Outrageous, bold and deadlyÂ…no wonder the media loves it. Every single time I turn on the TV or glance at Google News, I catch the latest development in the saga of Jennifer and George Hyatte, the outlaw married couple whose adventurous last few days read like a gangsta rap wet dream.
A US inmate has escaped after his wife shot dead a guard who was escorting the prisoner outside a courthouse in the state of Tennessee, authorities say.
Police say George and Jennifer Hyatte fled the scene in Kingston in a vehicle which was later found abandoned.
A hunt is under way for the former prison nurse and the escapee, who is described as “extremely violent”.
After that daring escape, the terrible twosome was on the run; they headed to Ohio (said, A, O, way to go Ohio) and got in a cab with one deliciously skeptical Mike Wagers. Wagers, their driver, made small talk that would later lead to a dramatic capture:
“The cover story they gave me didn’t really seem to wash too much,” Wagers told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Thursday. “I mean, I could kinda see through that. But I had no indication that these guys were really dangerous or they were on the run.”
They claimed they were heading to a sales conference of Amway, the household goods manufacturer. But, says Wagers, “They didn’t strike me as the Amway type, because, to be honest, they weren’t very pushy about their product. And I’ve dealt with (Amway salespeople) before. So that was my only real suspicion.
Genius.
What about you? Have you enjoyed the fervent courtship of an Amway-ite? I know they’re everywhere but I was never approached, annoyed or harassed until I moved back to DC this year. It started near the Pentagon. I had returned to my second hometown for a wedding, but ended up extending my ticket because I was enjoying myself. The only problem? I had flown here in mid-Autumn. When it was still “nice”. I came with one suitcase, filled with Kanchipuram and pajamas, since theoretically I’d always either be at some wedding function OR I’d be sleeping. Silly me, I didn’t bring a coat.
On one memorable weekend jaunt to Costco, I couldnÂ’t take the shivering any longer, so I wandered over to the other side of Pentagon Centre, to the closest clothing store. Mindlessly, I tried on jackets, fiddling with zippers, testing hoods, debating choices in front of the full length mirror.
“That one is nice,” a very timid, sweet voice commented.
I turned around to find a petite, pottu-wearing, curly-tressed South Indian woman with a stroller. I thanked her and thought about buying the coat she had complimented, since I was in a hurry to get out of there. I smiled past my reflection in the mirror, at the pure and virtuous picture she presented. She was rocking the stroller back and forth behind me and she looked hesitant. My heart started to melt. Had it been difficult for her to approach me? She was so quiet, I was shocked that she had randomly said anything to a stranger, even if it was a brown one. It just didnÂ’t seem consistent with her demure image; she was the exact opposite of scenery-masticating me.
I took the coat off and started to walk away, on my way to the registers.
“Escuse me, are you from India?”
I whirled around and smiled again. I actually hate that question, but she was too nice to hate on…”My parents were from Kerala. And you?”
“Oh, I am from Chennai!” she replied eagerly. It was clear that I wasn’t going to be leaving the store anytime soon, especially after she blurted out how she’s new to the DC area and didn’t know anyone. The story just kept yanking on my elastic heart strings; she was younger than me, away from her family, a new mother, friendless and intimidated by swamp city—a place I have always maintained is ruder than NYC, but that’s another post—I was totally her bitch by the time she finished expelling her breathless tale.
When she asked me if I’d like to come to dinner sometime, I did that bizarre internal double-take where I immediately knew that if this person weren’t South Asian, I wouldn’t even consider it. I didn’t have the time to get in to an examination of my personal biases so I told her “maybe” and resolved to debate myself later, when I wasn’t rushing around with a to-do list.
“Oh, but you MUST come to our home!” a voice boomed, from somewhere near Junior Sportswear. It was a man, obviously husband and father to the two I had been gazing at for the last few minutes. He introduced himself as Hari and said that he had overheard me say that I was Mallu. “And…what is it that you do?”
