Sexual abuse | My Journey So Far….

The Imposter – When Real Life is more Riveting than Reel

What does it take to be someone else in hope of living your dream life? What does it take to welcome a loved in your life, who was taken from you, years back? What does it take to live a lie?

A lie of being someone else. A lie to see your son, in the face of a total stranger.

After watching this documentary movie, it took me an hour going through all the articles and interviews of the persons involved, to convince myself, that this was really a true authentic story and not a fiction.

Imposter, directed by Bart Layton, is a documentary based on the 1997 case of Frederic Bourdin, french national, who impersonated a missing American boy, Nicholas Barclay. Why this case is special, I will tell you later, but why this documentary is special, because it is so far being treated like a documentary.

Bart Layton has shown this story with both main protagonists sharing their views, and at the end this makes you wonder, if the victim is really a victim here?

Story is so riveting and thrilling that you will not believe it even when at the back of your mind, you always knew that this is based on a real life event.

Nicholas Barclay, a 13-year-old Texas boy went missing in 1994, never to be found, until one day a phone call from Spain says otherwise.

Bourdin is a 23-year-old man, who makes his way through life by impersonating teenage boys and living in child shelters. His life of lies is going on too well, until one day Judge asked him for his identity or go through finger print identification system. Fearing that he may get caught and imprisoned for life, he soon blurt out a new story that he is actually American and got kidnapped from there to Spain.

Through his ultra sharp mind and super cunning convincing skills he manage to strike gold when a missing boy from Texas, America, Nicholas Barclay seems to have the same description as Bourdin. Authorities now took control and lie is now so out of control that now even the creator of these lies, Bourdin has no power over it.

He tries to go with the flow, changing his color blonde, tattooing his hands, covering his eyes with big dark goggles and hiding himself in layers of clothing. But, are these enough, to fool a loving sister who has not seen his brother for last three years?

Looks like it is.

Nicholas’s sister didn’t even flinch seeing Bourdin for the first time. Infact she shows him all the family photographs detailing on every family member possible. It was enough for Bourdin to pass the authorities and acquire a US passport and citizenship.

His so-called mother, uncle, cousins…. everyone is convinced that he is Nicholas. Is he that good an actor/impersonator? Maybe.

Gaining confidence like never before, Bourdin’s tales now encompassed torture and sexual abuse by military personnel and child traffickers, raising alarms through every section of community from media, to private investigators and FBI too.

A private investigator suspecting story of Nicholas’s escape take special interest in this case and soon share his doubt to FBI agent Nancy Fisher, that this Nicholas has different ears than the one who went missing 3 years before. Nancy took this investigation further and take Nicholas to a forensic scientist, who also confirms that this Nicholas is a fake and is not raised by an American family. Only thing now needed to do was check his DNA and confirm all the allegations.

But, Barclay family denied. Nicholas’s mother refused to give DNA samples saying, “We know who he was”.

Why?

Why would you keep a total stranger in your home, when everyone including government is saying that he could be dangerous, in fact a spy or a terrorist?

A mother/sister no matter how desperate they are to get reunited with their long-lost family member, can ignore drastic differences of physical appearances of impersonator.

Nicholas had blue eyes, Bourdin had brown.

Nicholas had blonde hairs, Bourdin had black dyed blonde. Within their 3 months of stay they couldn’t see the color of his roots.

Nicholas would have been 16 if alive, and Bourdin was a 23-year-old man.

Nicholas had tattoos when he was 13, Bourdin had them fresh.

Most importantly, Bourdin didn’t recall anything from his past life. His school, his friends, his memories all lost. His accent totally different. Everything was different.

This documentary leaves you with so many questions. Most revolting is the one who Bourdin himself raised to authorities after being imprisoned for his deeds. He told them, that Barclay family has killed real Nicholas and they accepted him in their family to hide this gruesome killing.

Who is a victim here? Who to believe?

We may not know all the answers, but this story is far more thrilling than any other film story.

My take on Inferno – book by Dan Brown(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
Thousands of Mass. residents fall victim to imposter schemes(wwlp.com)
Caught out! Imposter posed as former Pakistan cricket star to trick the BBC into paying him repeatedly to appear on air as a pundit(dailymail.co.uk)

Many are saying that Zinta girl is trying to make an issue out of nothing, Or, creating a controversy when there is nothing to talk about, Or, it’s just a lover’s tiff, Or, it could be a jealous Zinta taking her revenge on ex boyfriend Ness, Or, it could be genuine case of molestation of a public figure by a rich spoiled brat.

It could be anything, but, when it comes to Preity Zinta, it can not be something just out of the ordinary.

For those who are not aware of what I am talking abut, Preity Zinta, once a top Bollywood actress, now a proud co-owner of Punjab’s IPL cricket team, has filed a molestation charge report with police, against her former boyfriend and current business partner, Ness Wadia of famous Wadia Group. Read her full statement here.

Well, there are so many cases of molestation than what is it that makes this one worth writing about?

What is different, is that this is not a sexual molestation case. It is physical and verbal abuse which take place at a very public place, in front of friends and relatives of both the parties.

Like all the other cases of abuse, in this one too, the lady, who was the victim, is being talked down by everyone, and not the abuser. No sexual abuse took place, so nobody is taking it seriously. One should have gone through a brutal rape maybe, to get listened by the societal hypocrites.

Just because she is a celebrity,it does not give a right for men to touch her or abuse her. Just because you belong to a rich family does not gave you a right to demean a woman’s dignity.

Whatever happened between them and why, will be solved and justice will be done, but what is commendable in this whole situation is the guts that Zinta has taken, to come out in the open and speak up of the mistreatment done. It just shows that even successful woman go through abuse of this kind by their own business partners. It shows that educated and cultured people who talk of high morals often treat their woman like crap.

Guess this time a Man’s Ego gets messed up with the wrong girl’s courage. The girl who can take a stand against the Underworld, can certainly fight hundreds of Wadia’s.