(A friend of mine has sent this write-up and asked to share it on social media. I have not been witness to these events, but I trust my friend and leave it upon the readers to believe what is written):
It was just a normal day at work for me. I was in between meetings, planning content and publishing schedule with subordinates when my phone buzzed. It was a WhatsApp message where one of my colleague sent me the link to HuffPost article where Vijay Nair opened up about a cyberstalker pseudo named ‘Geeta’. I read the article and I figured who this ‘Geeta’ was, because she once used to be my colleague.
I remember the day I first met her. It was the day she joined. A senior colleague introduced her to me. She appeared to be an educated and smart lady, in her mid-thirties. She had a vast experience in media and entertainment industry. The first thing I noticed about her was her smile. Her evil smile. She had some sort of a negative aura around her; It was intimidating and fearsome.
She has worked with few of the biggest media houses in this country. She has contacts, some really powerful contacts. She wouldn’t need a CV to bag a job at any media company, her phone book would suffice! Not only she knew people, the who’s who of media industry and Bollywood knew her. She knew what they were up to, what’s happening in their life and all the inside gossips. She’d call a well-known Bollywood actor at 12 in the night to wish birthday and would talk for hours. That’s how she was.
“Geeta’ was manipulative. Perhaps the most manipulative person I’ve ever came across in my life. She was very good at it. I saw her plant seeds of doubt in a senior manager’s mind and derailed a co-worker’s career. She’d ask for help and bitch about them the moment they turned back. She’d take advantage of her seniority and pass on her work to someone junior to her and threaten them as well. She would ask for favors for her industry friends. She would message one thing in a personal WhatsApp message and say some other thing in person. Two-faced will be an understatement to describe her.
My experience working with her was horrible and extremely unpleasant. Few weeks after she joined she started interfering in my work. She had nothing to do with my work. Even though, we were in different departments, she used to pressure me to follow her instructions. She’d ask me to do something in a WhatsApp message and when I refuse to do so I got threats of getting fired from my job. Things got worse and her interference kept rising. I decided to bring this up to my boss and he understood the situation and handled it gracefully. He asked her not to interfere with my work and focus in her own. After that I never had an encounter with her. We never talked to each other. I had no regrets. I was glad I had only my work to worry about.
The HuffPost article didn’t surprise me but it certainly did disturb me. Not because what she did but for what someone had to go through because of her. I personally don’t know Vijay Nair or Arunabh Kumar but I know ‘Geeta’ and I know she had that sort of criminal thinking to pull it off. It’s so easy for people like her to sabotage years of hard work in an instant. The mere thought that she’s out there and she most probably will get away with the mess she’s created is depressing.
