It was sharp 1:30 AM, a thundering knock at my door, it was so thundering that even ground floor people experienced the vibrations and the music that was coming from those vigorous knocks (by the way my habitat was on 3rd floor).
I was being in a half-slept state after rigorous efforts to sleep by taking help from medication, thought maybe it is another voice which I am assuming just like the phone ringtones keep buzzing into my head from invisible cell phone at all the other times. A delay in getting up from the bed made those knocks from storms made extensively thunderous which could possibly break the door of my rented place where even keeping an electric kettle is counted as code of misconduct. The worry of forthcoming fine payment left no other option than to open the door. Just after opening the door, not to my surprise door got replaced with me. Some 300 odd colleagues were watching and/or listening the live telecast of this show. Within a fraction of second my thoughts got shifted from that live audience to this one co-actor of the show who was fully possessed in a fit of rage. Oh! By the way this co-actor was a senior and also a neighbour by my super bad luck.
I tried not to be the punching bag this time with keeping my calmness, but this co-actor had already done a thorough research on every aspect of my life. My calmness got defeated by the thunder created by that senior. With each passing second, I was experiencing character assassination of me, mockery of my integrity. The insecurities of my personal life which were known to only me till 15 minutes earlier, now became sensational news for that live audience after the exhibition organized by my senior. I assume all the information was collected by properly keeping an ear out for me as those days I had to talk to my family over thousands of calls. Anyways, after all the ruckus done, I left that place in a sense of utter shock, fear and humiliation and waited for the rise of dawn while sitting on a distant road. I returned to my room just to carry out daily rituals.
But since I already had conveyed about my intentions to file a complaint, it further brought retaliation against my way; The moment I gone inside room, I got locked up inside my very own room by this mighty co-actor of the night show and again got threatened for dire consequences and warning that from now on my life, I would be a living hell.
Somehow, I managed to escape from there and made an informative complaint at my workplace about the incident of harassment without any further strong action against the senior since deep down I was not willing to get that senior’s career destroyed.
I used to be like if I am not harming the lion, I will not be the lion’s prey. What I was facing this from quite a long time, it was just a professional competitiveness turned rivalry reached to the personal level. Though I was never the part of that rat race, but was assumed as a hurdle by that senior.
I remained distracted and confused due to so much happening around including the debilitating pain due to cervical spondylosis that I was neither able to shift the location of my room and workstation nor was able to comprehend the way out of anything. Before that incident, I consistently made one big mistake out of fear that I never strongly objected being taken as punching bag though facing humiliation and toxicity on a regular basis. Everything was appearing some sort of a never-ending movie to me.
This particular story has been broadly narrated just to enlighten the reader about the necessity of identifying the difference between a dispute and a harassment. At times people around us make us believe that these kinds of incidences are no big deal just because the two people involved in it belong to same gender and we end up losing self-respect for delaying counter-actions or no actions at all. So, speak up for yourself if you are facing any kind of hindrance towards your physical or mental wellbeing, be it at any place including office, college or home. Be mindful what and how much you are tolerating in the name of “Ho jata h kbhi kbhi, itna to chalta h” because this way you are literally guiding the other person how to behave with you. Gather your courage and don’t give a heed to what X, Y or Z will say on your decision because those were and will always be mute, coward spectators enjoying the show. We all deserve happiness and no one has the right to pull our strings and treat us like a puppet in their show. Every bookmark in our book of life is not a mere bookmark, rather it tells a story what we learnt and grown up.
- Anonymous Author