Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Karan starts the show and says that the show fight cases of sexual harassment. He tells about the teachings taught in our college and when we move to an another world for job, we think of new responsibilities and challenges. And in some offices, girls are expected to do some other things apart from their job.
Theme of the Episode: Fight Sexual Harassment at Office
The story starts with Jasmine Kapoor (Jassi) speaking with her parents at home while doing her prayers. The mother speaks on her makeup and she replies her to not become sentimental. Her father tells that if something wrong happens to her in the city -Delhi where she is going for work then he will make sure that she will be married thereafter.
Karan Tacker (the host): Parents are worried about their children going away from home for work/study. The problem lies with this idea and we should change.
Jasmine reaches Delhi and is introduced at her office and also gets assigned with a boss- Manan Gupta. The boss welcomes her and introduces other employees of the office. A colleague Kamya shows her the office who is also her roommate. Jasmine is seen practicing on her accent with the help of Kamya..
Next day in office, the boss Manan eyes her while she is working. He then calls her to his room and speaks with her casually and tells her to say him just Manan. He then shows her his son -Karan’s photo and she says the son is cute, he then tells that when son is cute then he (the father) is also cute for her. He asks her address and informs that he stays close to her home – sector 32 in Gurgaon. After that, he starts to see her more often and smiles with bad intentions.
In the evening, when Kamya and Jasmine were going in the cab, he joins them in the cab and starts to put hands over Jasmine. She did her best to shrug off his hands.
Karan Tacker (the host): Without the consent of a girl, any forced attempt to touch a girl or any physical move against her is sexual harassment. How a girl will feel when any stranger does it to her ? That person who is doing this forced harassment satisfies his evil desire just for a short time. Jasmine ignored her boss’s forced moves as everybody does in the first place. Why she remain silent ? Karan says that she should not..
Next day in office when Jasmine is hanging out with a male friend – Vishal, Manan comes to her and insults him and speaks that his performance is not good and then demotes him to a lower position in the group. He again goes to Jasmine and gives a comment on her dress and then invites her to his cabin. A girl in her office comments that she knows how to impress her boss. She goes to his cabin where he calls her gorgeous and gives her some office job. As she is about to leave his cabin, he stops her and touches her hair and asks about her perfume. She goes from there with some worry. After coming home, she remembers her boss words and tries some new shorts but decides to not use perfume.
At her office next day, Vishal her male friend comes and invites her to a movie on weekend (sat or sun). She responds that she is occupied with her MBA classes during weekend and hence cannot join him. When Vishal persuades her a lot, she agrees to go with him for a movie next day at 2 pm. Next day, while she is preparing to go for the movie with vishal, she receives a message from Manan telling her to come to office for work.. She sends Manan a message of her not going to office by giving a reason, but she gets a reply from him insisting her to come. She then goes to her office and asks him whether they will work on the presentation. He says that he wants to thank her in a special way and gives a gift -perfume. He tells her to call him only Manan. She declines to accept the gift. He asks directly to her whether she doesn’t like him. He tells her that he is very lonely as he doesn’t have a relationship with his wife and has no attachments or feeling for his wife. He then touches her face and tells her not to overreact and suggests that he is only honest. She warns him to not touch her next time and goes away from office.
At home when she wants to tell the incident to Kamya, a friend comes in there and she is interrupted and doesn’t tell Kamya. With much hesitation, she calls her mother and speaks with shrilling voice. But sooner, remembers her father’s words and warning, and then cuts the call with her mother without telling her anything.
Next day, Manan speaks in office that team has done a good job and then declares Jasmine as the top performer and everybody congratulates her. He gives her the same rank as Kamya for which Kamya becomes jealous. Kamya tells that it took her 1 year to reach this position. Manan comes in at this moment and tells that good performance deserves promotion and informs them about the party to celebrate the team’s success.
In the night, Jasmine goes to the party and dances with Vishal while her boss Manan eyes her and comes close to her and then sends vishal away. He forces her to dance with him. She makes an excuse and goes with Vishal.. Kamya there is drinking excessively and speaks with Jasmine telling that she is not simple and says that she will only become a trainer as she has the support of Manan.
After the party, Manan wants to drop them home though Jasmine is not interested while Kamya is not in her senses. He insists and then takes both of them inside his car. He stops the car after some distance and touches her hand and tells that it is not office and also he is not her boss. He forces himself on her. She slaps him hard.. He becomes furious on this and wants to teach her a lesson by damaging her career.
