Mumbai, Dec. 31 :    Mumbai, Dec. 31:  Tonight, Mumbai burnt an effigy of an old man at several places in a symbolic gesture ushering out 2001. Some hours ago, as evening spread out against the sky, a not-so-old man turned to ashes at Chandanwadi crematorium, taking with him dud dreams Mumbai thrives on. Big Bull Harshad Mehta died early this morning at the young age of 47. A story that began in the small town of Raipur ended at Thane civil hospital 40 minutes after midnight, starting its journey in middle-class rags to travel to richer than mere riches - represented by the Toyota Lexus the Big Bull rode -- and winding up somewhere in the middle. The year is not ending right for Mumbai. The Big Bull is dead, but it's not so much the passing away of the person that carries over into the new year. It's the death of the symbol. Harshad Mehta, the showman he was, had posed for pictures in the zoo feeding bears. The share market is just about alive - the Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index ended the day today at a shade over 3262 points - and, given the coincidence, comparisons were inevitable with the heady times of the early nineties. Harshad had taken the sensex up by nearly 2600 points in four miracle months of 1991-92, firing dreams of millions among people of modest means. Those were the times: Associated Cement Companies represented it. Harshad winched it up from Rs 300 to Rs 10,000 in April 1992. And, these are the times: symbolised again by ACC. It stood at Rs 151.80 today. The Big Bull is dead, but the gored market is still nursing the wounds left festering for nearly a decade now. He showed how the system could be worked to generate a boom, taking money out of banks - public and private - illegally to ramp up stock prices. He gave India its first major stock market scandal, all of Rs 5,000-crore worth, and brought ready forward, double ready forward and bankers' receipts into newspaper vocabulary. Those were all instruments he manipulated to pump money out of the banking system. Ketan Parekh, the clone, tried something similar recently and, like his more famous predecessor, got caught. Over these 10 years, Harshad has been running from court to court and from court to jail and back to court, trying in the spare time to resurrect his marketman's career. Curiously, his right to trade was not taken away even after the securities scam. When he died, he was in custody, held in Thane central jail on charges of share fraud. His wife Jyoti was about to take off on a pilgrimage to Chitrakoot, but was overwhelmed by the events. He left behind two sons and innumerable investors who made their money when he had a free run of the market and lost when he went under and down in history as India's biggest scam artist. Harshad's two brothers, Sudhir and Ashwin, who rose and fell with him and had been arrested simultaneously, were given bail by Bombay High Court so that they could attend the last rites. The CBI had picked up the Mehta brothers on November 9 on charges of misappropriating Rs 250 crore worth of 'missing' shares of 90 blue chip companies. With their bail pleas rejected, the brothers were put in Thane jail pending trial. With the Big Bull's death, a question mark hangs over the fate of cases pending against the Mehtas in the securities scam. Harshad was the main accused in all 72 cases. Many of these may now die with him. A fellow broker who had shared the boomtime spotlight with the Big Bull recalled that Harshad had a premonition of death. He had been talking about it for some time, referring to his father who died young. Harshad complained of chest pain late last night and was taken to Thane civil hospital, where he died of a heart attack around 12.40 am. A doctor at the hospital said on condition of anonymity that when Harshad was brought 'he was smiling and even chatted with the nurses and other staff'. A senior police officer, ruling out foul play, said the ECG done in the hospital showed a failing heart. In a rare move, the government had the post-mortem videotaped, done at the state-run JJ Hospital. His relatives told reporters at the hospital that the broker did not have a history of heart problems. Jail officials said Harshad used to work out in his cell for about an hour to keep fit. They claimed he had 'overexercised' yesterday.