Texas | 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)

I Don't Like Childish Girls — I Don’t Like Childish Girls

It’s a pretty bold statement when you say something about that you don’t like. But, no serious hate going on here. It’s just recently I came across one such not so adorable personality, who reminded me of so many things which makes girls irritating. I met a childish woman(not a girl, she was way above her twenties).

To start with first let me clarify, what I mean by childish girls?

A childish girl is, who is no longer a child (as per her age), not even a teen, so I would prefer to call her a woman, but who will try to speak like a child, when in company of others(specifically note down this point), to impress others by making herself look like some innocent girl lost in the woods.

Why I don’t like such girls? Well, here is a story to tell….

Once upon a time…. oh cut this crap……. When I came to live in a new city and a new job, I landed on a group of girls who seemed like just out from the movie, “Mean Girls”. They were always wearing high heels, fashionable brands, not actually wearing but flaunting the brands all over; will always walk in groups, even when they would go to loo; always have their sunglasses on, yes even inside office’s air conditioned and all covered building; would always talk in third person; and mostly be surrounded by guys.

Surprisingly, they refer all the guys of their group, as their brothers, or just friends 😛 preferably chosen to do chores for them. Yes, boys, lesson number one, if you think that you are just friend with a girl, who usually keeps you around for making, her life easier….. No, she is not that into you.

Coming back to The Group, their was one girl in the group, who always seems to me, as she didn’t belong their. She was always well spoken, more than just polite, infact like a child. Now, you know, where I am going….

Whenever, I use to talk to my friends about The Group, I used to say, how this one girl is so sweet and she even talks like a kid. She seems to be really nice, but lost, like Alice in Wonderland, in somewhat new world.

To give you a taste of how she used to speak, if you would ask her “have you taken your breakfast? She will replay back (Please try to read as some 5 year girl would say it), Ohhhhh, I totally forgot. 😦 I didn’t even had milk. What will I do now? Can you please take me to cafeteria? Will you go with me, Please, Please plzzzzzzzzzzz.”

Yes, I know. Laugh it off.

I was that naive to think of all this as “her innocence”. It all washed down, in a single day actually, when The Group decided to live with me, as roommates.

So, the very first day, I prefer to call it, the great eye opener day, firstly every brand of clothe came out and they were now in the dirtiest or I would say somewhat old and torn clothes. Contacts from eyes out, big ugly glasses, in. Straight hairs with shining gels out, messy hair with curlers, in. Hygienic attitude out, dirty laundry and dishes in bedroom, in. High class talk out, gossip about the girl in other cubicle, in. Hollywood movies and English shows out, Balika Vadhu and Kahani Ghar Ghar ki type, in. Not that any of this matters, as everyone is somewhat like this when at home. But…….

Most importantly, I heard a loud shrieking and never ever heard before voice, “One tomato is less in fridge, I have just brought it today from the market? Who has taken my tomato?”

Yes, she was the same innocent, child like polite girl screaming her lungs out for one tomato.

My experience over the years (yes, I managed to make it more than a year with them), told me that, she was using her childish behavior as a way to impress others and to make them love her more. When at home or alone, she was as normal, as everyone else. Just a fake…

Now, every time I saw a girl, sorry woman, talking like a child ( not when they are talking to a child), I just laugh in my head and say good bye to the child lady, to live in peace. 🙂