I laughed nervously. This was my one-year sabbatical (a concept that no Brown adult besides my saintly mother grasped) and I hated that question, too. “I’m in town for the week…I work at Scores,” I replied mischievously. I had guessed that he wouldn’t have the foggiest idea what that meant, from the lack of recognition on his face, I was right.
“Uh, okay. Well, are you interested in increasing your income? I own a business and IÂ’m trying to hire a few people. My wife seems to really like you, so you’re probably a great candidate!”
He handed me a very boring business card that told me nothing besides his full name and cell-phone number. I disregarded the “holdings”, “limited” and other nonsense.
I was starting to get uncomfortable; my friends would undoubtedly be wondering where the hell IÂ’d wandered off to and something about his card and demeanor was making my spider sense tingle.
“THERE you are, ANNA!”
Startled, I turned around to see one of my friends. He looked at the couple oddly and then stared at me with a gaze so meaningful, I knew something was up, I just wished I knew WHAT.
“We’re leaving, now. We’ve been waiting for you, let’s go. She has to go.”
“But…my…coat?”
“No time, we’re late.” And with that, the outerwear was snatched out of my hand, its hanger hooked haphazardly on a display that showed off J.Lo separates.
“Nice…meeting you!” I called out, as I was unceremoniously yanked out of the store.
Once outside, I demanded an explanation.
“They weren’t being social, TRUST ME. They’re probably doing some Multi-level Marketing crap…anyway, if you knew how much trouble I just saved you from, you’d be thanking me.”
Um, okay. Whatever.
Back into Costco I strolled, still shivering. I temporarily forgot my goose flesh and became transfixed by the Chanel bag that was locked in the display case near the front. IÂ’ve been to Costco stores in four states and NO other location carries Chanel purses, for CocoÂ’s sake. The D.C. Costco must be respected, y’all.
“Are you from India?”
What the-?
A South Asian man was smiling at me. He told me that his name was Sanjay, he was from India and that he lived in the area.
“What do you do?” Sanjay asked.
“Oh, are you KIDDING ME?” it was my erstwhile Kshatriya in shining armor (if by armor we mean Paper, Denim and Cloth). Sanjay was suddenly very excited.
“Hello, are you from India too?” he started to reach for his business cards.
“No,” my friend snapped. “I’m from the United States of AMWAY SUCKS.”
I started to walk away and I didnÂ’t turn around as SanjayÂ’s voice grew more desperate, louder.
“You don’t know what you’re missing—extra income! You should judge for yourself by meeting with me!”
Somewhere in the bakery, when we had successfully put the entire store between us and Pushy McPusherson, my exasperated friend turned to me and said, “Twice. In less than twenty minutes. It’s unbelievable, like they can smell you or something. You HAVE to stop talking to these people.”
I was still too befuddled by the insanity of the past hour to really listen to him. I couldn’t stop pondering this new truth that my mind refused to wrap around—“Brown people sell Amway?”
:+:
Apparently, they do. While browsing around today, I learned that the blogger behind Instant Kaapi (don’t you just lurve the name?) Hemanth has walked in my shoes, and unlike awkward, stumbling me, baby, he can strut:
What are the chances of you being approached by fellow Indians with a ‘Business proposition’ at a Barnes & Noble or a Borders Bookstore, five times in a day! I would say pretty good
HemanthÂ’s post, When you hate “earning extra Money”! has the best suggestion that IÂ’ve ever encountered for dealing with these uncomfy situations:
X: Anyway hemanth, I would love to be in touch with a Business man like you. Can I have your phone number and email?
I offer a smile, ask him for a pen and a piece of paper, write down the Phone Number and the Email ID from the Card he just handed over to me, on a piece of paper and exit the Store.
Genius.
