Below, I document a co-ordinated, well-thought out harassment campaign launched against me by my Bhikhari Mama (Beggar uncle). I have censured his kids’ phone numbers, but not his and his wife’s.

Bhikhari Mama’s Adolesence

To understand why Bhikhari mama is like this, you first need to get to know his personality and factors that shaped it. This Mama is my mother’s cousin (my mother’s father and the mama’s mother were siblings). We were very close when I was growing up, I used to spend at least a few weeks at his hovel in a small township near Asansol during my summer holidays (often with no electricity).

The worrying signs started when he graduated and “couldn’t” hold any job for any lengths of time. Eventually, we noticed that his mother had an iron grip on his career and would often tell him to leave jobs if they made him work “too much” or asked him to do “too much work”.

After a few years struggling like this, my father hired him as his personal assistant with his personal money and even bought him a computer. During that year, his job was to come to our place in Durgapur, play computer games, eat free food and then go home. Eventually we moved away and this arrangement could no longer continue, so my father got him a proper job in a company as a Data Entry Operator. I also grew up, and stopped visiting them every year, so we drifted apart.

Bhikhari Mama’s “Career”

Unbeknownst to me, Bhikhari mama was a pain in the workplace. He boasted to everyone that he had the blessings of my father (who was a big shot). He had unreasonable demands when it came to working hours and his work load and insulted people. His peers and bosses were probably intimidated by my father and didn’t tell him any of this.

The day my father retired, they kicked him to the curb. Over the next few years, my father and many of our relatives helped him get various jobs, but he couldn’t keep any of them. For one job interview, he spat on the interviewer and had his wife call him and curse him, too. Needless to say, he didn’t do any favours to my father’s reputation in the industry.

The Begging

Soon it became clear to him that he couldn’t earn any money, so he started begging. For the first few years, all the relatives, including my father and me gave him monetary support. But when it became clear that he had no interest in actually earning a living anymore, we all stopped. He kept begging from time to time, I sometimes gave him money, but not always.

During all this time, he never bothered to ask how any of us was doing. All messages were limited only to money.

Start of Harassment Campaign

He messaged me a few weeks ago, as usual asking for money.

Since he sounded extra desperate and I had some free cash, I paid him, messaged him and told him I will not be able to give any more and blocked him.

Not listening to my father and paying him was my biggest mistake and the start of the harassment campaign by the bhikhari mama.

WhatsApp

His harassment campaign started on WhatsApp.

First he messaged me from someone else’s number. When I blocked it, his wife messaged me. Rise and repeat with his son and daughter (Who frequently boats of thousands of social media followers, by the way).

Currently, my WhatsApp blocked list only has his family and friends.

Facebook

Having exhausted WhatsApp as an option, they all pivoted to Facebook.

Bhikhari Mama seems to make a new Facebook profile everyday, each with a different Hindu god’s photo.

Phone Calls

Having being blocked on social media, he pivoted to good old fashioned phone calls. I had to turn off my Indian number because he was calling so much and from so many different numbers. if I turned on my number, within 10 mins he would start calling from a new number.

What’s left?

For some reason, he transferred me ₹1. After a couple of weeks, he transferred me ₹1 again. I have still not been able to figure out what his endgame was, with this move.

Soon, he discovered that Google Pay can also be used for begging and started messaging me there. Luckily, Google Pay allows you to block people.

Turns out, even after you block someone from messaging you on Google Pay, they can still piggyback messages over transactions. So I had to block him wholesale.

What vile creature asks his children to beg someone for money? Last few days have been quiet, wonder how many more profile, phone numbers he will use.