September 16, 1996 was an eventful day atFort St George, the seat of the Tamil Nadu government in Madras. A humbleinventor occupied pride of place in the cabinetcommittee room of the statesecretariat, demonstrating his strange discovery to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi and his cabinet colleagues. For the record, at 11.45 am in thepresence of the chief minister and Union Industries Minister Murasoli Maran,Ramar Pillai effortlessly demonstrated his "accidental discovery".
As a fascinated audience looked on, Karunanidhi dropped afistful of a broad-leafed ‘magical herb’ in a pre-heated vessel containingtwo litres of water, added a dash of lime juice, and mixed common salt and sixdrops of a special herbal extract. To this mixture, Ramar added an unknown whiteliquid catalyst and shut the lid. "The reaction time is about 15minutes," he declared.
Tamil Nadu’s Energy Minister Arcot N.Veeraswamy could not contain himself.
"What did you add instead of herbal petrol when you first embarked on thisproject?" he asked Ramar. Said the inventor, who quit school after theeighth standard: "First it was ordinary petrol. Since then I use the herbalextract as the reaction time is much lower than ordinary petrol."
After 15minutes, the brew was distilled into a glass container and filtered further.That yielded about 800 ml of petrol which was ready for testing. Karunanidhitook a spoonful of petrol and spread it on a piece of paper. Veeraswamy lit it.The burning fuel was put in a tumbler containing the new wonderfuel and itstarted burning.
The chief minister immediately announced that the stategovernment would approach the Centre and get the new fuel patented. Effortswould also be made to get the patent registered in the US and the UK to protectRamar. Ten acres of land has been allotted to Ramar in his native village forgrowing the herb and setting up a research laboratory for test-manufacturing 50 litres of petrol a day. SaysKarunanidhi: "InitiallyI wanted Ramar to set up his herbal farm and lab at Avadi, a city suburb, asproviding him security in the military zone wouldn’t have been a problem. ButRamar rejected the offer as the herb can’t grow there. I have also ordered thestate government to settle all his debts." Ramar has also been givenselling rights of the 50 litres he will produce in his lab.
And in his native Idaiyankulam village in Kamarajar district,Ramar has become a hero. No longer does he see his discovery as a curse forwhich he was often tortured With police security around him and the stategovernment’s stamp of approval, Ramar breathes easier in his rustic home.
There was nothingscientific about Ramar’s discovery. In 1987, while tra-velling to a nearbyvillage, Ramar witnessed a bizarre happening. On a heap of herbs, acarelessly-thrown cigarette butt burst into flames. Awestruck, Ramar started outon a mission to identify the herb.
At first, he haunted the shrub forest of his native Kamarajardistrict. His obsession irritated Ramar’s family. Married in his late teens,34-year-old Ramar has two children. Upset with his one-point agenda, his familythrew him out. With no financial backing, Ramar became the object of ridicule.
Help came from unexpected quarters. Ramiah, a retired driver from theIndian Army, heard of Ramar’s efforts to track the magic herb, and decided toback his project. A generous sum was earmarked from his retirement benefitstowards Ramar’s research, and he also began sending Rs 500 a month toRamar’s family. Ramar later shifted his residence to Ramiah’s house andbecame his foster-son. "But for his generosity, I’d have beennowhere," he recollects.
By 1989, Ramar had identified themagic herb. But it still took more than one month for the boiled water to turninto petrol. In the meantime, miscreants would come and break his containers,forcing Ramar to start all over again.
The real breakthrough in Ramar’sresearch was provided by Ramar’s foster-sister Poonkani, Ramiah’s27-year-old daughter, who also collaborated on the project. On November 22,1992, she discovered that fresh lime juice acted as a catalyst and hastened theconversion process from one month to just 72hours. After the breakthrough, Ramar approached the Madurai Kamaraj Universityfor a job in exchange for his invention. The university was willing to providePoonkani a job as she had completed her schooling. But it refused to take onRamar.
By now, news of his invention hadreached nearby areas and brought its own share of troubles for Ramar. A localbusinessman, with the help of an AIADMK functionary, kidnapped Ramar and askedhim to reveal the ‘herbal formula’ and tortured him when he refused. Ramarfell unconscious and the hooligans left him thinking he was dead. The scars fromthe brutal attack are still visible on his body.
His case was taken up by two localjournalists, Rama-krishan of Maalai Murasu and Raj Kumar of Junior Vikatan.Apart from writing about Ramar, they initiated police action against thecriminals. In retaliation, Ramar’s makeshift lab was burnt down. Ramiah thendecided to build an underground research lab for his daughter and foster-son.His efforts now seem to have paid off.
Meanwhile, Ramar maintains that though mass production is possible, he is not sure whether the herb can be grown in sufficient quantity to make the new petrol commercially viable. If that happens, Ramar’s success promises to be a landmark one.