It’s not quite the same, but I had someone approach me about purchasing pre-paid legal services….2 weeks before I graduated from law school 🙂
this thread is too rich.
re: jehovah’s witnesses and such, you guys ever have hare krishnas try to proselytize you? that’s pretty entertaining too.
peace
oh my god I had a friend try that one on me! He was a sweet guy, just really not the “work” type of person, but his musical career just wasn’t bringing home the big dollars. So inevitably every 6 months or so he’d fall into another one of these stupid invasive marketing ideas– Amway, timeshare sales, and then the pre-paid legal services. UN-freakin-believable. At the time I was maybe 22, so my answer was something like “what legal needs do I have, beyond fixing a traffic ticket?” But he was dead insistant that my future was looking so grim I would definitely want to consider pre-paid legal services… I think he did a stint with some evangelical outreach, later on…put a real damper on his career as a hard-core funk musician when he kept witnessing to people at shows…
cicatrix, abhi and saheli, i’m so happy to know i’m not the only pariah in the world of amway. =) i wonder what it is about me that has turned all amway reps off? do i exude a certain funk?
i’ve been approached by people all the time who ask if i’m indian and if so, from where. those conversations never went further than: oh i’m from bombay or do you speak hindi?
i must also admit that i’ve never been approached by a jehovah’s witness. the only time i ever accidentally had an encounter with one was when i was at my boyfriend’s cousin’s house on halloween and i saw two guys dressed in suits. i opened the door to give them candy and then realized they weren’t boys playing dress up but men with pamphlets in their hand. they departed after a moment…which is unique, from what i’ve heard.
yeah, it must be my funk.
DesiDudeInAustin
I agree with you and always believe that “intelligence has very little to do with academic degrees”.
And let me tell every one about Amway/Quixstar/blah blah blha, all these suck and it shows so many stupid people around us and they still believe that they are going to be stinking rich by joining Amway.
One suggestion, next time your some one approaches with this Amway things and the moment you find out he/she is talking about Amway, say that person this “I am very interested to invest in Amway and you were looking for the opportunity. How can I invest $1 mil. in Amway.” If he can give you any lead that would be so best help you ever got in your life. Make sure to say that you interested of owning share of Amway not their stupid Pyramid chain.
Go to this site if you want to know how Amway/Quixtar are cheating people.
http://www.letsgetthewordout.com/amway-quixtar-blog/merchants_of_deception/archives/amway_quixtar/amway/
Read here NBC DateLine investigation
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4375477/
If Amway can find so many people to distribute their products (associates?) its obvious that someone gets to collect the (entrance fee?) from these people. So does that person make some easy money ?
the thing that makes these pyramid schemes go is that the last guy in the pyramid/food chain is the one out of cash so he has to keep selling to recoup his costs. Thus the plague spreads.
Has anyone ever been to one of those large Amway/Quixtar shindigs that take place in convention centers? Is it true that 50%+ of the people attending are desi?
i haven’t been nor ever will I, but my wife’s friend who is a Quixtar junkie has told us it’s pretty much massively desi. The sad part was she tried to get my wife into it as a start to ‘owning your own business/destiny’ and ‘come to DC w/ us and we’ll hang out and meet tons of new indian ppl and have a party’…it took me a wk to convince my wife that it was a scam…she’s too naive sometimes…
Do they not do this to white people?
they’ll do it to anyone but it’s harder for them to be taken seriously by white folks. They prey on desi’s by pulling at the cultural hearstrings like they did Anna. It’s much easier to start a conversation when you’ve laid down a familiar base and used the time proven ‘desi bhai’ icebreaking routine. It’s harder for Gopal Venkatarmanisubramaniam to approach Bob Anderson and find common ground. Other than the fact that Gopal probably got Bob’s job in the outsourcing boom. j/k
I have actually been accosted by more white folks than Indian folks w/ Amway/Quixtar. Once when I was 19 and had no idea what Amway was, some random guy came up to me in the hardware store and told me I looked like a smart guy (i had a huge mushroom hair cut, 3 earrings and was just a punk back then) and that I was exactly the type of person he was looking to help since he made $50k/month….i was all excited and it took my dad 2 wks to convince me that this was a scam. I wondered how he knew. Then I went to take a shower and of course, there was sitting a bottle of Amway shampoo which chemically burned my scalp….:(sigh):
That goes down as a documented case of ‘the burnt child avoids the pyramid scheme’.
