Many a time in life, we face situations, where we take take ‘instinctive’ decisions and move forward. These decisions are often devoid of clear thought.
For the last few days, I’ve been actively integrating on various communities on PaGaLGuY. I have came across different people, few of whom are MBA aspirants. During such an integration, I met a person, on whom this article is based. Let’s refer to this person as friend. This friend and I discuss questions posted on PaGaLGuY and share our exam experiences. It has been a while that we have been on this trip and kind of become ‘friends’ as well.
Just a few days ago, my friend asked: “Do you believe in me?” I was taken back at the question and before I could answer, another question popped up: “If you believe me, will you do me a favour?” I wrote back: “Sure, tell me what happened?”
The friend said he (let’s just assume he is male) was facing a technical issue while applying for one the exams (application form) and the transaction was not going through. Friend asked me to pay for him, he assured that he will reimburse the amount through NEFT (National Electronic Fund Transfer), into my bank account.
I did not know how to react since the friend and I had only recently ‘met’ online. I was skeptical but somewhere in the back of my mind, I felt I could trust him. I replied: “I can help you, but please don’t ditch me…”
Later I felt foolish to respond the way I did. I paid for him and he reimbursed the amount as well.
The above was a small incident but it remains top of mind for me even now. In this era of frauds, spams and other cyber crimes, I took a decision to help someone I did not know too well. It was a risky decision but I went with my gut feeling. But when I helped and my friend kept his word of reimbursing the money, I realised that so often we keep ourselves away from helping genuine people. Maybe, it’s a general notion that internet ‘contacts’ are fake and mostly spam.
But like in my case, I would recommend, if you feel the instinct to help someone, all you need to do is to take a leap of faith.