Karma and emails

In the beginning there were Nigerians. They perfected the art form of sending spam emails to millions of people enticing them to untold rewards, if only they would give out their bank accounts and deposit instructions. The emails generally are like this: “I am Mr. Obutu. I met your relative who gave me your name. Well, he died and I need to give his $10,000,000 to you...” Believe it or not, there were people who fell for the scam, and some Nigerians became quite rich.

I don’t get such emails any more. I guess my name has now been removed from most of the Nigerian mailing lists.

However, I do get lots of emails originating in India. The latest one told me that on June 21st I would see two suns in the sky, because a star called Aderoid (yes, that is the name) will be so close to earth that it would be as bright as the sun. I suppose the person who sent it believed in it and thought of alerting me to this amazing event lest I miss out.

This is just one example of many such emails I receive. Most are a collection of photographs, with elevator music playing in the background. The photographs are quite beautiful, actually, but they are the same ones repackaged countless times. The messages that accompany the pictures have to deal with pithy advice such as being nice to cats and other living things, because God loves you. Some others are threats---telling me that bad things will happen to me if I do not find 20 suckers to forward this email describing the power of God such and such (remember India has thousands of them).

Unlike the Nigerians, the Indians have developed a very sophisticated production and distribution system. Volunteer distributors, ‘nodes’ for those familiar with network jargon, are created and the message spreads virally. These emails come to me from people I trust----my friends and family members, not Mr. Obutu. So I open them, at least most of the time. The originator packages an email (where does he find the raw material?) and sends it out to a handful of initial fire starters. Then it goes in the Internet Ocean of volunteers who are keen to educate and entertain the world.

So, how do people become volunteer ‘nodes’? I receive my daily quota from several volunteers, and if you meet anyone of them, you would not suspect him/her to be a part of such an elaborate network. Nice, ordinary people. So, were they approached by someone in the middle of the night and asked to become a node or did they get an epiphany that this is what they should be doing? Also, how do they get their quota of messages of the day? Do they get them from anonymous sources every morning--like packets of information arriving at an Internet node--- ready to be forwarded to the next destination?

Of course, the big question is why such messages are created and spread around? Unlike the Nigerians, no one is getting rich. Yes, some of them spread the word of God, and so could be construed as a modern channel created by some religious zealots, but why would anyone send an email about two suns?

These are the mysteries of India and the answer perhaps lies in the belief that you need to do what is in your Karma. The email distributors have determined that this is their Karma. The Indian philosophy further states that you should not expect fruits for your labor. So now everything makes sense. It also leads me to believe that such an email factory and distribution system will continue to exist only in India. The Nigerians will have nothing to do with it.