Thanks for the links Asis.
uh, if you exude a funk, we should bottle it and sell it. turning off amway/avoiding detection is a GOOD THING. let’s reframe this for you: instead of feeling excluded and ostracized, feel fortunate.
speaking of bottling it, once we do that, each of you is responsible for recruiting five more
pigeonsprospects and bringing them to the nextpresentationer, meetup. 😉All you need to say when approached by an indian dude selling AMWAy dreamz is “Ki pasa,hablas espaniol”.You shud have been there to see the look the guy gave me because he was pretty sure i was dicking with his judgement.
“First, let me assure you that this is not one of those shady pyramid schemes you’ve been hearing about. No sir. Our model is the trapezoid!”
This thread is hilarious. andrea beat me to the suggestion of the ASSFART acronym going American. “New Orleans’ own NOSSFART” sounds funny, but isn’t as puerile as real flatulence. We really need to set up a membership page. A vial of holy water and 3 free repulsive techniques if you join NOW!
Yeah, I had an Algerian Hare Krishna walk with me to my flight at JFK trying to convince me that my interpretation of the Gita was wrong. A part of me thought it was amusing and pretty cool in a “transcending culture” kind of way, and another was going “WTF?!” Ditto for Amway.
Oh, my mom once bought a tub of Amway powder detergent to get one of her friends off her back. It turned her black clothes grey, and that was the end of that.
P.S. As for women selling Amway, like ANNA said. The pottu-sporting ones with Bambi eyes are the most lethal.
wait…does this mean that none of you is interested in bottling anti-amway funk? i promise that b/c we’re a trapezoid scheme, we’re ASSFART-approved.
am i the only chrissie hynde fan here? no one else caught the pretenders reference? tsk-tsk.
http://assfart.blogspot.com
I feel like a proud daddy now.
I got approached by a desi guy i a mall last week. Unendign conversation – the usual- where from., working where, etc etc. All the while he was trying to hold my hand. Kept saying “we have to meet up on weekends ” etc. Had a tough time esacaping him. But he wasn’t Amway. He was gay.
Evangelical conservatives think they’re the same thing. Gay conversions– run!
Ironically the closest thing to an Amway revival is an evangelical revival.
I had some short-lived joy when I was a freshman in college and a White dude started talking to me in bangla. So sad when I found out he was only in it for the God angle.
I never get Amway people attacking me either…I’m shocked that so many people have. I did get this weird e-commerce pitch over and over and over from a guy who made t-shirts for me for work. He wouldn’t tell me what it was about–had to show up to the seminar.
I said no 🙂
cica,
i once spent about a half hour trying to convince a jehovah’s witness (or some variation thereof) that she should support the free burma movement on the same grounds that she supported getting into the afterlife.
It was aggravating…I think for both of us 🙂
“In the early 1980s, Paul and his friend were recruited into the Amway business.
“Paul used Amway techniques in many facets of his life… Although Paul didn’t make much money from Amway, the philosophy he embraced from it and other motivational mavericks justified his own crude and selfish longings.
“As he and his friends cruised the bars every night, they spun fantastic stories about who they were to any pretty girl that was naive enough to believe their lies.
“By the time Paul went to college at the University of Toronto, his sexual fantasies had developed a dark side. Forceful anal sex was his preferred means of pleasure… He began beating up the women he dated.
“In 1987, Paul became the “Scarborough Rapist” in the Toronto suburb in which he lived…”
The rest of the story is too sick to get into here and of course that means Hollywood used it as inspiration for two films (8mm and Karla)
Really? You guys are too nice. You gotta try take the game to a whole new level.
