Unbelievable!

The last month was a different kind of a hiatus from work. My personal life took over my sense of being so much that I was in no frame of mind to do anything productive – for which my clients have tried very hard to be forgiving and for which I am absolutely grateful. With the honest intention of resuming my work from the 1st of next month, I am trying very hard to get back on track and on track of my e-mails.

So, one day I got this e-mail from one of the websites where I advertise my content writing services and I dutifully replied. What followed after that was something totally unbelievable to me!

I mean, I had dealt with a whole lot of racism when I was working in the call-centre – where with every third call I took, I was abused for being an Indian when the customers couldn’t take better care of their bank accounts. It was a tough struggle to keep the nationalistic fervor out of my voice and be professional. Finally, when the whole ‘You fu**ing Indians’ thing got to me, and the headphones on my head gave me ear problems, I just quit.

But hey! What gives?

I am reproducing the e-mails in sequence and with e-mail addresses etc., so just read on…

E-mail 1:

Subject: Reply to your “Freelance Website SEO Blog Content Writer in Pune, India” Ad on Kijiji

You’ve received the following reply to your “Freelance Website SEO Blog Content Writer in Pune, India” Ad on Kijiji: 
From: [e-mail id deleted]

You can respond to [e-mail id deleted] by replying to this email

Hi, 
Could you send me two examples of your work, including your fees. I have some articles that need writing on a regular basis. 

Regards 

[name deleted]

E-mail 2:

From: madhavi@madhavighare.com

To:[e-mail id deleted]

Subject: RE: Reply to your “Freelance Website SEO Blog Content Writer in Pune, India” Ad on Kijiji

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:08:09 +0530

Hello [name deleted],
 
Thanks for writing to me.
 
You can download my portfolio (in PDF format) from my website www.madhavighare.com – just below the download links on the homepage, you will find a link that will take you to my Buzzle.Com page where you can find several examples of SEO articles that I have written for them.

I normally charge $10 per article (typically of 500 words).

Do let me know how this suits you and we can take this further.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Do write to me with your questions, comments or suggestions.

Thanks and Regards,

Madhavi Ghare

www.madhavighare.com
madhavi@madhavighare.com / madhavi.ghare@gmail.com

 

E-Mail 3:

From: [e-mail id deleted]

Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 7:27 PM

To: Madhavi Ghare
Subject: RE: Reply to your “Freelance Website SEO Blog Content Writer in Pune, India” Ad on Kijiji

Dear Madhavi
 

Thank you for your reply. I have looked at your examples of work, and because you write about Tarot, which is against my beliefs, I will not be using your services.
 

All the best
 

[name deleted]


E-Mail 4:

Dear [name deleted],

You have a very interesting reason for not hiring my services! Most people just quibble about the price!

Well, to be honest with you, I don’t just write about Tarot, I also read the cards professionally and also teach them to students who I feel are worthy. And for your kind information, I am not a worshipper of any Christian “Devil” – I am a Hindu – look it up on Wikipedia (here is a link for your reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism )… and although I have some very Christian imagery on the Tarot cards, I don’t condemn any religion – I only condemn the bigotry spread with the onset of ‘organized religion’ (which is so similar sounding to ‘organized crime’) – and even in my own religion and some of its practices are shunned by me and others like me – but then Hinduism is pretty much all-encompassing and diverse thought processes and debates are welcomed in its practice. 

When the Tarot cards entered my life 3 years ago – my life was in a mess – I was 6 years into Drugs and had emotional issues emerging from my early childhood and adolescence. As I studied the cards – their imagery and their mythological links, the symbolism, the numbers, I was fascinated. But it was only when I began to ask the cards for guidance about my life, that I found out that they revealed nothing but the truth to me. As I meditated with these images, I came closer to my own inner self and was able to find a way and a place to let go of my past hurts and forgive the people in my life who had hurt me. I found a way to be independent in my mind and soul and began my freelance writing career – something which was inadvertently revealed to me by the cards – you see I had always written stories, but never thought of it as a career. And I am clean (drug free) for the past 2.5 years now – without any outside help. It was only purely inner work with the cards.

So today, I use the cards to help and guide people about the different aspects of life – so obviously ‘the future’ is one small part of it. The other major parts of it include counseling and helping people find their way out of the different patterns and cycles in their lives. I want to reach out and help people with the cards, in the same way that the cards helped me.

It’s unbelievable how people who think like you actually get by in the world of today – where boundaries and geography and belief systems are simply manipulated by the politicians and religious fanatics for their personal / political gains – and it is even more amazing how you end up reminding me of another person who thinks that his belief system is the best and he is willing to do almost anything to prove it – remember a certain person called Bin Laden? All the religious fanatics are the same – only their religious belief systems are different. Are you trying to tell me that you are like that?

I follow the path of forgiveness and healing through the use of images which stir my inner self. 

And I most certainly do not go about proselytizing my belief system to others – a crime which several religious ‘missionaries’ have always committed!
I don’t really think that what one believes in their personal life has any bearing to their professional life – I mean after your e-mail it should be me refusing to work for you!

I have not shared all this with you with an aim of ‘converting’ you – I am simply trying to tell you to re-think the way you deal with people on a professional level because each person has every right to believe in a system which works for them and if they are not imposing their thought processes on their work, neither should you. Yes, I have written articles on Tarot, but only when I was paid to do so. I have my own Tarot blog where I write what I want about the use of the cards. But these articles on Buzzle.Com were written professionally just like the articles on painting garage doors and kidney failure! And I was paid good money for writing them! They thought I was a good person to write these articles because I did my research well, and because I like to write on different subjects otherwise I get bored (yup – there was no ‘religious’ angle to it!).

So following my belief system – I will try my level best to forgive you. You know not what you say….

Thanks and Regards,

Madhavi Ghare 
www.madhavighare.com
madhavi@madhavighare.com / madhavi.ghare@gmail.com

Oh yes! People like this DO exist in this world!

How far has ‘civilization’ really come? Is this the world of today?