One night @ the call center
The first thing few of my friends asked me when I said that I am doing a 'Fluency in English' training was that whether I intend to join a call center. I had to shrug them off saying that I am not learning some fake American accent but just trying to learn to speak good neutral English, which I am pretty sure that almost 95% of the English learnt Indian population does not know how to speak.Anyway,I pity these nocturnal creatures aka Call Center Agents who have to bear this accent torture('T' is pronounced in four different ways by Americans) and I pity them more after reading the book.If you are wondering which book, refer to the subject line of the post.Thats the name of a book.No,I did not experiment my newly acquired 'accent' at any call center and hence I am not going to talk about my experiences at one such places.Came across this title while generally browsing through an edition of 'India Today' where it was mentioned that this book was at the top of the charts.So I wanted to try it out.
Most of us do not even care about such a class of people living amongst us, which the author, Chetan Bhagat too echoes in the prologue of the book. The book talks about the experiences of six call center employees on one night when they apparently receive a call from God himself. Each of them have some problem or other that had engulfed their life, they also have some common problems to tackle with and this call they receive changes their life for better forever.
Call center job is something that attracts people of different ages and varied profile and the author aptly captures that. Apart from young unmarried guys and girls,you have as one of the main characters, a married woman who attends to all household chores and to her mother-in-law all through the day and works all through the night at the call center. You have an old man who served the country in Military(hes called 'Military Uncle' by his team members) and he is ignored by his son and daughter-in-law.And they all have an evil and stupid boss to tackle as well. The book in good measure talks about having such bosses with their so-called MBA terms.Chetan actually highlights in bold letters the typical managerial terms these bosses use(he calls it 'Managenese') and it is great fun reading these terms.You would actually relate the terms to your workplace.If not from your manager,atleast others use them as well in your workplace. Chetan then talks about how these managers take all the credit for something you sweated like hell for many months.They also suck your self-confidence out as you become a sycophant in the fear of losing your job and gradually become a big loser in life.He also portrays the situation where they all face lay off at their company and we get to know how ineffective bosses are one of the reasons for such a situation and what the employees in the story did to save their jobs.
The book talks about many other things. Relationships in the making and also in the breaking.We actually get wonderful insights from the author regarding the typical reactions of women who are in a relationship or women who are considering about a relationship.We get to know what some actions of women actually mean and why do they do it.For a guy who has never been in a relationship with a woman before,this a bounty.So,guys who want to get a girlfriend and guys who have a girlfriend may check them out.You would find them useful as you get to know when you need to be careful.Also guys who have been dumped already, may correlate their experiences with the one you find it in the book.
Chetan also touches upon specific problems pertaining to call center employees.Starting from the racial slurs forced upon them by their customers to having a social status crisis.He beautifully explains the latter through the flash back he takes us through,of different dates the two characters:Shyam and Priyanka have had for the last one year. He gives the flash back as five different parts,that is, one year back to this night, 9 months back to this night etc.As we get to four months back to this night, we get to know that one of the reasons Shyam and Priyanka have to split was because Priyanka's mom doesnt think being a call center agent is a well settled job.We also get to know about the pressure on call center employees to handle more calls. Everything about their call handling is noted: average time to handle one call(there is a target to be acieved here) to the politeness and the way the calls are handled.
And with all these things happening around in the book, Chetan also blends patriotism and a bit of spiritualism in it. He is strongly against America and the Americans.He portrays America as a nation succumbed to fear and majority of Americans as dumbasses with their mind not working at all.He talks about how the rest of smart Americans take advantage of people at a cell center in India by paying them less and extracting huge amount of work at weird hours of the night.He explains why the youth in this country still take up the job with so many negative factors around it.Though Chetan narrates the whole story through Shyam, and though I identify myself with Shyam a lot(may be I am 60% Shyam and 40% Vroom),I liked the character of Vroom more (yeah,thats how Varun Malhotra is called at the call center by his team mates).Vroom is the main protagonist of the book and he makes you laugh like hell as well with his sense of humor.One thing is sure,majority of the dialogues in this book is comical, you would laugh a lot. And in between that we have other things:couples split,bad boss,anti-America,job cuts,patriotism,new relationships,husbands cheat,cheaters,God calls! Whew! Thats too much and all these happen in one night.
The message out of this book is following your dream. Its about self-confidence,prioritizing your goals,meeting failures with courage and not fear about unimportant things in life.At the end, felt like reading Rang De Basanti through a book.And like RDB, people might not like the way it all ended. Man, how many movies and books would be read on the same topic and the same message being told in a similar fashion.At one stage you are going to say: "What the heck!How many more people have started with the same idea?".And the thing about God calling these guys in the night: Well, Chetan tries to rationalise that in the epilogue and he explains why its good to have God in our life. May be readers might not like this part of the story,which otherwise seems so real and rational.But, what the heck, the story is topping the fiction charts and in a fiction God can of course call you on your mobile!I read the book in a true Call Center fashion. I started it around 8.30 in the night and when I finished it at 1.52 AM to be perfect(This I have to, because call center guys are so particular about telling time, they tell it to the exact minute).So around five and a half hours of nonstop reading to start and complete the book.Considering the fact that I am a slow reader, thats quite an achievement in itself!
