Pay Now, Pray Later

Concept Holidays

Strolling on the sands of Candolim Beach one morning, I notice this youth lounging at a shack and looking us over predatorily. He begins walking over.

One hand immediately goes to my back pocket to feel for my wallet, and the other forward and down to check for an open fly.

Youth: Congratulations Sir and Madam, you have just won a free holiday in a foreign country.

Me: That’s not possible? We NEVER win anything !

This made the youth explain further: My name is Savio Pinto and I work for the Royal Goan Maharaja Resort Beach Club and you can win a free vacation in Thailand, if you will allow me to make an appointment for you to examine a new Holiday Concept launched by our organisation.

To win the vacation both partners had to be present at the appointment. I figured out later that this was a precaution; in case one signed a contract with them individually and the other found out and killed him, this would void the contract.

We went to the address and presented the card that Savio gave us and were let into a room filled with other couples, not unlike a dentist’s waiting room, except that this room had backdated, dog-eared copies of The Lonely Planet dating back to the sixties, with the illustrations torn out.

Every now and then a woman resembling Whistler’s Mother would come in and lead a couple off, leaving the rest of us to wonder what was going to happen to them. I thought maybe it would be like a college ragging session, where they would put us in a dark room and pour cow-pee over us and then present us with our Thai vacation. But as it happens you don’t get off that easy.

Finally our names were called and we went in to meet Simon. Simon always begins his sentences with, “Let me be frank,” and ends them with shaking your hand grasping it between both of his to let you know that he is the closest friend you have in the world. When Simon was born the doctor told the nurse not to go near his crib wearing her wedding ring.

Simon said that they did not just invite ANY random couples off the street to offer this new Holiday Concept. He said that they had spent a lot of time and money in research to ensure that we fit their high profile – not that they minded it, and we should not feel obligated - since they needed to ensure that no criminals were entertained, or they would not be able to make an offer to upper-class people like us.

I asked how they could carry out research on something like that. This made Simon very nervous. I think it suddenly occurred to him that we could be those very same criminals, and might be carrying weaponry, and he launched into a speech about “different modalities of circumvention, ” the underlying gist meaning that when he said they did not want criminals, he did not mean us per se.

Next Simon asked us where we took our vacations and we were educated on how we could get herpes from the bed sheets in hotels that had housekeeping & room services. This made us realise that whatever Simons’ holiday concept was it did not have housekeeping & room service.

Finally Simon let it be known that their holiday concept was Time Share Resorts. As he explained it basically, we were supposed to give them a couple of lakhs of rupees plus annual maintenance and we could have a 3 night / four day holiday every year at these Time Share Resorts of which Simons’ company had built a few and planned to build many more of.


Then he showed us a brochure to illustrate their Time Share Resort in Delhi, which had a nice picture of the Qutb Minar, although when asked about it, he said that the Qutb Minar was not technically on the resort property per se.

I said that until I had actually seen one of these resorts I could not be expected to put my money down. So Simon said there was one just outside. What we saw was an open-air boy-scout type camping ground with tents, video games and a wading pool. I told him that I would spend holiday time there only if this was one of the demands made by my daughter’s kidnappers.

So we went back inside and Simon lunged at us with his Special Offer, only available for that day:
For thirty thousand rupees plus annual maintenance charges we could become members of his resorts!
Plus, for a small annual fee, we could stay at RCI affiliated, Time-Share resorts world wide! There are thousands of them! They litter whole continents!
Plus we could get discounts at Amusement Parks! Essel World! Air Fares!
A Palace in Rajasthan! Limo Service! Several Palaces in Rajasthan!
Parasailing! Special front row seats to Kaun Banega Crorepati! A.R.Rehman’s English CD!

But we had to act today! Right Now! Before he made this unique offer to other couples waiting outside!

Any Questions?

Just one big one actually!

Did he think we had the same sheep–brains of the idiots who voted on American Idol, George W.Bush for President and the Goa Regional Plan 2011?

Sub-questions followed: What are you talking about? What Palaces? What Amusement Parks? How much of a discount?

Simon didn’t really know. He was more of a specialist in bed sheet hygiene.

Then he brought in his Bosco,his Marketing Manager who pulled out a lot of travel brochures and kept reading the headlines, as if they contained real information.

The whole ordeal took about two hours but we finally got our free vacation in Thailand. However as we had not purchased a time share, this offer was valid only in the monsoons,we had to get there on our own, and then travel North into the hills on donkey back, and we had to carry our own food and water.

All said and done, attending the presentation, assuming that you get through their strict screening procedure and are invited personally – I would say is a fun, family outing.

Those of you who are criminals, might want to use your illegal weapons to bypass the holiday concept presentation altogether and get the free holiday up front.