Every day we hear of cybercrimes happening all around us. All of us are happy that everything is digitised in life today and we are able to do all our financial transactions online. The convenience of internet and mobile banking is indeed a boon.

However, I was recently visiting a friend and he narrated a harrowing experience ,of being a victim of cybercrime and it shook the wits out of me and my spouse. I could not even believe that, this could happen to my friend, who holds a Ph.D and is well versed with most things in life.

I want to share the details of his experience ,for my readers ,so that more of us are aware of how cyber criminals operate and what precautions we could take, to prevent such crimes and also report them to the authorities concerned.

It all started with a fictitious phone call from an unknown person, claiming to be calling from an international courier company, that he has received a parcel from an international city and it has reached Mumbai. The parcel has been confiscated by the police and he needs to verify his credentials.

Then he gets another phone call ,claiming it is from the police, who have confiscated the parcel as it contained some illegal items. He needs to get on a Skype call ,to identify the parcel and the veracity of the senders.

This friend of mine stays alone and they advised him to get on a call on Skype and kept him on call for a few hours. Meanwhile, during the call, they also advised him to transfer some money, into a particular account, since they had to verify money trails. hence, it was necessary for him to send the money from his account. This continued and in the process he transferred a substantial amount, since he was mentally under siege. This is termed digital arrest nowadays.

When all this ended, he realised that it was cyber crime and he had lost a substantial amount of money to cyber criminals. Then, he reported to the police and the cyber crime cell, of the government. The good news is that ,after a long drawn process of investigation and courts etc, he got his money back ,although he went through all the mental turmoil and also the process of courts, advocates and had to spend some money to recover his lost money.

What I would like to highlight is that ,when such fiticitious calls come to us, we should either not pick up or not share any personal details including bank details, PAN or Aadhar numbers etc. We should report to our friends/relatives and also the police ,if we suspect any foul play since all such calls come from mobile numbers and can be easily identified.

In no case, we should transfer any money and as early as possible, keep all evidence of the phone numbers and name of caller and report it to the cyber crime cell of the police(1930 in India). We should definitely not get into any video call with any agency, as no police force or other agencies, will ask for our personal details on phone or video calls.

In a world, which is digitalised, all our information is available on the internet. Such criminals collect all our family details etc and try to threaten us ,with half baked information. We succumb to such calls unknowingly and then regret our actions. Any of us could easily fall prey to such actions. This blog is just an eye opener ,to such crimes happening around us, every day.

If we take the basic precautions of either not picking up unknown calls or ensuring that we do not share any personal information on phone or video calls with anyone, it could prevent such crimes. Further, we should report such calls immediately to cyber crime cell of the police ,so that innocent citizens do not fall victim to such nefarious acts of criminals.

Let us spread the word and take all the necessary precautions from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

21st April 2024

 

The other day I was in an old age home. Nowadays, they call them “assisted living places”, because when children are not there to assist their parents, they have to find places, where they could be assisted by others.

At a time, when the world has become the market place, I am not against assisted homes and assisted living ,as many times parents do not want to live in alien countries and at other times ,children do not have the space or resources, to have parents or elders with them.

Recently, I visited a friend’s mother. She seemed very happy with her stay. She was happy with the clean environment, hygienic food, a lot of activities and festivals being celebrated for all religions ,along with the cohabitants.

These homes are professionally managed and take care of the elderly very well. I went around the place and found out that it was well designed and every detail ,was taken into account. Apart from lifts, dining halls, entertainment rooms, guest rooms, there was accessible wash rooms with supportive arm rests, wash basins, a well furnished kitchen and doctors and nurses on call.

My friend’s mother seemed very happy and even advised us ,to visit all the floors, to see and experience the facilities for ourselves. We went around all the floors and it was indeed impressive.

But, when we left her flat, she told us that everything was good except when recently some of her neighbours fell sick, they were rushed to the hospital by the staff but when they died ,their bodies were donated to medical colleges for research. When we enquired, if they did not have any kids or relatives, she hesitatingly said ,that nobody visited them when they fell sick and hence the elderly, had given prior consent for their bodies ,to be donated to medical colleges.

My eyes were moist and I could not believe ,what I just heard. Life has become such. We do not have time to visit the elders in our family – it could be parents, grandparents, uncles or aunts. Today, we may not be living in the same city or country and hence they are forced to live in assisted living. But, imagine not visiting your parents when they are sick and not even being there ,to do their final rites when they die.

Although, I was aghast at what I came to know today, I was not totally taken aback. In every aspect of our lives, we do not have time to do the basic things in life. We do not have time to take care of our own health. then how on earth ,can we take care of others’ health.

In the past, if anyone in our neighbourhood fell sick, every neighbour, friend and relative would visit them and take care of them. Today, we are not even aware of ,who our neighbours are ! How can one expect anyone to take care of us, when we do not bother about others ?

We may need to look ,deep within. We need to realise that we will not remain young and youthful ,for the rest of our lives. The day we get old, our children may do the same ,of what we are doing to our elders. May be our kids could be more alienated, than we are.

It may be time ,to set the clock back and reset our lives.

S Ramesh Shankar

21st April 2024

A friend send me the following quote today :

“Life is ironic. It takes sadness to know what happiness is, noise to appreciate silence, and absence to value presence.”

I found it very insightful and recollected many life instances, which I could recall. Let me share three incidents of my own life, which made me realise the value of this quote in real life.

The first incident was when I started my career in 1981. I joined a leading public sector for my first job. Within a year of my starting my career, I lost my mother to a heart disease called tachycardia. I was 23 and she was just 54. Within two years, I lost my father at the age of 25 due to a kidney failure. This shattered my life and I was drowned in grief.

After a year, I recovered from the shock and my career took off. I was blessed with a daughter and a son within 5 years of my marriage and was happy both at career and in life. The sadness of losing both my parents at a young age made me realise the value of family – spouse, children and siblings and I am ever grateful for that.

I understood that God makes you realise the value of happiness through your ability to deal with grief in life and bounce back. Sometimes we are told ,that we cannot value joy unless you have experienced sorrow.

All through my career I lived in metros or towns ,around the country. I got used to the noise all around me. Whether it was the traffic around us or the chit chat of people living or working around. One day I visited a hill resort and lived in a room facing the forest. The only sound I could hear was that of the birds chirping or the leaves of the trees, fluttering in the wind. Similarly on another occasion, I lived on a river bank for a few days. I could hear the sound of the river and the aquatic animals.

We get so used to the noise around us, in the cities ,that we are not privileged to hear ,the sounds of nature. Thus our mind and heart is polluted with the noise around us ,rather than listening to the inner voice within us. We need to experience noise ,to understand the true value of silence.

Another realisation through my life experiences is that ,we do not value people who are around us, all the time. When we lose some people, we realise their value and start missing them ,in our lives. In my case, it could be my parents, whom I lost at an early age and I miss them all the time ,since I lost them early. However, there could be many ,who do not value the presence of parents or siblings, because they are around. The day they leave this world ,they may possibly value them more.

The question to ask ourselves is ,why do we not value people, when they are around. What makes us miss people, when they are no more with us.

Every incident in our life is a great learning. If we are willing to learn from our mistakes, life could be more valuable and insightful to us.

Let the journey of self discovery begin today.

S Ramesh Shankar

6th March 2024.