DANGEROUS ARRANGEMENTS

MUCH BIGGER AND WAY WORSE

It appeared that one of my father's best friends was visiting Kerala at this time and had an emergency that required him to shell out more cash than he had brought with him on the trip.

Only having checks linked to a US bank account in his possession that would clear in two weeks and not having a bank account of his own in India, he required a connection at a local Indian bank.

To avoid losing money from the exchange rate to the foreign currency exchange dealers, he needed to draw on funds from an Indian bank that wouldn't charge additional transfer rate fees.

Aware that my parents held dual citizenship and had a bank account in India, he asked my father to cover the funds for him while he was in India, and upon returning to the US in a week, he'd write him a check for the money borrowed.

My father agreed and said he would call the bank manager (who was also happened to be his friend of many years) to release the funds to his friend.

But during the call, he was informed by the bank manager that there weren't sufficient funds in the account to cover the amount he was requesting.

Utterly confused, my father couldn't believe what he was hearing and assured the bank manager that this was some kind of mistake and that there were plenty of funds in the account to cover the transfer, and more.

But bank manager only continued to persist that this was not the case.

He went on to regrettably inform my father that this particular account belonging to my parents had less than $10,000 US dollars in it and that over the past few months, nearly $40,000 had been withdrawn by my brother Peter's wife Sherin.

The bank manager nervously went on to relay that Sherin, her mother, and brother would all come into the bank with pre-signed checks and withdrawal slips with my mother and father's signature on it made out to Sherin, her Mother, brother, Father and even her Grandmother.

He further explained that on more than one occasion, she withdrew Indian currency in the amount equivalent to $5,000 US dollars a day.

My parents, now literally beyond themselves, couldn't believe what was being told to them and demanded to know why they weren't notified about it even once over the last few months. My Father even exclaimed that he was just there for five weeks and that nothing was told to him about it even then.

But the bank manager quickly rebutted that he thought my parents were aware being that their daughter in law presented signed checks and withdrawal slips with both my parents' signatures on it and that she also had the bank passbook in her possession as identification whenever she made a withdrawal.

The bank manager went on to say that he did find it irregular that such large withdrawals were being made often, but that he didn't want to risk offending their new daughter-in-law by questioning whether or not she was authorized to do so.

This, of course, left my parents in total awe and disbelief, angrily hanging up the phone with the bank manager and without haste, calling for Sherin to come out of her room to speak with them in the living room to explain what exactly she did with all their money.

She had to have heard all of the commotions over the conversation with the bank manager as my husband and I could clearly hear every last word of the call from the den, which was situated further than where her and Peter's room was.

Now, light on her feet, she gradually appeared with Peter beside her, cautiously sitting down on the sofa, across from my parents and pensive looks on their face.

Already chock full of fake tears, she nervously asked my parents, what was going on?

Pretending that she didn't know why they wanted to speak with her, my father quickly arose from the sofa and began intensely pacing about the living room area, and sternly asking;

"What do you mean by, what happened? What happened is that almost $40,000 is missing from our bank account in Kerala!"

He went on to repeat what was told to him by the bank manager, making mention of the forged checks and withdrawal slips that my father and mother didn't authorize, along with her being accompanied by her relatives to bank, and the frequency and high amounts of withdrawals that were made without their knowledge or consent.

My mother interjected and then demanded to know where all that money went.

But Sherin just ignored her question and continued to dramatically wail as though someone was stabbing her with a knife, now blaring that she thought the money was her husbands and that she could withdraw it at any time, without hesitations.

I could see her doing her best to convince both my parents that she was somehow none the wiser, but she was not doing a very good  job of it.

She went on to claim that my parents didn't say that she couldn't take out any money from the account and so didn't understand why were they so angry with her because of it?

From the unobstructed views through the den doors, past the dining room, and into the living room, I could see my father now sitting helplessly next to my mother with one hand hard pressed against his forehead, staring at the floor beneath him.

Sherin without pause continued her rant about what she did with the money she stole from parents over the last ten months, plus.

She said she was helping her parents get out of debt from loan sharks who were threatening to harm them if they didn't pay.

But there was more to her story than what she was revealing.

My father sat completely still and almost lifeless as my mother reminded Sherin that every month without fail, she was given an additional $1,000 a month by my parents to spend after the bills and staff were accounted for at Karnavar's Villa, and the passbook was there only in the event of any emergencies, and not for any other reason.

My mother went on to firmly say to her that she was given these very directives concerning the bank accounts prior to my parent's departure to the US, shortly after Peter and Sherin's wedding last year.

But Sherin refused to let up and continued to hold her ground to the claims that she thought that the money belonged to her husband Peter, thereby, making it hers as well.

Hearing that for a second time angered me and I interrupted saying,

"If that's true, then why did you forge my parent's signature on the checks and withdrawal slips? It's not your husband Peter's signature that withdrew all of that money, it was my mother and father's signature you needed.

If the money was your husbands like you say you thought it was, you would only need his signature.

But you fraudulently forged my parents' signatures because you didn't want them to know that you were stealing from them, just like when you stole that money from my aunt's bag a few weeks ago."

Hearing me call her out immensely angered her, and she demanded that my parents tell me to shut up, not having the guts to look at me and tell me herself.

But much to her dismay, they didn't tell me anything.

Instead, they just put their heads down in heavy disappointment.

They knew what I had said to her couldn't refute the logic that in less than a year, she calculatedly forged my parents' signatures, and failed to mention anything about her taking out funds in astronomical amounts.

Sherin then broke the reflective silence looming with her shrieking voice by yelling,

"Daddy say something!"

("Daddy" was what she called my father, as did my daughter and my older brother's wife)

But my dad wouldn't peep a word and instead, quietly looked away. All of us and especially my husband, couldn't help but observe that he wanted to wrap up this dead-end conversation as quickly as possible.

My initial thoughts on his atypical reaction were that perhaps his pride was hurt because he was fooled by this supposedly virtuous village girl that he agreed to marry to his less than capable son.

But as time went on, we would regretfully come to find out the real reasons behind his haunting silence.

And it was much bigger and way worse than any of us could have ever imagined.