Saturday, November 24, 2007

Cheats, Drama and Survival

Folks, I am back!

Its been several months now that I had disappeared from the bloggers realm as anxious readers tried contacting me over mails, over phones and what not. Well, the past few months have been exciting, not to mention the drama that was kicked off by one of my blog posts on fradulent organizations. I had to delete the post because of the painful and unfortunate events that ensued.

My story on an institute that trains Air Hostesses was extremely honest. I had captured every small detail with the rigours of a perfect reporter. The writeup, as soon as it was posted, bought down the rankings of the institute -- putting my post much higher in rank in Google search. Almost a day later I received a call from the lady with whom I had interacted during the freelance work (amounting to Rs 25,000 that I was never paid). She informed me that she had left her job in the institute and was held almost captive in a location in South Delhi and was being threatened. She told me that unless I removed my post she would be tortured. Thereafter, I received a call from the Branding Director of the institute -- suave in communication but criminal in intent. He tried to entice me with pleasantries (the usual sweet talk of professionals in Delhi). When I disagreed he started using abusive language, almost sounding like a roadside goon. I kept quite. All the while he never talked of the money that his company owed me. He told me that he will ensure that he stops my blog and reduces its value. This he did, by posting several annonymous vulgar messages that suits his personality perfectly.

By the end of the day too many people got involved in the drame -- 2 Vice-Presidents of the company I was working in, the top management of that air hostess training institute, a few journalists, 2 petty politicians and some friends. At my end I decided to pull down the blog post because the girl was begging mercy and the Vice Presidents wanted me to stay away from such petty thugs, who while calling themselves an institute are bereft of any credibility.

I personally drew two conclusion from the drama. One that most of these so-called brands in Delhi have a shadier side to their existence. And two, Frankfinn Air Hostess Academy remains the undisputed leader in Air Hostess training. Its far above, in terms of quality, than its desperate competitor.