.

Pillai says he is committed to his endeavour and will not give up his experiment easily: "After producing the fuel on a regular basis for the next two months, I will invite scientists and petroleum officials for another test. If they are not convinced, I will go ahead and tie up with an interested party in the corporate sector and start mass production." The state government, in a fix as it initially went overboard to support him, is also praying for a miracle. After extending police protection and state support, it does not want be seen as a gullible institution which can be taken for a ride. But if seeing is believing, Pillai is selling the fuel. If its a hoax, how long can he carry it off?