After the usual “Hi. How are you doing?” and “Are you from India?” will come the inevitable “Are you interested in increasing your income?”. You’ve got to wait for this question. Very, very key. After every “stupid question” comes the “witty comeback”. Here, in the public interest, are some snappy answers to stupid Amway questions.
Q. Are you interested in increasing your income? A. Yes! Can you make me a quick star?
Q. Are you interested in making more money? A. Yes. I believe in Truth, Justice and the Amway.
If that doesn’t shake him off, remember that you can always continue the theme. I can tell you more, folks, but alas, I can’t give it to you. This sort of stuff must come from within. And where you can go with this is limited only by your imagination.
Q. Are you interested in making more money? A. Yes. I believe in Truth, Justice and the Amway.
Q. Oh, I am not from Amway! A. Oh, sure, tell me more. With my super-brains and super-sstrength, I am sure I could use some super-money.
Q. You don’t know what you are missing. A. Brains not working, must overcome the field, ahh.. must be the Kryptonite. I’m Clark BTW. And you are?
I was once accosted in the Albertson’s near my house, the one I always go to, while trying to buy some frickin’ milk. Dude comes up to me, and says that he is from , and asked me where I was from. I wish I treated the situation differently. Remember – grocery aisle milk products aisle requires grocery aisle milk products humor.
Q. So. How is work at your company? A. It has been pretty good. My group has so far been a cash cow for the company.
Q. Where do you work? A. I work at this small company called the “Daily Planet”.
Q. How do you like your job? A. Not too bad, not too bad. Hmmm, can you see through these walls?
The rest, folks, I leave it up to you. I would advise treating the situation with the wit and humor that it deserves. And then, you actually start looking forward to meeting these lovely folks.
I truly might hold the world record for having been contacted by more Ambots than anyone else. Quite an emotional roller coaster it has been. Started with shock and disbelief, turned to anger and hatred, mellowed to indifference and now has matured into pity. Pity because every one of these poor suckers isn’t just the conman (conperson?). They are also the mark. You take them as the greedy stalkers, but before that they are victims themselves.
I have attended three of their conferences. First one out of ignorance, the other two out of the morbid curiosity of a scientist studying the green stuff that grows under rocks and feeds on worm $hit. Never before in my life have I come across a lot which is more brainwashed, programmed and so complete in their denial of reality.
What level of IQ and logic does it take to understand that Amway/Quixtar is a ZERO sum game? For the guy on top to make millions, a thousand dimwits at the bottom need to lose their moolah.
But I suppose that if Amwaying is a crime, it’s just a bigger crime to let a sucker and his money stay together. Some people learn by watching other people’s mistakes. The rest have to pee on the electric themselves.
This is a great thread. I myself was victim of Ambots. I came from India for short visit and I am accousted by 2 fellow indians separately. One of them had taken me to the Quixtar conference and taken my cell(asked to read some books and view CDs). I am waiting when he contacts me again and i will get rid of him. The second guy, also will have same fate. Thanks to this post for giving gr8 ideas and education about them.
Pity on ambots, they are highly educated and want to make their dreams without working hard. Once again thanks to this post.
Wow! I had no idea that this was such a widespread phenomenon. I was hit by these quys too! I think these folks I ran into might have been aces that have been doing this for a while now.
I’m an American-born Desi. My father ran into one of these characters at the DMV and gave him my contact information for whatever reason (probably because he was good at Desi small-talk).
So this guy contacts me over the phone, makes small talk about himself and my father, and asked me if I might be interested in an e-commerce venture. He wanted me to hear a presentation at a place that was just minutes from where I live so I figure why not; I’m open-minded to business opportunities.
So I show up at this guy’s private residence and there are maybe half a dozen Indians there and another Asian fellow.
