The Story of 99 Onions, 99 Whips and 100 Gold Coins : A Lesson for Immigration and Life
Recently, I heard a story in a video by Amit Sangwan Ji. I call him Guru Ji. The story was very good and very appropriate because it applies to every part of life. I thought about how the same story applies to immigration, how people apply it to immigration, how they bring it into their lives and how they eventually face problems.
The story is about a person living somewhere in a kingdom who commits a crime, maybe theft. After that, the king tells him that he has three choices. The first choice is to eat 100 onions. If he eats all 100 onions, his punishment will be complete and there will be nothing else. The second choice is to take 100 whips. If he takes 100 whips, his punishment will also be complete. The third choice is to give 100 gold coins, and then his punishment will be complete.
The person says that he will eat the onions. The king gives him 100 onions. He starts eating them, one after another, and after eating 99 onions, he says that he cannot eat anymore. He says, “Now hit me with the whips.” He is then given the whips. After receiving 99 whips, he says that he cannot take another one. He is told that only one whip is left and that after taking one more, he will be free. But he still refuses. Finally, he says that he will give 100 gold coins. He gives the 100 gold coins and is finally released.
This is what generally happens in life. First, we eat 99 onions, then we take 99 whips and finally we give 100 gold coins before we are able to get out of the situation. In many places, people make mistakes like this. The mistakes and the resulting losses are like eating the onions and taking the whips, and finally we give the gold coins.
1. How This Story Applies to Immigration
The same thing happens with immigration. The guidance is very straightforward: if you want to settle in a particular country, go to that country. Invest your money in that country only once. Put your effort into the country where you want to settle.
If you have to take the English test 100 times, take it 100 times. Take the English test 10 times or 20 times if required. Clear the test, work hard and go to Canada or New Zealand. That is better because you invest your money once and then go there for PR. The recommendation is normally to make the effort once and apply properly.
But people first want to eat the onions, then take the whips and then finally give the 100 gold coins to get out of the situation. This becomes a habit, and after that people blame immigration consultants. The point is that if you are foolish, someone will take advantage of that. People may think that the consultant made them foolish, but the problem is that when someone is not aware, someone else can take advantage of that lack of awareness. Politicians can do it, businessmen can do it and everyone can take advantage when someone is being foolish. People with wrong intentions are present in the market, and you can come across them.
2. The First 99 Onions: Repeated Visitor Visa Attempts
How do people eat the onions in immigration? The first thing they may try is a US visitor visa. Then they may try an Australian visitor visa. In the process, they can damage their profile. They may give their profile first and then say that they did not have to pay any money because they had only given their profile.
After that, guesses start. If the guess works, they may be asked to bring ₹15 lakh or ₹20 lakh. If it does not work, they are told that the visa has been refused. Sometimes people do not even know how many times their files have been submitted. They may not even know what was submitted in their profile.
People may apply for visitor visas for Australia, Canada and the UK. Some very young applicants may want to go on a visitor visa at the age of 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 or 23. The thinking becomes simply: “I want to go on a visitor visa. Just get me there. I do not know what will happen after I reach there, but just get me there.”
After that, the profile can be completely damaged. People may think that they did not spend money, but many times money is also spent. Advance payments can be made, and sometimes people even create fake visa stamps and take ₹15–20 lakh before disappearing.
3. When You Do Not Know What Was Submitted in Your Own Profile
Even if you only gave your profile and did not pay, the profile can still be damaged. The problem becomes even bigger when you do not know what was submitted. Maybe someone showed you as the Prime Minister of India, the Chief Minister of Haryana, a businessman, someone working in a job, a doctor or a lawyer. You may not even know what was actually submitted in your profile.
Then, when you take the profile to a proper consultant, you may be asked to bring the profile. Without the profile, nothing can be submitted. How many times the file was submitted may not be known. What was shown in the profile may not be known. What education was shown may not be known.
Even if you have a very good profile today, another consultant may not be able to handle your case because they do not know what to fill in the immigration forms. If an earlier consultant showed you as doing business and the next application shows you as doing a job, a ban can happen. Then the question becomes whose mistake it was—the applicant’s or the previous consultant’s—but the person handling the next application can become stuck in the situation.
4. How a Good Profile Can Become Useless
Your profile may have been very good or very poor, but once you give it to someone as part of a package, you may not know what they have put into it. They may have made you a doctor, businessman, billionaire, millionaire or even a Chief Minister. You may know nothing about it, and because you do not know, the next person handling your file also does not know.
Then nobody can properly take your file forward. People may think that they did not pay because they were supposed to pay after reaching or after receiving the visa. But the profile was already being used and guesses were being made with it. The profile belonged to you, while someone else was playing the game. During that game, your profile could become damaged.
Once the profile is damaged, it may no longer be useful. The refusals throughout your life have to be declared in major countries. But you may not even know how many refusals you have. You may not know what was put in your profile. You become stuck. The country for which you took the package may become a country where you cannot apply again for the rest of your life. This is the problem.
5. The Next 99 Whips: Spending Time and Money on the Wrong Route
After damaging the profile through visitor visa attempts and guesses, the next stage becomes the 99 whips. People may not work hard or do things properly and instead decide to apply for a UK study visa. They go to the UK, sometimes for a bachelor’s degree and sometimes for a master’s degree.
