Reluctant Celebrity

When the interviews appeared in the newspapers I felt relief. Someone was finally listening to me. It took a lot of courage to do it, but I think it was my best strategy at the time.

My story made perfect sense to everyone who read it. It is actually very common here in Kerala, and especially in Varkala, to have local people “cheat” foreigners. The concept of “cheating” takes an Indian twist here. People “get cheated” a lot and in many different ways; the young men who go to find work in the United Arab Emirates get cheated by the agency that provides the work visa (they pay lots of money for what they think is a good job, only to find themselves in a labor camp with no passport), or they get cheated by their own relatives who are already in the Gulf and promise them a good job (which is never as good as they make it sound and never pays as much as they promised, but for which they have to pay a high commission fee).  Here in Varkala many foreigners have given money to local people to enter partnerships with the idea of running businesses or buy land to construct your dream home. And then, even in the cases where the partners were married or in a relationship, the foreigners got booted out of the business, of the house, of the relationship and the local guys kept the money, the house, the land, everything.  And the best part is that no one, absolutely no one got punished.

Malayala Manorama with photos of me and Asthamay - July 24, 2010

Foreigners normally do not go to the court, due to intimidation and pressure from local people, and complete lack of faith in the legal system. So what happens is that foreigners, especially women who trusted the local guy, go away, lose everything and never come back. This is what Bala expected of me as well.

Accompanied by a local friend I went to see Home Minister, Kodiery Balakrishnan, I explained to him the story, I told him the local police was actually protecting Bala. He was polite, he listened and asked a few questions and seemed not surprised of yet another story of a Malayali cheating a foreigner. Actually, most policemen I came in contact to, blame me for having been cheated.

They told me I am a silly person for having trusted with my money a rickshaw driver, even if we lived together for 6 years.

 

Kodiyeri asked me to go talk to the Director General of Police, Mr. Punnoose. He is a very nice person, professional and calm. He made a few phone calls and I had an appointment the next morning with the Superintended of the Varkala police station, who was going to escort me to Asthamay.

All seemed finally to make sense. I had found a decent person that was going to enforce the order of the court. Yes, I did get escorted back to Asthamay by the police. Bala and his family had broken into my room, on the first floor, and stolen 400 Euros, my landline telephone, 2 credit cards were missing. The police did not seem concerned; yet again they blamed me for having left some cash in my drawer in my home.

Bala was laughing and his father and mother guarded the entrance to the house. I have not been able to enter the kitchen on the ground floor, I cannot take my belongings that are on the ground floor of the house. When I called the Superintended of the Varkala police and told him that the Bhats were blocking the door, he told me never to call him again, he had no interest and it was my problem.