Kamal Ghorui
Rakesh B. Pal speaks English with near-perfect accent and enunciation. He is sharp, intelligent, and an avid reader. He trains in martial arts every morning, attends dance classes in the evening, and drives an auto for a living. What makes his story striking is not just where he is today, but where he once was.Rakesh spent over a decade working with several leading multinational corporations—companies many aspire to but few manage to enter. He began his career as a voice and accent trainer with an American firm based in Bengaluru and steadily climbed the corporate ladder.“The higher I went, the more difficult it became,” he recalls. “I even switched jobs, but the manipulation was everywhere. You join a profession believing hard work will be rewarded. But what happens when your boss feels insecure? Instead of supporting you, he begins to undermine you. How long can anyone endure that?”
Sharing his experience, Rakesh raises uncomfortable but important questions about corporate hierarchies. “You are often made to take on work that isn’t yours. Senior leaders may privately appreciate your hard work, but when it comes to taking a stand against your immediate boss, they choose hierarchy over fairness.”He describes how managers can slowly erode confidence—pointing out mistakes without offering guidance, taking credit for others’ work, and using intimidation as a tool. “You call them managers? These are not managers,” he says. “They are demotivators.”While working at a well-known global bank, Rakesh encountered a manager who felt deeply insecure. “He began spreading false rumours about me. I tried to set boundaries, but it’s not easy when the power equation is stacked against you.” When Rakesh escalated the issue to higher management, the response was disappointing. “They chose to protect him.”
Ironically, his role at the bank was one that demanded precision and integrity—similar to the fraud-prevention role portrayed by Tom Hanks in Catch Me If You Can, says Rakesh.. Rakesh’s job involved scrutinising the smallest discrepancies, down to punctuation errors or inconsistencies in signatures. “If I noticed an anomaly, I had to call the person involved and question it,” he explains. “Yet false mistakes were later pinned on me to block promotions.”At the same time, Rakesh was dealing with a serious health issue. He had hearing problems and wore a visible hearing aid. “There were people in my team who whispered, judged, and excluded. I wondered what problems people would have with someone with a hearing problem, till I stopped wearing one after my surgery. Even these things can impact your peace in a corporate. People are ruthless!”
Over time, the pressure became unbearable. Targets in companies simply crush you down. They are always excessive and come with a crushing pressure “Targets had nothing to do with talent or individual capacity. People were treated like resources, nothing more.” Eventually, the environment pushed him into depression. He did not want to quit his job, but he could not continue under a boss who was hell bent on making his life difficult. For months, Rakesh barely left his room. He ate on his bed, avoided people, and lost all sense of self-worth. He gained weight, felt disconnected from his family, and sought psychiatric help. “One day I looked at my reflection and didn’t recognise myself. I had piled up a huge amount of weight. I knew I wouldn’t survive if I didn’t change something.”That moment became his turning point.Rakesh began intermittent fasting, limiting his meals to a six-hour window. The weight loss was quick, but more importantly, it restored his confidence. “For the first time in a long while, I felt capable again.”
