The con is on... on me...

Never remembered this, when I watched all the con capers (Oceans' series is one of my favorites), never thought of this when I read about famous con artists. But when I read about the judgement against Charles Shobhraj, I remembered something. It has nothing to do with Charles Shobhraj or what he did, but this was one memory which was linked to that name.

One of my cousins said, as we grow older, we do not remember everything that happened but a certain word, phrase or name will trigger the recollection of a chain of events. In fact, he remembers my day of birth very vividly, because, when I was born, he and his brother went to the hospital and enquired about where they can find a Ms. Kalyani who gave birth to a boy. This apparently attracted dirty looks from the hospital staff and was the cause of a minor embarrassment. Now Ms. is not a big deal in USA, I don't think is a big deal anymore in India as well (I don't think it should be either), but when I was born (seems like eons ago), it WAS a big deal. So he remembers my birth because of the dirty looks he got. (Not sure if thats a good way to be remembered). And to my cousin, "If you are reading this, I am sorry to have let your secret out.

Back to CS. So I remembered that I was conned, comprehensively, when I was 16 years old (then is the only thing that could save me a little from the embarrassment).

When I was home for holidays, I met one of my Dad's old students at our house (Let's call him X, for lack of my creativity). He was a nice chap, talked about many things and with a generally agreeable character (Wow! that sentence seems to have been lifted from a Jane Austen's novel. YIKES...). That was my last day at home and I was back at my boarding school the next day. Just back from holidays, my wallet was fatter than it usually was :).

 A couple of days later, it just so happened that I had a visitor.

ZOOM INTO MY MIND

What did I do now? I am pretty sure I have been as good as I could be. I haven't hit on any girl (or did I?) when I was at home who might have complained to my dad about the wayward ways of his son. Why did Dad come to see me, that too just after two days? Did he miss me? May be not... Did Mom miss me and wanted me to come back for a couple of days?... may be...

Half the way to the Visitor's Lounge, my mind was racing to figure out what I did and as I was unable to figure out anything, the other half of the way was spent on figuring out a generic excuse that would cover any or everything that I might have done. So, when I didn't spot my Dad, boy was I was relieved.

However Mr. X was there waiting for me. He gave me a box of sweets (I might have mentioned I have a sweet tooth) and told me that my Mom asked him if he could carry a box of sweets for me when he mentioned that he had some work near my school. I thanked him and he left.

I was impressed by my mother's resourcefulness. Of course I ate half of what I got there itself, because, there would be none left the moment I entered my room.

So I was happy, and happy minds are inducive for a lot of learning, so I was seriously studying ( I may have doctored this detail a bit), then I had a visitor again.

This time I was sure that it was not my Dad, so I went to see who it was. It was X again. He was distraught and he said that when he came to meet me, someone stole his luggage and all his money was in the briefcase. And that he had to go to Madras (now Chennai) on a very important business matter failing which, he would incur heavy losses and that he had a train in 45 minutes. And he wanted to see if he could borrow some money which he would give me on his way back. And he asked for an amount which would make a big hole in my wallet and would leave me with enough money for a couple of movies, one call home  and no ice-cream.

ZOOM INTO MY MIND

Ah! the poor guy. He wouldn't have lost his luggage had he not come to meet me. What are you doing? Be the ever shining beacon of hope for the beat up and downtrodden. Dad would reward you greatly for this nice gesture and you can watch more movies and eat a lot more scoops of ice-cream. No pain no gain. A couple of days you will have your money back and with lots of brownie points.

So I gave him the money and went to watch a movie thinking about all the rewards that were in store. On my way back, I just felt like talking to Dad and to earn the brownie points ahead of time. So the conversation went something like this.

Dad : Weren't you supposed to be studying?
Son : Yeah, I needed some stationery, so I came out with a group of friends to buy those.
Dad : But you have a store in the campus.
Son : The quality is cheap. I would much rather buy outside.
Dad : Of course you would. By the way, remember, Charles Shobhraj's case that we were talking about, an article in the paper said that they have found some very good evidence against him. (Dad was the source of my then current events).
Son : By the way, Mr. X got me the sweets that Mom gave. Thank you so much.
Dad : Mr.X? Why did he come there?

Thats when it struck me. I have been duped, conned. comprehensively. *(^($(*%($) To say or not to say was the question. I had to, so I did. I was not the only one Mr. X had duped. My dad and a few others gave him some money too as he lost his briefcase. I did earn some brownie points because I tried to help someone in distress. I did however fail to mention, conveniently, my thought process.