Do I recommend others to read it? Yes, I would, for the plot and for the comedy in it. But yeah,you may not appreciate certain things like God calling you on the mobile or as I said earlier you may get bored with movies and books already on 'patriotism and following your goals' being narrated in a similar fashion.After all in the end,its your call to take the call or not!
Most of us do not even care about such a class of people living amongst us, which the author, Chetan Bhagat too echoes in the prologue of the book. The book talks about the experiences of six call center employees on one night when they apparently receive a call from God himself. Each of them have some problem or other that had engulfed their life, they also have some common problems to tackle with and this call they receive changes their life for better forever.
Call center job is something that attracts people of different ages and varied profile and the author aptly captures that. Apart from young unmarried guys and girls,you have as one of the main characters, a married woman who attends to all household chores and to her mother-in-law all through the day and works all through the night at the call center. You have an old man who served the country in Military(hes called 'Military Uncle' by his team members) and he is ignored by his son and daughter-in-law.And they all have an evil and stupid boss to tackle as well. The book in good measure talks about having such bosses with their so-called MBA terms.Chetan actually highlights in bold letters the typical managerial terms these bosses use(he calls it 'Managenese') and it is great fun reading these terms.You would actually relate the terms to your workplace.If not from your manager,atleast others use them as well in your workplace. Chetan then talks about how these managers take all the credit for something you sweated like hell for many months.They also suck your self-confidence out as you become a sycophant in the fear of losing your job and gradually become a big loser in life.He also portrays the situation where they all face lay off at their company and we get to know how ineffective bosses are one of the reasons for such a situation and what the employees in the story did to save their jobs.
The book talks about many other things. Relationships in the making and also in the breaking.We actually get wonderful insights from the author regarding the typical reactions of women who are in a relationship or women who are considering about a relationship.We get to know what some actions of women actually mean and why do they do it.For a guy who has never been in a relationship with a woman before,this a bounty.So,guys who want to get a girlfriend and guys who have a girlfriend may check them out.You would find them useful as you get to know when you need to be careful.Also guys who have been dumped already, may correlate their experiences with the one you find it in the book.
Chetan also touches upon specific problems pertaining to call center employees.Starting from the racial slurs forced upon them by their customers to having a social status crisis.He beautifully explains the latter through the flash back he takes us through,of different dates the two characters:Shyam and Priyanka have had for the last one year. He gives the flash back as five different parts,that is, one year back to this night, 9 months back to this night etc.As we get to four months back to this night, we get to know that one of the reasons Shyam and Priyanka have to split was because Priyanka's mom doesnt think being a call center agent is a well settled job.We also get to know about the pressure on call center employees to handle more calls. Everything about their call handling is noted: average time to handle one call(there is a target to be acieved here) to the politeness and the way the calls are handled.
And with all these things happening around in the book, Chetan also blends patriotism and a bit of spiritualism in it. He is strongly against America and the Americans.He portrays America as a nation succumbed to fear and majority of Americans as dumbasses with their mind not working at all.He talks about how the rest of smart Americans take advantage of people at a cell center in India by paying them less and extracting huge amount of work at weird hours of the night.He explains why the youth in this country still take up the job with so many negative factors around it.Though Chetan narrates the whole story through Shyam, and though I identify myself with Shyam a lot(may be I am 60% Shyam and 40% Vroom),I liked the character of Vroom more (yeah,thats how Varun Malhotra is called at the call center by his team mates).Vroom is the main protagonist of the book and he makes you laugh like hell as well with his sense of humor.One thing is sure,majority of the dialogues in this book is comical, you would laugh a lot. And in between that we have other things:couples split,bad boss,anti-America,job cuts,patriotism,new relationships,husbands cheat,cheaters,God calls! Whew! Thats too much and all these happen in one night.
The message out of this book is following your dream. Its about self-confidence,prioritizing your goals,meeting failures with courage and not fear about unimportant things in life.At the end, felt like reading Rang De Basanti through a book.And like RDB, people might not like the way it all ended. Man, how many movies and books would be read on the same topic and the same message being told in a similar fashion.At one stage you are going to say: "What the heck!How many more people have started with the same idea?".And the thing about God calling these guys in the night: Well, Chetan tries to rationalise that in the epilogue and he explains why its good to have God in our life. May be readers might not like this part of the story,which otherwise seems so real and rational.But, what the heck, the story is topping the fiction charts and in a fiction God can of course call you on your mobile!I read the book in a true Call Center fashion. I started it around 8.30 in the night and when I finished it at 1.52 AM to be perfect(This I have to, because call center guys are so particular about telling time, they tell it to the exact minute).So around five and a half hours of nonstop reading to start and complete the book.Considering the fact that I am a slow reader, thats quite an achievement in itself!
Do I recommend others to read it? Yes, I would, for the plot and for the comedy in it. But yeah,you may not appreciate certain things like God calling you on the mobile or as I said earlier you may get bored with movies and books already on 'patriotism and following your goals' being narrated in a similar fashion.After all in the end,its your call to take the call or not!
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