"The day when the fortune came"

One fine morning Raj sat in front of his computer to check his daily mails. There was a call from his son, Prasanna. “Hello Dad, I got a job! Please check the mail”.

Raj checked it immediately. Yes, there was a mail forwarded by his son Prasanna, mentioning that he has got a high professional job. Raj became more excited about that. This does not mean that Prasanna was unemployed and got the job for the first time. Prasanna had finished his Masters in Engineering and was working in a college as a Lecturer waiting for a high professional job in a good company. Raj took care of his family as best as he could. Their family was the only well-educated family amidst the illiterate village.

A strict father, Raj; a caring mother; Prasanna, the son; Malini, the daughter and a naughty dog was their beautiful family. The parents strived hard to make their children to study well and to be well placed in the society. Prasanna had a great love and affection over his sister Malini, that he could afford his best to satisfy her wishes and made her happy. Raj greeted his son with heart full of wishes for his new job offer at Cameroon, Central Africa. The very next day Prasanna had an interview conducted through a voice call by a social media network.

He was selected and appointed in that company within a few hours with a higher posting and a huge salary. “48 dollars per hour, Dad” said Prasanna with astonishment. The parents were very happy dreaming this and that, and Malini was also happy calculating his monthly salary in Indian currency, the time and temperature differences and so on. His mother was very much worried to leave her son that much far. And for the first time he’s going abroad.

Then the day went by. All the four members of that family were thinking about that new, small situation. The very next day the HR manager of that company made plans about the passport, boarding, lodging etc., On that discursions, he made sure that the going-to-be employee Mr. Prasanna, must pay a huge amount of more than 50 lakhs of Indian rupees before getting placed in that job which included his flight charges and boarding charges. The family could not afford such a huge amount! But they were thinking that in future he would earn more than that and thought that it was worth paying. The company gave one week of time to do all the procedures. That seems to be a very short period of time. The third day after the interview session Prasanna came home to visit his family as he was doing his job in another place away from his home.

“Please don’t worry mom and dad; I will take care of the family here after” Said Prasanna with a heart full of excitement. Raj thought that his son has become a responsible person. He also promised his sweet sister Malini, “Whatever the expenses may be, I will make you to study your dream course at your dream college”.

This made Malini to feel prouder. Mother was thinking about new dressing styles that would suit him, while Raj was thinking about the expenses that he was going to face. Raj remembered that the interview for that job was not conducted face to face and was only conducted through voice call and this made him to doubt.

Raj made sure that one cannot give a job without seeing the face of the candidate and was also notified, that Prasanna was not asked any technical sort of question by the interviewer. Raj decided to send an e-mail to the HR manager of the company’s main branch which was in Italy mentioning that his son, Prasanna got a job with a high posting in their company’s branch at Cameroon. There was a sudden reply that they had only one office at Italy and also mentioned that they had no other branches elsewhere. He also mentioned that it was a job scam and asked Raj to delete that mail immediately. And on further investigations it was confirmed that it was a job scam.

The whole family became sad all of a sudden as if they have lost the lottery with last digit difference. The parents worried. Yet Raj was very proud not for his son was called by the company but he had a great love, care, affection and responsibility over the family. “Son, you made us very happy for these three days without spending a single penny” Said Raj happily.

-Gayathri Krithika

02/07/2016