Tuesday, March 13, 2012

"Oh Lord Forgive Me for I'm Cynical"




I vehemently deny that I was born a cynic and a pessimist, I became one.
 This is what I would tell in face of the alleged cynical tone in me, be it verbal or in letters. I checked the definition of the word “cynic” and found the following decorative pieces.
A) Believing the worst of human nature and motives; having a sneering disbelief in e.g. selflessness of others.
B) Abusing vocally; expressing contempt or ridicule.
C) Showing contempt for accepted moral standards, esp. by following self-interest.
But I do not fit in these descriptions with much gusto, though I do not deny the definitions that may be in me, but it is more relative.

The reason for the ornamental pseudonym that I may have, “cynic”, is more because of what I see as an uncontrollable offensive attitude of what for example is sinister, deprecating, torn away from even semblance of altruism and abusive. I find it comforting, release of pent up energy to react sternly vocally or by letters to a situation when it demands, rather than be timid and peeved and then boil inconsolably within oneself. It is better to be sheared away from any possible loss of self-respect.

There have been a few blog posts that went purportedly directing my ire at persons and happenings that were less tolerable even to a serf who would love to crawl when asked to kneel. Certainly the spars between friends are not to be for love of God included in these.

A few months ago, some savvy fraudsters managed to hack into my Google mail account, presumably fancying me for someone worth a shot at. The invisible forces set off a chain of email to all my contacts in Google. The  email went had the subject matter of my perilous state in Greece and that I was urgently in need of money to bail myself out of some hole. Many of the contacts smelled rat and pooh-poohed the message. The slightly sceptical ones made sure to contact C, to ensure that everything was smooth and the message was hoax. It was apparent to even a nitwit that the email message was not from me.
A naïve but unfortunate person whom I have never met, but only spoken on the phone, shot off by Bank transfer some $ 750 to the fictitious address .I came to know of this a month later and he was rather ashamed of his impetuosity. Nevertheless, I feel an affinity towards him for the apprehension that made him act so when he got the hoax message.

Last week my sister called from Thpuram and narrated an atrocious grapevine that came to her hearing that day. The matter was circulating in her Banking circles for these months before a colleague decide enough was enough and told her.

I understood her annoyance but also was displeased and offended by the matter and shot off an email message to the villain of the piece. And decoying copies to some of my contacts too. It certainly was a message that was matter of fact and alluding how contemptuous I hold him in esteem for his apparent pernicious canard and nonsensical act.

When the fraudulent email message went about in December, it went to this person who is holed up with his riches in Saudi Arabia. He was holding a fat account in the Bank branch where my Sis was in charge. Once, after a reference from my Sis, I  spoke to him on a matter of emplacement and did communicate once to him by email. The subject was forgotten since. Now when the email went to him also in December, instead of displaying the decorum to call the Bank branch in India and enquire with my Sis about the email, he went about telling some other branch managers that the lady manager’s brother whom he has not met asked him for money. The gossip loving colleagues of her went about spreading the slimy gossip, know not how far. It finally reached her ears the previous week. To further the agony the guy with drew some Rs 100 million from her branch and ably aided in the whole process and gossip by one of her colleagues she trusted much.

Now one can choose and ignore the situation or be cynical in this context relatively.
The situations that I allegedly become cynical are similar in content. If one can have the luxury to be stoic, why not express oneself and be cynical and relieved too?

13 comments:

Insignia said...

You have every right to be cynical about this situation esp the guy. He is foolish to trust that email and vicious to be spreading rumors like this.

You should sue him for passing malicious comments about you.

NRIGirl said...

Unbelievable! I'll have to echo B's comment above!

Now tell us whatever happend to that friend who wired funds; was he able to trace it back and get a refund?

Kavita Saharia said...

Now I understand your second email alert :)

Arun Meethale Chirakkal said...

Oops! Quite nasty, isn’t it? I too had received the said email and replied to it. Then I got another one from ‘you’ saying that you’d reached the airport and whether I could arrange some money; this time lesser amount. One dangerous thing about these tech-savvy tricksters is that they learned a lot of things about the person, of course by hacking his/her mail. The other day a colleague of mine had received such a mail from ‘his friend’, an artist who travels frequently, saying that he had been trapped somewhere in London. Though it would be quite naïve to fall prey to such tricks, the ‘genuineness’ may deceive some as has happened in your case.

Happy Kitten said...

I remember recving this email from you and rightly dismissed it! How can this other person be so sily specially since this has been going on since a few years.
As to the act of the KSA fellow, such human beings needs to be advertised widely; let others beware of him.
You have every right to be cynical in this case.

BK Chowla, said...

Now, I can connect as to confusion in recent past

Felicity Grace Terry said...

You have my sympathy as something very similar happened to me a while back.

Frightening that there are people out there that are capable of this and frustrating that it seems we can do very little about it.

anilkurup59 said...

@ Insignia,@ NRIGirl,Kavita,@ Arun Meethale Chirakkal,@ Happy Kitten, @ BK.CXhowla, @ Petty Wiiter,

Nasty, is not the description suited.
I spoke to the gentleman who fumbled and sent the money. I expressed my sympathies and thanked him for his though naive reaction , his empathy. He said , he has gone through much hardships in life and have been penny less once and he could understand what it is to be so if my case was true. Though his Bankers cautioned against his sending the money , he took a chance just in case the matter was not hoax.

As for the likes of the other guy, can we do something?. No.Just vent our feelings as I did and get on with life!

Balachandran V said...

Who is this fucker? Not only he his stupid, but downright nasty too!

Sree had called the other day and he wondered about your second e-mail alert. You should've explained it before/in that mail.

Rama Ananth said...

Sometime back, my husband too received an urgent request from my sister's husband who lives in Boston. It seems he was stuck in Cyprus, and needed urgently $3000, and that he will explain later. This comes using my brother in law's email id. We just knew it was fake.

anilkurup59 said...

@ Balan,

My temperament would have made me pick the phone and call the SOB and give him my taste. But B, wanted it less confronting as she intends to confront him directly.

@ Rama,
Yes , but when some one accuses you of such nasty things , bloody hell it boils within.

Shilpa Garg said...

OMG!! Shocking and unbelievable!!
Agree with Insignia, you have ALL the rights to be cynical, angry and even mad at this!!
Few weeks ago, I got a message that my gmail mail account is used from Japan, so pls change the password... changed it and then again a day later got a message that it is used from Greece now... so had to change again!! :|

anilkurup59 said...

@ Shilpa Garg,

There is a old- grandma tale that if one happens to sight the New moon on Vinayaka Chathurthi, one can expect to be slapped with allegations of which one is innocent.
Ha I wonder if I noticed the moon phase last Chathurthi.