The presenter was sharply dressed, well spoken, humorous, low-key fellow who outlined a so-called “e-commerce business opportunity”. There were comparisons to McDonalds franchise business model, lots of talk Quixtar being affiliated with various Fortune 500 companies like Panasonic, Staples, whatever. But then he talked a bit about this plan and it started to sound a little dicey, kinda like, well, the Amway pyramid scheme (I didn’t know Quixtar was just Amway on the Internet at the time). But then he talked about how it wasnÂ’t at all like a pyramid scheme.
A couple other people spoke. After they were through talking, we made small talk and they spoke with me about some kind of larger seminar going into greater detail as to the whole business model. Again, these were older people, well spoken, seemingly well-educated professionals who were low-key; their attitude wasnÂ’t “OH MY GOD THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER!!”, it was more like “just listen with an open mind and see if it’s something you’d be interested in”. There was actually nothing that screamed scam at the time.
But things got fishier when this guy handed me a CD and a pamplet as I was leaving. A shrink-wrapped CD and pamplet?? So I get home and do some research into Quixtar and learned all kinds of fun stuff about the Quixtar/Amway phenomenon.
Needless to say, I won’t be attending this seminar. IÂ’m saddened that this phenomenon is so widespread and that many young hopeful Indian students get suckered into it. But I also wonder why. IÂ’m as gullible as the next guy and even I wouldnÂ’t go anywhere near this! Just doing some googling will bring up a Dateline NBC transcript and a Forbes article about this phenomenon, as well as extensive Quixtar/Amway bashing with literally hundreds of “DonÂ’t get suckered into this like I did, please stay away” testimonials. So how is it still spreading??
obviously not enough people read US yet. 😉
in all seriousness though, thanks for leaving such an extensive comment. i love that this post and the discussion it has sparked has warned/is warning others about this b.s.
Hmmm…I’ve never been accosted by Amway people either, inspite of living in the US for 6 years. I have been talked to by random desis in grocery stores a couple of times, but the conversation never got too far.
Maybe I possess the “funk” too 🙂
Well, a lot of people say that I look/dress/act more latino than desi, esp after my salsa fixation began, so that might be it 😀
Unfortunately these amway/quixstar parasites are everywhere and growing in numbers. There is a huge desi contingent that has been lured into these schemes and these desis are making life hell for other desis at malls, indian stores, costco’s, walmarts, or any other place where there is a congregation of indian people. I have been accosted by such parasites at least 10 times over the past 3 years. These parasites have some common pick up lines like:
~ “Hi i think we met at the part last weekend”. The naive desi will often try to correct the parasite and say “oh no i dont think we met” to which the parasite responds “oh may be not but you look just like the person i met last week at the party”, next the parasite begins to introduce himself, asks about the desi’s job, home, etc etc etc.
~ “Oh you think this brand of cookies is worth buying, whats your opinion”. In this case the parasite is trying to synch up conversation. The conversation very quickly moves from cookies to where are you from shit and then to the business proposal
~ “Hi do you work at HP”, very very commonly used here in the SF bay area. Typically the desi turns around and says oh no i dont work for HP but for agilent or intel or yahoo or whatever else. The parasite then starts his conversation and says how he used to work for one of these big name tech firms and how he now makes 10 times more money doing his fking quixstar gig.
Have any of you seriously considered t-shirts that said “I hate amway/ quixtar” or “i am not interested in your stupid pyramid scheme!” I am thinking of at least a badge of that sort that i can wear as my protective shield when i go shopping. Two accosts in one day 🙁
Heh. Never once 🙂 Not in the Bay area, and not elsewhere. I am blessed it seems.
The head of Amway is now running for governor of Michigan… Lord help us…
Hi guyz
Just want to inform you all that Quixtar is legitimate and a fantatsic oppurtunity.If some monkey writes in his blog something then a 30 year old system, a 7 Billion dollar company making millionairs just next to MS will not be scamstar. I spend day and night doing this business and I make real good money.Also the impact is in all spheres of my life.
