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To Cheat and Getting Cheated

On my return from ration shop my wife complained that sugar, rice and other items were well below the specified quantity and chided me for my lapse. She claimed that I had been cheated at the shop. But I made some balancing act with her by telling that I was smart enough to escape from the long queue by stealthily mixing with my friend near the counter and saved lot of time and also managed to exchange an old and torn 500/- Rupee note that was giving me headache for a long time by cunningly passing when the counter man was less alert. So when any body is intentionally causing you loss of money, material, inconvenience etc with the sole intention of reaping gain/profit/advantage we consider it as cheating, fraud, deception, trickery, imposture and so on. But when the same is executed by us we consider it as extra smart, cunningness, opportunistic, “fools have to suffer” and of the likes. The fact remains that each and every one in this universe past, alive or future cheats to varying extent. The idea of cheating our parents, brothers, sisters, friends and teachers has its origin even when the child has learnt to walk. By intuition the child has learnt to fake crying and weeping to get things on demand. It fakes injury to get sympathy and slowly it develops to fake fever, stomach ache etc to get a holiday. Slowly it turns in to cheating of serious nature by copying or allowing itself to be copied, scribbling some knotty answers on their bodies or scrap of paper. Even the intelligent child may resort to unethical means to score the highest mark or enjoying the study time by seeing the cartoons and making amends by copying for the time lost. In very many cases parents themselves tutor the child to give false age, information to get the child admitted at any cost. In the act of boasting about their parents’, wealth, status, education the children vie with each other and many of them are far from facts. So at all age groups of both sex the tendency is to cheat as and when necessity and opportunity arise though they may try to convince themselves that they are above reproach. But innermost mind always prompts them to try to get things done the easy way, and don’t worry about stepping on that other guy in that process! And to be a step further if you are going to resort to unethical ways, do it perfectly and without a chance of getting noticed! Here are a few cases of cheating which may not amount to crime, nevertheless is a kind of cheating only.

1. Putting lot of make up to conceal the real age or enhancing your complexion and beauty by artificial wig, dye and other similar appliances. 2. Giving an exaggerated look of your height by wearing high heal shoes. 3. Wearing rented costly attires, and using gold like jewellaries to give a false idea about your financial status or the converse to intentionally give an appearance of being poor. But the entire above are absolutely harmless and no damage is possible except in case where the parties are fooled about the age of bride or bridegroom, with the help of external appliances at the betrothal functions! Some of the more serious cases are adulteration in milk, food stuff and more seriously in spurious drugs. Of course we are cheated on daily basis in the correct measurement of rice, dall, oil, sugar etc.

A bigger loss is while purchasing ornaments that have been claimed as 22 carats even by the leading jewelers all over India while it is falling much short of it. Of late it has been claimed by a few of them that they got certification from proper authorities. Also there is double standard in weight as well as quality at the time of selling and purchase with the clear advantage to the shopkeeper. There are endless list of merchandise starting from vegetables where the customer is always a victim in getting cheated resulting in a loss of good slice of our hard earned income. Let us analyze more deeply on the subject of lying/cheating/deception/fraud/trickery/imposture that are precariously at the border of crime and only a thin line separates them from going to jail.

ACADEMICS—we have already dealt with the cases of childhood copying where most of the children had indulged it at the budding stage, though however made timely corrections by understanding and also experiencing the shame of getting got or feeling guilty about such acts. In spite of that it is an epidemic in high schools and also colleges where a good number of candidates are caught and pay the heavy penalty of getting censored and debarred from appearing for a few years. But on a larger scale when mass copying is indulged with the connivance of the examiners at the worst re-examination takes place. Also there are instances when the whole paper gets out by dishonest press or examiners. The answer paper is somehow traced by the influential parents by corrupt methods, or the teacher is bribed to allot more marks. At higher level while securing PHD degrees they plagiarize the papers from inter net and claim originality. In these days of INTERNET it has become very easy to down load the required information and present it as their own with out much sweat. Also some body is imposing as the original candidate and sees he gets pass in the exam. But such kind of stuff is easily exposed when they take up the assignment in due course and find themselves miserable as they lack the original skill and talents. Whenever we give our resume for an attractive job at least some of our claims are false or exaggerated or some truths are blacked out. All types of preparations for competitive exams are cleverly managed with the help of model questions, coaching institutes, and other sources to present a better picture than what you are actually worth.

