of swindlers and getting swindled

so what category do you fall into?
are you the one who takes care of other people?
or the one who is taken care of ??

lest you assume this a profound theory founded by Gott Von Fruhstuck after experimenting with 500 people locked in a castle for 3 years...sorry sorry..i got a little carried away.there is no gott von fruhstuk who locks 500 people or even 500 goats in a castle .. i just wanted to suggest that ... oh forget it..and excuse my inexcusable filibustering

so back to the first para.... which category do you fall into?
im sure we all like to pretend we can take care of ourselves..but how many of us can actually do that? ?
I am a pin up for category 2.. i cant even pretend to take care of myself.. . i can barely bargain, i can hardly cross the road, i can just about manage local transport and am totally reduced to a teary mess in an unfamiliar location.
i need somebody to take care of me. to guide me, to clean up my mess and to support me. any takers? don't get me wrong .. it's not like i stand in front of my house and cling to the porch , refusing to leave( though i swear i'm tempted to!) . i can manage myself ..iv lived away from home for 3 years.. but it's still a daunting prospect. .

i don't know why, but i seem to have an overtly idealistic view of the Big Bad World. coz of which it is insanely easy to fool me. ..

i'm sure if i was an eskimo, some smart salesperson could easily sell me an all purpose, 3 door refrigerator and i would thank him from the bottom of my heart..
okay..that's a little over the top.. i mean, why buy a refrigerator when you're practically living in one anyway?
anyway,the point being.. . i get taken in by people easily.

also, i'm a little confrontational phobic.. if someone if swindling me right before my eyes, all i can think of is ' oh damn, what do i do ? what do i do? if i ask him for my money back, he might feel offended, right? oh chuck it? money is a highly overrated commodity anyway.. i mean why can't we revert to the barter system? give a goat and get two packs of face cream. now that is sensible! ' and so i end up in a zen like state of mind , waving goodbye to the smirking swindler ..

and i don't get it. . how do these swindlers know im swindler-friendly anyway? do i give out some kind of a 'come swindle me' aura?
see, it's not that i'm not aware that people can be mean and that they will take advantage of you at any given moment.. it's just that being brought up in a protected environment where all you meet are the nicest people, can dull your (otherwise,razor sharp im sure) instincts.
all the experience i had of the human equivalent of the big bad wolf was the bald, gold tooth glinting, leopard skin wearing villain in the movies.
this of course, led to the false impression that any Bad people encountered in real life would be similarly attired.
if only life were as simple as the movies? you could just figure out whom you should stay away from on the basis of their clothes and/or appearance..
shiny bald head?tiger skin coat? multiple ringed fingers?? i'll just run for the hills !!!
sadly, nowadays, its more likely your batchmates who are so attired. . sigh!

so it's a bit of a shock when you do encounter such people in real life. it never fails to surprise me how easily people can take advantage of others. i stare at such people with a morbid fascination. what goes on in their heads , i wonder?

and sometimes it's the sweetest looking, most endearing people who are the ones you have to watch out for. unfortunately, some things can only be learnt the hard way.
im sure i could drill this in your head, make you write a hundred lines a day and wear mismatched socks ( ok that's just for my sadistic pleasure)
and yet you will go out, meet a smart sweet guy/gal , get talking , feel like they are your best pals, hang out with them and next thing.. what do you know? you've been swindled!! out of your dignity, your respect and what not..including maybe your favourite notebook with glowing stars on it ( or was it just me?)

see..it's happened with me and continues to. yes i know, im a slow learner ..
i met this girl on the first day of college. a smart,outgoing, chirpy girl . me being the exact opposite and of course, petrified on the first day .. got taken in by her. not an uncommon mistake , i am told, people just love her at first sight!
so i hung out with her.. didn't become best friends though(Thank God for small mercies) but still we used to go out a lot .. she being the bubbly, i love everyone type...me the reserved, thankful for some attention types. a few months on, i realised she was spreading ridiculous rumors about me around college. my batchmates, my seniors ..everybody knew something about me that even i had no clue of!
I couldn't believe it. such a thing had never happened to me.. and yes, i had been warned ..
what could i do anyway? i wasn't going to stoop to her level and spread insane rumors about her. i wasn't even going to give her the pleasure of my discomfiture. i just dissociated myself from her, carried on as usual and let her get on with it. thankfully, most people knew me well enough to not believe what they heard and i couldn't be bothered associating with those who did.

i guess it's a matter of trust. i'm one of those who trust people very easily.. and i know that tonnes of people are guilty of a similar offence. what's the point of starting a new friendship with someone , when all the time you're second guessing their actions? trust is crucial , is essential. but i guess it's all a matter of getting to know the person and understanding them. trusting them should be a slow procedure.
of course, some people like my ex-pal above are just born swindlers( if you're wondering what she windled me out of..my dignity, hello!) they can only get along with people of their mindset. they aren't good people at heart. they should be thrown to the dogs, roasted on an open pit, tied to a ..er..sorry.. im still a little bitter you see.. trauma and all that.
point being, they aren't good people at heart..
and they are worse than those who swindle you out of your material possessions. to these, you can attribute a genuine reason.. poverty, need, despair, trauma.. not that it gives them any right to run off with your brand new car.. but still.

the world isn't black and white you know.. its everything except. if it's been said once, it's been said a million times, don't trust people easily. it goes against all my natural instincts, but then , it's true.
what kind of a world are we living in where one has to think one better than the swindlers of this world and side step them? we're all turning into these non- trusting, suspicious of each other's motives, second guessing zombies.

still, as long as we're basically good at heart and never back stab our friends or family.. coz that would be infinitely worse(more of that later) . . i guess we can survive. .