No one is allowed to make me feel low
Tina and Jason left to office.. they were attractive individuals.. Jason was stealthily looking at Tina.. he always loved to see her in business attire.. he wondered how she would look in a saree.. he was lost in thoughts..
They reached office and were received by Jessica-Swiss marketing head. They then went to a conference room, meeting lasted for two hours. This was an important discussion regarding product launch. Tina was very attentive, she gave valuable insights as how the products would be received in Indian market. Her company manufactured products which would help in quality control analysis of Pharma companies.
After two hours they took a coffee break, Tina headed out and filled a cup of coffee from the vending machine. There was a lady who came and stood behind her.. Tina turned around and smiled at her as a manner of greeting. The lady didn't return her smile, she frowned and turned back. Tina couldn't understand, that was the first time she was looking at that lady, she didn't know why the lady acted all grumpy..
She filled her coffee cup and turned around, a house keeping lady came and said, 'Ma'am, you are not allowed to fetch coffee from here.. ' Tina didn't understand, she raised one eyebrow and said, 'I don't understand, I saw people carrying coffee from here.. ' the woman looked at her and said, 'this vending machine is for whites.. we have different arrangements for others.. '
Racism! in Swiss! she glared at the lady and said, 'I am not lesser than anyone, if someone has an issue, ask them to come and speak to me.. ' and strutted out of the cafeteria.. Jason came across Tina, he noticed her agitated look, he said, 'what is it? ' she said, 'racism! ' she told him what happened, he said, 'this is unbelievable.. ours is a multi national company.. come, let's speak to Jessica.. ' both went to Jessica and recounted what happened, she looked at them and said, 'I don't think it's something wrong, you yourselves in India practice untouchability.. we are just dividing ourselves into two groups.. we are comfortable like this.. ' Tina and Jason felt utterly perplexed.. Tina said, 'untouchability was a bad custom that was practised many centuries ago..it has been eradicated now completely,whoever practices it is punishable.. how are you punished here for discrimination? ' Jessica looked unfazed and said, 'Tina, don't act smart, if you wear western clothes, don't think you are equal to us...' Jason said, 'shut up.. ' Jessica said, 'Pardon! ' he repeated, 'I said, shut up! ' Tina said, 'it's company policy that no kind of discrimination should be shown, this is not acceptable.. you get major business from India and you feel that we are beneath you? ' Jessica said, 'what major business.. India is only contributing eight percent of our total sales from around the world.. ' Tina said, 'really? we are the fastest growing country in terms of revenue..we have a double digit growth year on year.. Jason let's go and speak to your boss in US..let's see what he thinks about this..please.. call him.. ' Jason nodded and took his phone out.. Jessica stood up and said, 'please don't complicate things.. you came for two business days.. let's not mess them up.. 'Tina said, 'you already messed up everything, as a higher official I thought that I should respect you.. but you lost my respect today.. if your whole Swiss team is like this, then I don't want to stay for tomorrow's meeting.. no one is allowed to make me feel low.. '