Rachel Assil
A quick shout out about rachel assil, who i performed with earlier this week at the Bitter End. Do listen and let her know what you think. She can be reached at live@rachelassil.com
are you from india ?
So earlier this week, i was waiting outside a subway station midtown when a middle aged (late 20’s) man of Indian origin walked up to me. The conversation went along these lines
middle aged man: Hi, are you from India ?
me: why do you ask ?
middle aged man (I shall refer to him as ‘mam’ from now on): My name is …,i am from Boston. I need some help, i lost my wallet and cell phone today, i know no one in new york. i need to get back to boston tonight etc etc.. i need money for the bus ticket, could you help me out.
me: i have had a lot of people solicit money from me citing similar circumstances only to see them the next day round the block rolling a joint. Why should i believe you ?
mam: I am not like that… i just came from india, i wanted to visit NY, blah blah, (his story is not all that convincing, but his address is valid( i googled it) and his number is not in service as he had it terminated after losing it. He claimed he did it from a pay phone and its a 1-800 number)
me: ok do you have a paypal account ? you could transfer money to me right now(on my phone) and i could give it to you in cash.
mam: paypal, what is that ?
and so it carries on for a while.
Decision time.. though i dont trust the story, i decide to give him the money on the premise that if it were true i could really help someone and get the money back. Worst case, i lose 30 bucks)
its been almost a week and i have not heard back from the person, maybe the story was true, but he just lost my contact info. Maybe he laughed his ass off all the way to the nearest bar. But its interesting how Indians think other Indians are likeliest to help among all.
Will update if i do hear back :).