Chauvinistically Yours

Recently, my friend revealed her experience with her colleagues in her previous job and how isolated she became without doing anything wrong. The story was so disappointing that I immediately felt like sharing with as many people as possible, so that they could know how chauvinistic both men and women could be.

My friend, named Radhika Nimkar, used to work at an international recruitment firm where in she used to work on different projects on hiring people for certain foreign organizations. The colleagues as such were quiet young and helpful, and ambience in the office was very lively. Amongst this Radhika happened to interact with her team leader, who used to sit next to her in the office. Ankit Rane had been working in the company for the last 2-3 years and was appointed team leader in 2015. Since then, he has been guiding a few people under him one of which was Radhika.

Radhika and Ankit got along very well. In due course of time, Ankit used to flirt with Radhika  after knowing that she is single and used to speak on a daily basis. Suddenly, the manager decided to undertake a new project and Ankit was asked to take charge of it. He had to move to Dubai and was preparing for the same. On his last day here, Ankit told her that he will miss talking to her and he wished she came along with him. Radhika told him that even she would miss him and it wouldn’t be fun without him present. A few days later, Ankit left for Dubai and from there he used to contact Radhika through messages saying how much he likes her and she wouldn’t know what to reply.

Then the other day, one of her colleagues, Hiral, came to her and told her that she wanted to talk about Ankit. She asked if anything is going on between the two of them and Radhika replied by denying it saying that she has no other feeling for him other than as a friend. Hiral then told her how they were dating for 6 years and how they were planning to get married soon. This was a shock for Radhika as she thought Ankit was single and that’s why he was flirting. Hiral also told her that Ankit mentioned to her about how Radhika likes him and how much desperate she is to get married to him. This was even more shocking as she never behaved with him in that way or showed any interest in him.

Soon, Hiral spread her story in the entire office calling Radhika a ‘relationship-breaker’ and a ‘side chick’ among other things. Radhika was getting accused without any reason as no one wanted to believe her side of the story. Everyone believed Hiral and Ankit as they thought the couple is speaking the truth. Radhika even showed Ankit’s expression of love through his messages and tried to convince that he was cheating on her and not the other way round. But Hiral refused to believe her and she felt that Radhika was manipulating and breaking her and Ankit up.

Everyone slowly stopped talking to her, calling her names behind her back and spreading rumors to get along with everyone in the office. Radhika felt completely isolated and she decided to leave the company feeling it was better to leave than continue with such chauvinistic people. Even after proving that she was not interested in him, she was vilified and told that even if Ankit behaved that way, she should have known that she is a girl and should have been in her limits.

When did the rules of dating change for men and women. I would rather say that women have been vilified since a long time just because they don’t speak to each other and that’s something that guys take advantage of. Only with better communication and lesser jealously can women deal with such nonsense and fulfill their ambitions in the workplace. You never know how shameless your team-leader or boss is, so stay away and maintain a distance to avoid the circumstance of leaving the job. Because the world as of now is not ready to agree that a woman can be a victim rather than a trouble maker.