Back to work Gora ! 6 min read

I started a new position at a South Asian import/export company in an industrial park about 40 km outside of London.  The first day I noticed that I was the only man and only white person who worked there.  On my floor there were 20 other people, all Indian women and most of them fairly young.  But this definitely wasn’t a problem for me as I had always admired South Asian women for their beauty.  However, things did get somewhat tedious as little English was spoken during the workday.  Now this wasn’t because the women were straight from India.  On the contrary, almost all were UK born and quite western in appearance, usually wearing stylish business attire with court shoes or boots.   I just assumed the widespread use of Hindi was due to the nature of the work and the frequent dealings with the subcontinent.  But at times I definitely felt like a second class citizen in this office.

My first week had been fairly uneventful, even boring.   At least the chilly English fall had finally arrived, which I enjoyed.  Maybe a quarter of the women were now wearing boots to work on any given day.  The boot heels ran the gamut from flats to stilettos and I loved them all !   And the rest of the women generally wore high heel court shoes.  So at least there was a lot of great footwear at this job for me to appreciate.

I was the office floater covering others jobs and any odds and ends that needed doing.  As such I did whatever I could do to make myself useful.   On that first Friday, however, something magical happened.   A colleague, Jatti, spilled her coffee right by the large window.  None of the women could be bothered to clean this mess so I eventually grabbed a cloth and, on my hands & knees, began to wipe up the spill.

Suddenly I heard one of the women squeal, looked up and saw all the young girls in the office running towards me.  A famous Bollywood movie star was getting out of a Rolls Royce and going into the South Asian photography studio next door.  Everyone wanted to see her !   I immediately found myself amidst a sea of boots and shoes all jostling for position at the window.  Their shins pushed me against the wall, pinning me there.  As I tried to extricate myself I felt a sharp pain on my hand and looked down to see a pair of heels from some tan coloured boots stepping down on me.  Then a black kitten heeled court shoe began jumping up and down on my other hand before settling down to crush my hand flat with all of her weight.

The women had opened the window to call out to the Bollywood actress.  As such they were making so much noise that I had to take the pain as they wouldn’t have heard me.   I was somewhat embarrassed and ( I have to say) fairly aroused being so close to all of their slim legs as they surged around me.   The scent of their perfume was completely intoxicating.  I knelt amongst the women with my hands being vandalised by the heels and soles from an ever changing group of tormentors.  The girls were constantly switching  positions to get a better view, trampling my hands nonstop in the process.   They were certainly very excited, so much so that they either didn’t notice me or simply ignored me at their feet.  As a result my hands had several cuts and gouges from their cruel heels.  But why should the women care when the Bollywood star was now waving at them!

Just when I was beginning to wonder whether I should make some complaints to avoid being branded a pervert, I heard a sharp female voice. It was Bala, the department head, asking what was going on.  As she walked towards the group, the girls cleared a space for her right in the middle of the window, which was directly in front of me.

I was just about to start to get up and explain to my boss why I was kneeling at the feet of all these beautiful young women when I felt a sharp pressure on my hand and saw her flat heeled boot standing on it with a great deal of weight.

I looked up & couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  My boss, Bala had carelessly stepped on my hand and was shouting & cheering in Hindi with all the other girls.   In fact she was jumping around like the others, taking small leaps again and again.  The result felt just like she was stomping on my fingers with her boot.  She was  completely ignoring me so she could get a better view out of the window! And with Bala’s encouragement, the raucous din of the crowd increased even more.

I knelt on the floor as the seconds rolled by, totally bewildered and astonished by this turn of events.  My boss finally stood still and all her weight bore down on my left hand, my fingers going numb under her boot sole.  The black shaft of her knee high boot was just centimeters from my face and I was overwhelmed by the smell of leather.  My mind went blank and the only thought that registered was the sensation of being slowly crushed by all of these women.

And then, as quickly as it had started, it ended. The movie star entered the building and the office staff stepped back from the window and started returning to their desks, some treading on my hands carelessly in the process.  The whole affair lasted maybe 90 seconds at most.

As the crowd dispersed I didn’t dare look up as I was so embarrassed at how I’d just been used. I expected Bala to ask if I was ok or explain what had just happened.  But all she said was ‘Back to work everyone.  You too Gora!’ before turning and striding off towards her office in her knee high equestrian boots. I picked myself up with some difficulty (due to my sore hands) and was about to sidle off to the toilets without catching anyone’s eye when I heard one of the women say ‘aren’t you going to clean up that spill then?’ I looked up at her but she had already walked away. I got my cloth, got back down on my hands and knees and started to scrub at the coffee stain on the tile floor.  But now it was ground in and far more dirty after being stepped on by over a dozen pairs of boots and shoes.

I guess I really was the low status member of this group !