Sunday, October 12, 2008

Gup Shap-2

On my husband’s insistence I write this piece ‘cos I cannot refuse him the right to be part of my blog world. He likes to tell people that he gives me ideas and I elaborate them which is not wrong. A few of the stories that make their rounds in our family have indeed found a place here and it was he, who suggested them. I was on a vacation to the south and in Tiruchy I happened to hear of a distant relative who’d qualify to be a Mrs. Natwarlal – such is her flair for duping people. B……. is a modestly educated woman who has duped the likes of bank managers who trusted her enough to give her loans for starting a computer center in the first instance and a dairy farm in the second. On the first occasion she borrowed money from the bank and purchased 10 computers at Rs. 30,000/- each and sold them for 20,000/- in about a month. She lodged an FIR with the local police station that her computer center had been robbed and the loan was written off as bad credit. On the second occasion she purchased 20 Jersey cows that yield a good amount of milk and started a dairy farm. Once the bank inspection was over she managed to sell the cows and replaced them with scrawny looking cows well past their reproductive age buying them for a pittance. Whenever the bank officials came to collect money she’d say that the cows did not yield sufficient milk and she’d pay up the loan when business picked up. When asked why the cows looked so disabled she’d insist that they were being fed well and suggest that perhaps a jealous neighbor had cast evil eyes on them. Finally they stopped approaching her since she would wail and complain that they were harassing her for no fault of hers. She could only feed the cows and it was up to the cows to yield milk. On a third occasion she bought jewelry from a well known goldsmith impressing him by arriving by car wearing a good amount of (artificial?) jewelry. She fussed a great deal about the design, rejected a good number of their stuff and finally purchased some jewelry pretending to oblige him and promised to come again when a fresh lot arrived. She paid him by cheque signing it by an imagined name and gave him a fictitious address. The cheque naturally bounced and she could not be traced.

I am not really sure if a person can get away with cheating and falsehood each and every time but I have no reason to doubt the story having known such a person in Jamshedpur as well. I had heard of his fraudulent dealings through reliable sources but while traveling back from Bangalore earlier this year I met a couple who had been his victims who gave me a first hand account. The man had taken 1.5 lacs from them promising admission in a reputed engineering college for their only son. The son neither got admission nor was the money returned. It is also said that the man’s wife explains to her children that their father was justified in accepting money for such services since he had the right connections. He was only charging them a ten percent commission. If the people he dealt with swallowed the money how could he be held responsible? A friend of mine talks of an acquaintance who claimed that it was not wrong to take advantage if one had the right connections.

“You are righteous under compulsion.” She’d say. “If you had the right connections you’d also make proper use of it.”

Would we? I wonder. As far as I perceive a person who cannot even make ends meet could well be honest and upright and another having all that money can buy could still crave for more and may resort to unfair means to obtain it. It is all in the mind and studying the mindset of such people may be interesting.

I personally wouldn’t mind being called a loser if a winner was defined as a person who expected to win whatever the means. Call me old fashioned but I cannot agree that the end justifies the means. At the same time I do agree that stories such as these have their own entertainment value.

15 comments:

hillgrandmom said...

OH I so totally agree with you HHG. It pains me when people take other people for a ride and try to justify it to themselves. I too know of intelligent people who do this kind of thing.

Mampi said...

Absolutely well concluded. These stories are okay for gupshup-thats it. No end justifies any bad means. I really wonder what kind of values is this woman giving to her children while justifying her husband's 10 percent commission.
The woman who has duped the banks has to be exceptionally sharp as far as unfair means are concerned.I must compliment her prowess.

Anonymous said...

oh, i feel sad thinking where the world is heading to!

Jaya said...

HHG, I think the saying, "What we sow, so we reap" is true. Its just matter of time that these people will get a taste of their own medicine. The first lady must be really shrewd to have escaped so many times..

Ugich Konitari said...

Why dont these cheaters realize that they are sending the wrong message to their children, and teaching them a horrible way of conducting their life ? Its not about the money, here and now. Its about bringing up an entire generation of future thieves.

Monika said...

oh my god this seems right out out of bunty and babli... never imagined people would really go so low... very sad

Sugar said...

damn!! if she were my relative, i'll report her...the entertainment value is unquestionable and so is how outrageous she has been...
God bless such people!!!

Monika said...

u are tagged :) come over to my blog and check it out

Mana said...

BUt they cannot survive by cheating at all times.. How long can they survive thriving like this?

Not all days are sundays and every dog has its day :)

Hip Grandma said...

hillg'mom:It is sad isn't it that we are getting indifferent to such people and go about doing our job?oh yes these people are very intelligent.

mampi:I don't think the lady will last for ever.All such people make at least one fatal mistake.

tulips:Me too.Welcome here.

joy:true.They will not always escape.

ugich:All such characters only think of the material comforts they give their children.Values are conveniently forgotten.

monika:story and script writers often draw examples from the characters that prevail in society and perhaps exaggerate to an extent.yes it is sad.

edita:It is not very easy to take on such people.one would prefer to keep off from them.

manasa:They cannot survive for long.but they feel no shame at being caught and punished.They'd repeat their tricks over and over again.

Usha said...

If I knew someone with influence and if I thought someone could genuinely use some help, I will not hesitate putting in a word or using my influence. But never in this way of course. But sometimes I feel so lost in the real world and its smart values.

Tys on Ice said...

i agree with u...to live off the innocence and trust of another is akin to rape...it leaves a scarred being in its wake...

WhatsInAName said...

You are absolutely right! How can people even think of justifiying these deeds? I wonder if they have something called conscience or maybe mine works overtime!

Archana Bahuguna said...

This was really interesting. I think such people fool themselves in thinking they are "smart" :-). God give them some wisdom!

Hip Grandma said...

usha:putting in a word for a genuinely needy person is ok.To con them into believing that your intentions were good but were taken for a ride is destructive intelligence.unfortunately this is quite prevalent in today's world.

tys on ice:people don't just live but thrive off other people's innocence.How they manage to do it is my question.

whatsinaname:yes,people like us worry about our conscience and smarties like them let the inner voice sleep.But I prefer my position to theirs and it may be the same to them

archana:it is unfortunate that such people abound.