Karma Police

Karma is a nice thing to believe in and it's probably real to an extent. People who do bad things have to be exceptionally good at manipulation to get away with it time and time again. Most people just aren't that good and their luck will run out eventually. The reverse isn't necessarily true though. Good things are far from a sure thing for those who try to do good. 

My father's side of the family is kinda weird in a way because the gap between the haves and have nots is remarkable. There are doctors who have their own hospitals while others are in their 60s, unmarried and never held a real job in their lives. This set the stage for the jealousy, paranoia and back-stabbing that would occur over the past few decades. 

Uncle Festus 

Uncle Festus and I have a history that goes way back to when I was just a little kid. He was my father's cousin. From what I remember, he was a gentle, playful man at the time. Compared to Aunt May who I always thought had some bad vibes even from years ago, Uncle Festus seemed nice. But perhaps it's just a little too easy to fool a kid. 

Uncle Festus works in construction but his real power is in how he knows everything about the local village office inside out. This had made him invaluable for Aunt May and my father over the years whenever they needed something done there. Trying to get things done at the village office is a massive pain in the ass at the best of times so having someone like this is very convenient. He doesn't do that for free though of course. 

And that's the problem with my family in general. Nobody does anything because of a sense of love for family. Everything is transactional. Any help you get is essentially a loan that you gotta pay back at some point. The family connection is purely a source of emotional blackmail. 

Uncle Festus has had his fair share of problems in life. He and his wife have not been able to conceive a child, something that has caused him great pain over the years. How much that had a role to play in him becoming more unapologetically obnoxious and greedy over the years, I'm not sure. 

Trust Broken

Few years ago, I was struggling for money and running to multiple hospitals to just get by. I needed some source of stability. Getting my mother's pension, PF etc would have helped a lot but these things take time and perseverance, and time was not on my side here. Those who had worked with my mother advised me to get help from someone I could trust to get this done. 

I thought I'd gotten a lucky break when I got appointed on contract basis to a Govt Taluk Hospital. After months of not being paid by my previous employers, I thought I'd finally get some degree of stability back in my life. It would be a 6 month contract. 

I felt it would be a good idea to get Uncle Festus' help to get my mother's papers sorted. I thought by the time my contract ends in 6 months, I'd finally inherit what my mother left for me and then I could take care of my father better without worrying about how to pay the bills every single month. I even gave Uncle Festus Rs 5000 advance to get it done. This was a lot of money for me at the time since my savings at the end of the month would rarely be more than 10k. 

Needless to say, nothing went to plan. Due to the office clerk at the hospital being a complete incompetent buffoon, I would not start receiving salary for 5 months. Uncle Festus did not even try to do anything for 4 months. Nothing. And by that point, Aunt May had kicked us out of the house and into a flat I couldn't afford. 

Uncle Festus, like many people my father was close to before he became bedridden, figured that my father was no longer able to help him out the way he'd like anymore. He also felt 5k was too low a fee for his services  Aunt May seemed like a better option for him to receive financial benefits. He made his choice and his choice was to screw me over. 

I understood too late that he'd do nothing without now Aunt May's say so. Aunt May is the sort of person who likes to keep you vulnerable so as to always maintain a sense of control over you.  

Lightning Strikes Twice

It's safe to say, that after that incident, me and Uncle Festus weren't on the best of terms. But unfortunately I did have to ask for his help on another occasion a couple of years later. And I would again get screwed. 

My father never told me in what all places we had property to our names, let alone what the exact boundaries were. He felt it unnecessary to tell me that stuff. So, after he passed, I had trouble figuring out the exact boundaries. 

When I arranged for one of the village office officials to come do a land survey, I needed help. This particular empty property (the only bit in my name from my father's side) was very close to Uncle Festus' house. Even though it was against my best instincts, I asked him for help. He refused and I had to look like an idiot again. 

I decided that was that. Family or not, I needed to get away from such people in my life. 

"But I'm Family!"

Time passed. I moved onto better things career wise. The property finally came into my name and I decided to build a boundary wall to avoid any further confusion. 

Once word got out about this, Uncle Festus reached out - first through his people - and then in person the last time I was in Trivandrum. He wanted to do construction on the wall himself. I think you can guess what my answer was. 

"But I'm family!" he protested. 

But it wasn't about family. It was business. And you can't do business with someone you can't trust. 

What Goes Around Comes Around

There is another family property deal underway back home. It will come to around 50-60 lakhs for each of the 3 siblings' families. It was made possible by an advocate arranged by Uncle Festus with the deal being that he would be given 2 lakhs each by each of the 3 families. 

It shouldn't come as a great surprise that Aunt May at the last minute decided to completely cut out Uncle Festus from the deal after manipulating the advocate. So he has come back to me again for help. 

Even though I should probably feel pleased with this bit of karma, I actually don't. It's kinda sad that Aunt May is once again screwing over someone so close to her. 

I told him that if/when I get my share of money, I'd give him whatever he was owed. As much as I don't like him, he was still close to my father back in the day and I can't quite throw him under the bus completely like that. 

Conclusion

There is a fine line between karma and becoming just as bad as the people you despise and I don't want to cross that. Sometimes the right decision is not the most satisfying one. I don't expect Uncle Festus to particularly change as a person though. 

It's remarkable that Aunt May still has so many betrayals left in her at this ripe age. It's inevitable that she'll screw me over again too. If she isn't going to give 2 lakhs to someone who actually did a lot for her over the past few years like Uncle Festus, you can pretty much bet that she has no intention of giving me the equal share of the money that she is currently promising. 

That's just how it is with our family and it's a good thing I'm far from home right now.