We always seek the help of income tax consultants to conceal a good portion of our genuine income by finding loop holes in the system. Clever lawyers are exploiting a weak prosecution in defending their clients from cold blooded murders. SPORTS AND GAMES—This is the field that gives wide scope of opportunities to become dishonest in the respective games and claim medals and laurels for which they least deserve. Here also students produce fake certificates of date of birth that enable them to compete unfairly with younger boys to claim laurels for his school, state, or even country. It may be an individual game like athletics or team games of cricket, foot ball, volley ball, basket ball and so on. In the just concluded OLYMPICS held at BEIJING the ages of a few Chinese gymnasts were hotly disputed as below 16 and hence ineligible for competition as per the norms. However there was no evidence to establish the allegation and all of them were eligible and also won gold medals for their country. In a few earlier Olympics there were instances where male athletes were competing with female under disguise which was however caught and they were stripped off their medals.

CHEATING BY DOPING—To show better results in boxing, weight lifting, athletics and other sports where the power of muscles are much needed , sports persons have started indulging in performance enhancing drugs by taking prohibited steroids either orally or by getting injections.. Such kind of practice is not only giving extra advantage to the sports person but also endanger the health and life. For the same reason they are not only prohibited but also random check is made by analyzing their urine samples. Some athletes gamble it by taking a chance in not getting their sample checked. Also they indulge in masking the presence of such chemicals by cleverly using some other drug. But in every game of national and international level the offenders are being caught with disturbing regularity and the concerned culprits are put in to lot of shame and and also bring dishonor to their countries. An excellent example of cheating by doping was the case of BEN JOHNSON in the 100 meters sprint in the 1988 summer Olympics. He was caught then and there and his “Olympic& world record” performance was erased, stripped of his gold medal and also permanently banned from future competitions. Even after 20 years athletes have not learnt their lessons and up to this moment- including the recently concluded Olympics at BEIJING sports persons are being got at regular intervals. In foot ball matches faking injuries are very common to get advantage by getting a yellow or red card to a good player of the opposition team, there by denying his presence for the rest of the match. Clear fowls or over looked by an umpire favoring a team or fowls imposed unnecessarily for the enemy team. In the 1986 FIFA world cup of foot ball when the great DEIGO MARODANA fowled by scoring a “goal,” used his hands to punch the ball in to the back of the net past the ENGLAND goal keeper PETER SHILTON that was inadverntly allowed by the umpire. Subsequently after the match was over he claimed that it was the hand of GOD that scored that goal.

In cricket ball tampering is very common and to give extra spin they secretly apply Vaseline over the ball or to get extra friction pricks it with the nails. Faking a catch is also very common and also frequent appeals for LBW. Very rarely they “walk” when they are out and not declared by the umpire. In card gambling the cheatings are on a wide scale by giving secret coded signals to the other player. ART AND PAINTINGS—Original paintings of PICASO and other artists of repute are cleverly duplicated and also sculptures and documents of historical importance to sell them at exorbitant amounts. “THE EASIEST WAY TO BE CHEATED IS TO BELIEVE YOURSELF TO BE MORE CUNNING THAN OTHERS” “BETTER TO BE OCCASIONALLY CHEATED THAN PERPETUALLY SUSPICIOUS” The readers might find solace to hear that God GANESH, HIMSELF resorted to a sort of cheating to his brother SUBRAMANYA when he went 3 times around SIVA and PARVATHI and claimed to have gone around the universe by the logic that both of his parents not only comprised the earth but also beyond that. He got the promised prize of the SACRED MANGO that became the heart burning issue between brothers!

BY J.PANCHAPAGESAN FLAT-11,130 GILL NAGAR EXTN STREET CHOOLAIMEDU CHENNAI PH-044 23744963 EMAIL id- jpanchapagesan@yahoo.co.in