Bangalore Sweatbox

In one of the idiotic team-building exercises run by Western companies to foster fun and solidarity among their workers, Nokia-Siemens ran a pie-eating contest in their office in Guragon, leading to the choking death of a 22-year-old employee.

Police investigate Nokia contest death

By Mahesh Arora

A 22-year old techie, Saurab Sabharwal, employed with Nokia-Siemens Networks in Gurgaon died mysteriously while participating in a pastry-eating competition in the cafeteria of the office premises on November 19. The doctors at the Max Hospital where he was brought dead said that the pastry chocked his windpipe rendering him breathless.

The incident took place at about 1.00 in the afternoon when a number of employees of the company were participating in a pastry-eating competition in the cafeteria. Saurab, who worked as a solution engineer with the company since June this year, was also eating pastry quickly to out-compete others. All of a sudden he rushed towards the bathroom area and never came back. Coincidentally, one of the colleagues happened to visit the bathroom where he spotted Saurab lying on the floor. Saurab was rushed to Max Hospital in Sushant Lok at about 2.00 in the afternoon where the doctors tried to revive him, but to no avail.

RK Sabharwal charged the company officials for negligence saying that they should have arranged for medical experts during the pastry-eating competition which otherwise should not have been organized at all. He said that no one bothered to take care of his son whose windpipe had got chocked during the event. Such competition should not be held at all, he contended. The distraught father submitted a written compliant with the police officials demanding investigation into the case. Dr. S Sharma, the medical advisor at Max Hospital, also said that such events of pastry-eating competitions should be avoided in general.

However, the police officials said that the action against the officials of Nokia-Siemens would be decided only after the receipt of the post-mortem report of Saurab’s body. Saurab lived in Patparganj in New Delhi and his father RK Sabharwal worked with a public sector bank Punjab National Bank in Delhi. Nokia-Siemens Networks has its corporate office in Cybergreens, DLF Cybercity but has one subsidiary in Udyog Vihar where Saurab was employed as solution engineer.

The company officials who were present at Max Hospital refused to comment on the incident.

Labels: contests, so-called fun, team-building