Bholi Maya -1

Since childhood I have been tagged as 'bholi' (gullible). According to my parents it is very easy to fool me and take advantage of me. While growing up my mum used to take all updates from school and play to ensure that I am not hanging out with spoiled kids as it was very easy to influence me. I hated the fact that they considered me gullible but later on in life I realized that their observation had some trace of truth. Its my nature that I trust people and believe what they say or express. this trait of mine has put me in trouble a lot of times infact over the years I have learnt to cross examine people and situations but yet sometimes I get trapped. I would like to share with you all a recent incidence which was an eyeopener for me. I really need to work on controlling my nature of trusting people.

I was Jagriti Yatra 2016 participant and during the journey we were told that we might get a call from the sponsors of our yatra to know our experience on the train and what we gained from the 15 days journey on the Indian terrain. Since I went on the journey with half sponsorship, I was anticipating a call from the sponsors. A week after the yatra I got a call from Wall Street Journal, India and the person on the call introduced himself as Joseph working at WSJ as a journalist and wanted to write an article on my Yatra experience. At first I found this strange but then I realized this can be a call from the sponsors. I replied to everything what this guy asked. Even I asked him questions just to ensure that the call is genuine, but this guy sounded so convincing. He shared his travel stories, how he is so concerned about climate change and did go to Antarctica for some research work. Also how much he enjoys working in India and about his Gujarati neighbors in Delhi. He mentioned name of some Gujarati dishes and he knew some Gujarati sentences as well. His accent was very European and we spoke for about an hour. After the conversation I did think that this guy might be a fraud but this could be a prank call never came to my mind. This phone conversation was in January 2017.

In March 2017, I again got a call from Joseph. Meanwhile I had saved his number and tried finding him on social media. There was no trace of Joseph who had so many articles and research papers published under his name. By this time I had lost interest in talking to this guy also I wasn't very keen on wasting my 1 hr in the long conversations. Yeah so coming back to the call of March 2017, I received the call and told him that I am involved in some work and would talk later, yet he was being pushy for making me listen to details he wanted to share. He informed me about his plans to visit PRL Ahmedabad and would need my assistance. To cut short the call time I politely replied that I would try to help him with his ahmedabad trip, yet he insisted to talk as otherwise he is a busy person and had a meeting at PMO (Prime Minister's Office) that day. I clearly told him about my involvement in other work and cut the call. That day I really felt something fishy. What all this guy was bluffing... Workshop at PRL and meeting with PM. I decided not to answer his calls anymore. 

Two weeks later, On April fool's day in evening I saw name 'Joseph' flashing on my phone screen, I didn't receive the call. He called twice. I didn't respond. Later in few minutes, I got a call from unknown number, I checked on true caller which said the number belonged to Ronak Mehta. I had doubt that this guy Joseph was calling from other number so I didn't receive. He (unknown number) called twice then. I ignored the call. Next day in morning, I was out for a meeting and I got a call from an unknown number. I received the call and a guy said; "Tu maro phone kem nathi upadti (why u aren't receiving my call). I recognized Jigar's (college friend) voice. It was the same unknown number from which I was getting calls the previous evening. I told him whole story and I ignored the calls from unknown number as I wanted to avoid fraudulent Joseph's calls.

He started laughing and asked me, "Don't you think someone might have played a prank on you?". I replied, "No. Because I don't think someone can talk with that accent for so long referring our first conversation". To my surprise Jigar did speak  two sentences as Joseph. I was still in phase of denial and he told me to call on Joseph's number. I did that and really Jigar received the call. I was awestruck by his acting skills. At the same time I felt awful for my gullibility. This was the biggest prank I've ever been part of and I am sure this memory will last forever. Moreover Jigar tried with other friends as well but they caught him instantly. I narrated this story of being fooled from January 2017 to April 2017 to my friends and it was difficult to make them stop laughing. 

Is there any guide/book to teach me not to be so gullible. Guys if you find one.. do suggest.