The fertile Bihar scam

 A fertile scam has been reported in Bihar where a gang fooled many males with fake pregnancy job offers. A group of fraudsters in the cow belt state known for scams and other notorieties, conceived an unusual method of scamming young men, by offering them hefty payment to impregnate childless women for an advance fee of a nominal amount. Unfortunately no sooner the advance fee was paid, than the scamsters became untraceable. The police has finally managed to arrest the gang who thrived long on the men's weird fantasy with some bonus of quick bucks a scope of turning into reality.

It brings me flashbacks from the year 1991. Months after Iraq lost the Gulf war to the American Allied forces, there was this serious rumor in Odisha - that there is a dearth of males in Iraq who perished during the war followed by high number of war widows. The Government of Iraq as relaxed its Visa rules to allow every able bodied Odia to enter as full paid house guests to procreate as many children as possible during their stay. 

Added to this myth - Only "SANDHA MARKA ODIA TOKA" (Bull Branded Boys) from Odisha, with tremendous physique and immense stamina meeting such demand would be granted this coveted Iraqi visa. Once the demand is fulfilled, the hosts and the guest had enough, plenty of offsprings produced, the male is free to return home.

Such kind of fantasy is not unusual in a sex starved milieu. It could be very well be the daydream of an Odia youth feeling hot after consuming a stomach full of PAKHALA for lunch on a hot day afternoon (PAKHALA is locally consumed water soaked rice blamed for the complacency and laziness of Odias as a race). Yet many bought the story and started enquiring if any agency was there to facilitate such trips to Iraq. 

Now fast forward to almost 35 years, I can see some parallels and history repeating itself in the neighborhood state of Bihar. The basic human nature has remained unchanged over the years, only the state and platform of expression has changed to social media which wasn't there in the year 1991. From Iraq to Odisha and Bihar, the dream of delivering paid progenies lives on !