Many people do not complete their bachelor’s degree and become illegal there. Others go for a master’s degree, and even if they complete it, they may receive a work permit for a limited period. The period discussed is around one and a half or two years, with the point that it was two years earlier.
Then the question comes: what next? The thinking may be that after going there, some skilled work will be found or something will happen through which someone will help extend the stay. But the message is that this does not happen for 99.99% of people. People can lose money by giving unnecessary money to lawyers there. They may get their money stuck somewhere or pay someone.
The actual fees mentioned for extending the stay or getting a skilled work permit are around £15,000–£20,000. After already spending around ₹25 lakh on study, people may then spend this amount again for extending their stay. The question is why this should happen after already spending so much on the study route.
6. When Hope Becomes the Plan
The thinking in the beginning is often that something will happen after reaching there. There is hope that something will work out, that some job will be found, that something will be built or that someone will help.
Then, after spending time there, people start speaking with those who have already been there for two, four or more years. They speak with seniors who went before them, sometimes five, seven or ten people, and eventually understand that nothing is going to happen. They may have to return. They may think about asylum, but that is temporary, and the point is made that asylum does not provide the solution they are looking for.
They may overstay, but eventually they have to return. The other option discussed is getting a Canada or New Zealand visa and going there for PR. Earlier, people also went from there to the US after getting a visitor visa, but that purpose is now described as closed, and visitor visas have also become difficult. The asylum option is also described as unavailable for that purpose.
7. Finally Giving the 100 Gold Coins
After all of this, people may first damage their profile through visitor visa attempts, then spend money and time on another route, and finally take a Canada or New Zealand study visa and go there. The point is that they eventually reach the stage where they give the 100 gold coins and finally get out of the situation.
The question is: why eat 99 onions first? Why take 99 whips first? Why go through all of this learning, wasting time, money and energy, and then finally do what needed to be done from the beginning? The recommendation is very simple: do the proper work from the beginning and invest properly in one place at one time.
Many people experience this in life. They choose the cheaper option first, suffer repeatedly and eventually pay more once. The message is to do proper work from the beginning, invest the money properly once and avoid repeatedly damaging your life and profile. If you already know that you want to go somewhere where you can get PR and settle, then go to that proper place rather than repeatedly trying different options.
8. The Same Thing Can Happen Even After Reaching Canada
This does not stop after reaching Canada. People can do the same thing even after arriving there. They may first eat the 99 onions, then take the 99 whips and finally give the 100 gold coins.
They may initially live in a good place, enjoy themselves and chill for four or five years, and then once again spend money on LMIA, then again take a study permit extension and finally give more money to get out of the situation. The message is that this also happens after people reach Canada.
The better approach is to choose from the beginning. Give the 100 gold coins first. Take the biggest struggle at the beginning. Why should you first take the whips and eat the onions and then finally give all the gold coins at the end?
9. Choose the Struggle First
Why should you take the loss of money, time, energy and emotions? Give what needs to be given from the beginning. Choose the thing that is the most difficult and the thing that requires the most effort or checks your potential the most.
The message is to choose the struggle at the beginning. If you choose the struggle at the beginning, life becomes easier later. You can live an easier life for 55 or 60 years. But if you choose the taste at the beginning, your entire life can remain full of problems.
This is described as the truth of life. You can ask your parents, your parents’ parents or anyone knowledgeable. Even an uneducated person can understand that if you are enjoying the taste now, there will be consequences from that taste.
10. The Same Lesson Applies to Studies and Life
The same thing happened in studies. People who did not work hard throughout the year eventually faced stress at the end. They had problems and their marks showed the result. Everyone knows what happens when the effort is not made during the time when it is required.
The same thing applies everywhere in life. The choice is yours: do you want to work hard and struggle initially and then enjoy the rest of your life, or do you want to choose the taste initially and then have your entire life become difficult?
The message for immigration is not to do all of this. Do not create unnecessary problems in your life and profile. Do not permanently or temporarily damage your profile. Invest your profile properly in one place. Put your money in one place, put your energy in one place, invest yourself and use all your skills, and go to a place where you can get PR.
11. Choose Your Immigration Destination Properly
The repeated cycle of first applying for a visitor visa, damaging the profile, then taking a UK study visa where PR does not happen, then planning to go somewhere else, followed by plans for Russia or Europe, is described as something that should not be done.
The message is straightforward: go to a proper place. That is where you will settle. Otherwise, you will keep eating the onions and taking the whips and eventually become परेशान. Your parents will become परेशान and your family will also become परेशान.
The broader context is about how, when choosing a country, people can end up giving 99 onions, 99 whips and 100 gold coins before finally getting out of the situation. Even after reaching Canada, people can repeat the same cycle by spending years enjoying themselves and then again paying money for LMIA or study permit extensions.
The Final Message: Pay the Price for the Right Choice at the Beginning
The central message is to choose the difficult part at the beginning instead of making your life difficult repeatedly. Give the 100 gold coins first rather than eating 99 onions and taking 99 whips first. Choose the struggle at the beginning because when you choose the struggle early, life becomes easier later.
In immigration, do not repeatedly experiment with visitor visas, damage your profile, take routes where you are not going to settle, spend money and time, and then finally return to the same destination you could have chosen earlier. Put your money, energy, effort and skills into the right place from the beginning and go where you can settle.
If you liked the message, share it with others, like and subscribe to the video, and leave a comment if something made sense to you and you understood that these things should not be done.
