Suckered!

It all started with a simple voice message from an acquaintance, related to a (former?) close friend of my wife's.

"There is going to be a seminar in your neighbourhood. We are doing some very innovative things in Vancouver, and I think you would really benefit from attending this little seminar, being held Sunday morning at 11." the message said. Being of the polite disposition, I called this acquaintance back who told me that his Business Partner (TM) was currently visiting Vancouver, and that it would be great if I could attend this seminar of his. I was very unsure about this business, and I asked him what exactly this seminar was about. He replied "We help people setup independent businesses on a royalty basis". Sound familiar? I have been a little removed from this kind of ambiguous terminology and I didn't quite clue in on what it was all about. I think we were a bit apprehensive of offending my wife's friend and decided to go without fully comprehending what this "business" was all about. Surely this wasn't a company developing software, which is what we might benefit from?!

We left around 10.30a, and as if the gods were sending us a message, we got lost. We were late, and expected to have to find some seating in the back of the room. We had missed the meat of the presentation! We drove around, and finally found the place around 11.35a after buying a map. The "seminar" location itself was another red flag. A seminar in a dingy looking house in Vancouver? Hmm... something is amiss here. My wife Raji took one good look at the house and wanted to bail. But I was afraid that somebody would have actually seen us coming, and we would alienate our friend if we pretended to just walk away.

On the front lawn of this house, we were very warmly greeted by "Yogesh", who we had no clue about. We had no chance of escape now! We were led to a dingy looking basement with a little 3x4 white board mounted on a stand, and 4 chairs. The person who we were supposed to meet was Mr. Suraj; the moment I laid my eyes on him, I knew who he was. My junior from College! This was Suraj Prakash Bathija, who was an exceptionally smart man who routinely topped our University in courses. Of all the places to meet someone who you haven't seen in over 11 years! We met his wife and little kid. After our initial introductions, we settled down into our chairs to see what this "seminar" was all about. There was one other person in the room apart from Yogesh, who thankfully we weren't introduced to.

I noticed right away that this basement had an unwholesome odour about it. It reeked of urine combined with sewage, which is right next to incense on the odour-likeability scale. NOT! Well, we were in it now; goddamn it. The presenter used the word "opportunity" too many times and asked us what we would do if we had extra income. The size and feel of this seminar combined with all the different things amiss finally made me realize what I had gotten myself into! I had been suckered into attending an Amway meeting!

Several things were thrown around: "Private Franchising", referring people, setting up "legs", commissions, buying products, diamonds, platinums, double-diamonds, numbers to whose authenticity we had no clue about and lots of promises about how we could make tons of money by buying everything from Quixtar. We asked the presenter if this was an Amway-style operation, and were repeatedly told that this was the furthest thing from Amway, and yet 2 seconds later this guy would explain Amway's frrrrreaking business model. ARRRRGH! I started devising ways of walking out of this meeting, but was too polite to actually execute any of them. I stopped paying attention after about 15 minutes. I should have just stood up, said "Please don't waste my time and yours. You will never win me over", and then just walked out.

Raji and I repeatedly shot glances at each other. This wasn't a stupid software business opportunity; this was a good-old Amway-style marketing Spiel! I had adroitly avoided going to one of these stupid meetings in all these years and I had been suckered after 11 years. DAMN! DAMN!! And that too in a stupid crap-smelling room! God. This couldn't possibly get any worse.

At the end of the presentation, we were given material, and CDs. I took the papers, but refused the CD. Suraj's face went dark, and Raji noticing this took the CDs not wanting to offend him. I was past caring. I am used to wearing my heart on my sleeve and feel no reason to be nice to someone who had snookered us into attending this meeting. We had ourselves to blame - we had ignored several important red flags raised during this little "experience". First of all, the guy who I talked to wouldn't tell me anything more other than B.S. Secondly, my wife's friend didn't give us any details about this "opportunity". Thirdly, the "seminar" was in the stupid basement of a house, which reeked of crap. The only saving grace was the fact that these guys haven't been as pushy as the Amway guys. They only wanted to proceed if there was mutual interest on both sides.

I was deeply offended and so was Raji. What a pathetic morning to have! We both cursed all those involved in this in the most colorful of language. I swore to yell at my wife's friend the next time I saw her. She had behaved in the most undesirable of ways.

I guess sometimes it is better to be rude than to look like an idiot. Cheat me once, shame on you! Cheat me twice, shame on ME!