Next morning, Jasmine speaks with Kamya and tells about the forced harassment of the boss Manan. Kamya tells that why she allowed the boss’s behavior until now and took unjustified promotions and declines to help her. In office, she is being called to her top boss cabin. The top boss informs her that she needs to stop flirting with her boss Manan as the office Diktat suggests. She becomes surprised and responds that she is not flirting with him and actually last night Manan has only harassed her. The top boss speaks that she is lying, and wants to get a proof from her against him. And after only this, he can help her. Manan maligns her image in office before she makes a complaint.
She asks help from Vishal but he tells that he cannot help her as he is already demoted and doesn’t want to confront Manan.. She then goes to Manan’s cabin and offers her resignation citing not able to cope with studies and gives a letter. He taunts her and then signs the letter and informs that she has to complete 1 month handing period and only after that she can leave from office. He promises to make that month like hell for her and exciting for him.. She then leaves from there while crying and remembering – all the past harassment scenes, words from Kamya, office people and top boss. She cries in the washroom and writes on the mirror – ‘I am a woman, not a toy’ with a lipstick.
She goes to a gurudwara to seek an answer for this mess and speaks that she has lost and tells that her parents are right. She prays there to get divine help.
Karan Tacker (the host): How much a girl can bear sexual harassment ? Jasmine was
coming to a tipping point where she cannot bear anymore.
She comes to her office’s washroom and now finds many other notes on the mirror from other girls who wrote there – ‘My body was abused’, ‘I kept silent..I was wrong’.. thus she understood that there were many other girls in office like her. She now decides to fight and not be a loser. She comes out and knows other girls who were also abused in office. She speaks with them who in turn tells her that Manan is strong and powerful and therefore they cannot implicate him. Jasmine says they will not be silent and will not run away from this situation. She goes to the security staff and asks for the CCTV footage of their floor. The security replies that Manan only has the footage of their floor. She goes to his room while her friend is engaging Manan so he remains away from his room.
She finds that Manan has deleted the footage of the time of his abuse. She goes out of his room and there meets Manan. He gives her a new task of making a presentation. As they know that Manan has deleted the footage whenever he abused them. They think that now they couldn’t implicate him for his crime.. Later on, she goes to the conference room to talk with him on presentation. He tells to her that he is a lion, and compares her to a goat and wants her to do as he wishes. He wants her friendship and in return wants to prosper her career. He tells that she is attractive and thus he cannot control his emotions. He wants her to come with him for a long drive.
Next day, during the group meeting..She interrupts Manan while he was speaking. She opens her laptop and shows the recording of her last night conversation with Manan. She recorded Manan’s voice last night when they met in conference room in her laptop. The video is played on a big screen to everybody disclosing manan’s crime. She speaks to everybody sitting there that nobody supported her referring to Kamya and Vishal when she first wanted to report about manan. But suddenly, she got a lead when she knew about other girls abuse. Kamya apologizes to her. The CEO promises swift action and also promises that his office will never be unsafe for women. The CEO also gives his word on blacklisting Manan.
Karan Tacker (the host): Jasmine fought and she won. Jasmine conquered.. Because of Jasmine, human resources has implemented work place ethics.. She is an inspiration for many other girls..
Guest on the show: Shilpa Saklani (actress) speaks about a similar incident with her friend who was a bank employee. Her friend has given a written complaint about her male colleague and only after that the harassment stopped.
Karan Tacker (the host): He is hurt because girl needs to fight for dignity and self-respect which are their basic right. He asks why ? Why men don’t respect women ?.. Real men wins a girl’s heart with love and not by force. They win by mutual consent and gives the girl – emotional, mental and physical support. Sexual harassment comes from a very low and mean thinking and we can only remove it by changing our thought process. Karan signs off by saying – Don’t be silent, stand up, raise your voice and say – Halla Bol, Change Aayega.. Hum Laayenge..
Note on cast:
– Manan Gupta (Jasmine’s boss) is played by senior actor – Aashif Sheikh
– Jasmine’s role is played by actress Sarika Dhillon (the one who is playing the role of Sarika in Yeh Hai Mohabbatein on Star Plus)
Images credit: Facebook Page of Halla Bol Bindass
Full Episode Video:
[youtube id=http://youtu.be/lhqU05h5SrE]
Leave a Reply