Tuesday 31 July 2012

TAKE CARE OF UNSOLICITED VISITORS

Several unsolicited visitors come to our residences daily, as a normal routine, under the pretext of carrying out some survey, selling some product, creating awareness, giving free samples, seeking some works, seeking a room on rent, asking for some information or for making some observations. Under the garb of doing a survey, they want to ascertain details of all the costly items in the house. Some of them may even be passing on this information to wrong hands. Some years back one person came to our residence unannounced, giving the reference of some friend of my father. Having come for some work, he wanted temporary stay for 1 to 2 days in our house. This request was accepted. We provided all facilities like separate bed room & bathroom & food etc. But after a few days, on some pretext or the other, he did not leave and continued to stay in our house, enjoying all facilities. It came almost to a month, with no indications of his leaving. My mother was worried. First of all he was not a known person and secondly he had taken undue advantage already & overstayed too long. We did not know for sure, what he was doing here and what he was doing in his home town. Ultimately one fine day my father decided to ask him to vacate the room. He was reluctant and wanted some more time, which was refused. He was threatened that police will be called. Then with great reluctance he left, never to be seen again. When we wrote a letter to our father’s friend, he informed that he never sent any such person. On receipt of this reply, we were totally upset. We were wondering about the whereabouts and motives of that person. We were however happy that nothing untoward had happened in the house like injury to any person or loss of any item. Probably he was an unemployed person and wanted free boarding and lodging facility for some time. He might be doing like this with some other persons as well. Nowadays internet (especially Face Book) friendships are also increasing, but the big problem here is that many people do not disclose correctly (or hide) their age, sex, occupation, status and other personal details. In some cases, some such friends have suddenly appeared when least expected and even some untoward incidents are said to have occurred. Such events may even be repeated in future. Some may be having nefarious designs in their minds. Our personal life and finances are certainly more important than this so called friendship. Hence it is very necessary to reconsider all things from the point of view of safety and security and to take adequate care of all such visitors as stated above.

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