My relationships with people has been improved.I got outstanding achievement award in the office because of the education involved in this business.I have fans now across nations.I have started writing my book now…what not !!It has been a dream come true for me.
You need to ask one question to urself before believing anybody : If you want to learn cricket whom will you listen , sachin tendulkar or your manager or your grandfather or a monkey(see above) who dose’nt knows about this business but speaks/writes about it at length.
Wise man will always take a decision after seeing both side of coins.Make sense ..right!!
Let God improve these concrete minds Aameen.
A Proud Quixtar leader Buidling leaders, Educating success
Dear Saur I am sorry Saur, will pray for you in the next harekrisha local prayer meeting- you are really brainwashed into quickstar. But yes- Quickstar is a good revenue model- though only for the top guys who can get gullible guys like you. Though of course from the confidence in your mail, it seems that you are too deep in the shit to see anything outside. Btw do you really want to make money- I have schemes for doubling your money in 15 days flat. If interested, do give your email ID- always on the lookout for promising guys like you.
They are brainwashed cult members. I went to a walmart in Lewis Center, OH twice this month and both times I found two very friendly Desis who managed to get my telephone number. I told them that I am a highly successful doctor, but they still wanted me to be a part of Amway. Both were Platinum IBOs. They told me their business model. Just recruit other people. I asked, “You are a recruiter and want me to recruit other people and I will get a cut from the product sales. BUT WHO IS SELLING THE PRODUCTS. I ONLY SEE RECRUITERS. HOW IS THIS COMPANY MAKING MONEY. I then found out company and upline(people WAY.. above you in the pyramid) make money by selling mandatory CDs, attendance fees for seminars etc TO THE IBOs. Nobody sells the products to ordinary civilians like us. 80% of the products (shampoo, soaps vitamins etc) are consumed by IBOs themselves. All of these IBOs loose money as they have to buy CDs and attend these pricey indoctrination seminars/meetings. It is like a lamb, handing a knife to a butcher.
One more thing. They are on H1Bs,F1s etc and by joining Amway as IBO they are violating their visa terms for unauthorized work. This has been confirmed by lawyers including Sheila Murthy. They get a tax form called 1099-MISC form from Amway which has to be entered in the tax return and is thus admission of violation of VISA terms. They can get into big trouble with USCIS if they get caught or if somebody takes a look at their income tax return during visa interview.
I pity them, but I also hate them for pulling innocent FOB desis into this shit and also making me think that every desi with a smile is an Amway Scumbag.
I was new to the US, I met an Indian man at the local post office. He was very friendly and told me how he was self employed. I was new and easily trust people, specially when they talked in Hindi as that is my mother tongue. The man then invited me to a meeting, he asked me to dress formally. I was charged 30$ entree fee. In the meeting I saw hoards of people all dressed very well and on stage a select few people doing a presentation of how rich they were and all the good things in life they had, during dinner break I was shocked to see there was no dinner served! If every one there is so rich and the meeting was of filthy rich people and 30$ entree fee I was expecting a dinner! I was amazed to see these men and women in suits pull out wall-mart bags of home made food from their swanky leather briefcases and eating while they stood out of the hall, no table chair to have dinner, having directly from plastic bags standing. I was truly amazed. The man who got me to the meeting then asked me to fill form and pay couple of hundred dollars, I dint want to so I said I need to think. His wife was very good looking and she was a very sweet lady, he knew I enjoyed her company so he made sure she was the one who explained me the business when I went to his house. He would go to get Ice cream or some crap and leave us alone so she could explain me in detail about the Marketing crap. She would call me when he was not home so she could explain to me everything about the business, she did a great job. She tried her best to convince me to join their growing business, she was very warm lady full of hugs at smallest reasons, she hugged me a lot and told me she felt I was her long lost relative and she hugged me saying I was part of their family. I also made him pay for a few dinners in hope I will join, later he understood I am not interested and gave up.