The Black Palace Mexican Prison

It was in the July of 2004 when I joined BFI-Aetna's back-office insurance process, after having been on the bench for a few months. Uncertainty loomed large as I along with many others had held on to the hope of being absorbed in some or the other processes. IBM’s management urged us to get selected in any process to which opportunity was offered and not expect the company to continue to feed us for long. I sure panicked. There were few openings in the Aetna process, rumored to be one of the most difficult back-office processes. My two friends, who too were on the bench, urged me to stay put, deliberately fail the selection process and suggested not to opt for the Aetna process. I declined to hear them and followed my own instincts. I cleared the interview and was all set to join the Aetna process. That decision was going to cost me more than I ever bargained for.

Even after having spent over a year in the company, I only had few colleagues whom I considered worthy to be called friends and there were not even a handful of them. Within the next few months, they too would be absorbed in another process. I was left with no trustworthy friend in an industry which resembled the Black Palace Mexican prison. Here, you would be killed if you do not stand your ground. Within a few months of entering the BPO industry, I had found out the hard way that I was among some of the most notorious people in the country. I was soon to encounter the dreaded ones.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in India is manned by a workforce which comes from faraway small towns, suburbs and villages, not familiar with big cities and it's culture, mesmerized and overwhelmed by a whole different lifestyle, not accustomed to office and professional life, staying alone in small rented rooms in unhygienic colonies which lack basic amenities of life, far away from their loved ones, without being accountable to anyone, not having information regarding their rights, from poor families trying to make a life and career in a country where industries are condensed in a few metropolitan cities and the industries and multinational corporations non-existent in a vast majority of cities of India.

Preface to my book

After I had survived two complaints, of mental and sexual harassment, from two female colleagues, in a single day, I had decided that someday I would write about the events that led to the complaints and the mystery behind my Great Escape. I have always held that it was a miracle.

Another complaint, from one of the above two girls, followed the aforementioned complaints and which led to my termination from IBM. After a span of over seven years, I have found it worthwhile to bring to fore this current narrative in as detail as possible. I have attempted to be as fair and true as possible to the two female employees. I have tried to understand their perspective through the charges they leveled against me. Their written complaints are the only documents available with me to present their point of view.

The copies of the complaints were made available to me after I had filed a labor and defamation suit against IBM. Along with them, I received the copies of Md. Shadab, Dakur Danda, and Asra Math’s emails which they had sent to the investigation team constituted by IBM to investigate the charges of sexual harassment. I also received the copy of their investigation report and my written apology and confession statement.

What I went through and what I did, had to be understood from both the human and divine point of view. The people I faced in IBM, the harassment, humiliation and torture I had experienced, the situations and hurdles I encountered in over four years of my stay in IBM would only make sense when you realize that I was a saved Christian who had rejected the authority and lordship of Jesus Christ.

This book is to help those saved Christians who have experienced pain, hurt, sorrow, anguish, torture, harassment, failure and opposition to understand the true purpose behind those emotions, feelings, events, and situations. You cannot overcome an enemy if you do not have the right perspective. The book is an attempt to open the eyes of Christians who are hurtling down the roads towards hell.

For those who do not believe in the God of the Bible, this is to expose their lies, wickedness, darkness, and evil. By reading this book, you may perhaps cease and desist from your evil, wicked, corrupt and deceptive ways.

This book is a complete, true, honest, and faithful account of all that transpired between me and Falak; me and the God of the Bible. To my own hurt, I have unveiled the darkest secrets of my life.

As I write this preface, it dawns upon me to effect change in the names of all the characters, except for IBM.

On bent knee                                                                           September 24, 2012