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‘One Night at the Call Centre’ focuses on the story of one night’s happening with 6 people working together at a call centre in Gurgaon, India. At this particular call centre, the employees are focused on giving technical support to American clients. The 6 characters, Shyam, Priyanka, Esha, Vroom, Radhika and Military Uncle are friends, who are all working on this particular night shift together. In America, it is the THANKSGIVING time and the phone lines are ringing frantically. The call centre receives one call from a very special caller, GOD. A call that alters everything. Although, it is vastly based on this story of 6 characters, the book initiates with a train journey from Kanpur to Delhi. The narrating author meets a young girl on the train, who offers to narrate to him an account with a prerequisite that he will have to convert it into his 2nd publication. The author hesitantly agrees. And the story is of that particular night at the call centre in Gurgaon. The story is narrated through Shyam’s perspective. The narrations include emotions of lost love, disillusioned aspirations, lack of warmth from family, stress of patriarchal system and the work environs of multinationals. The premises that this book contains include the quietness and reserved lives of the youth of modern India, inhibitions about career, marriage and family problems in a gradually transforming India. This interesting read can be grabbed online at Amazon India. About the author: Chetan Bhagat is an Indian author and novelist. Some of his best-sellers include Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Centre, 2 States and What Young India Wants. Chetan Bhagat studied at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. 4 of his novels have been adapted into Bollywood movies, namely 3 Idiots, Kai Po Che, 2 States and Hello.

From the Publisher

In Conversation with Chetan Bhagat

I was splashing my hands in the water pointlessly in the sea. I can’t even swim in a pond, let alone in the Indian Ocean. I was in the water while my boss Bakshi was in a boat next to me. He was pushing my head down in the water. I saw Priyanka drifting away in a lifeboat. I screamed even as Bakshi used both his hands to keep my head submerged. Salt water filled my mouth and nostrils as I heard loud beeps at a distance.

My nightmare ended as my cell phone alarm rang hard in my left ear and I woke up to its Last Christmas ring tone. The ring tone was a gift from Shefali, my new semi-girlfriend. I squinted through a half-shut eye and lifted the cell phone.

‘8:32 p.m.’ surrounded by little bells flashed on the screen.

‘Damn,’ I said and jumped out of bed.

I would have loved to analyze my dream and its significance in my insignificant life, but I had to get dressed for work.

‘Man, the Qualis will be here in twenty minutes,’ I thought, digging matter out of my eye. I was still tired, but scared to sleep more because I was getting late. Besides, there was a serious risk of Bakshi making a comeback in my dreams.

By the way, hi. I am Shyam Mehra, or Sam Marcy as they call me at my workplace, the Connexions call center in Gurgaon. (American tongues have trouble saying my real name and prefer Sam. If you want, you can give me another name too. I really don’t care.)

Anyway, I am a call centre agent. There are hundreds of thousands, probably millions of agents like me. But this total pain-in-the neck author chose me, of all the agents in the country. He met me and told me to help him with his second book. In fact, he nears as well wanted me to write the book for him. I declined, saying I can’t even write my resume or even other simple things in life, there is no way I can write a whole damn book.

I explained to him how my promotion to the position of team leader had been put off for one year because my manager Bakshi had told me I don’t have the ‘required skill-set’ yet. In my review, Bakshi wrote that I was ‘not a go-getter’. (I don’t even know what ‘go-getter’ means, so I guess I’m not one for sure.)

But this author said he didn’t care—he had promised someone he’d do this story so I’d better cooperate, otherwise he would keep pestering me. I tried my best to wriggle out of it, but he wouldn’t let go of me. I finally relented and that’s why I’m stuck with this assignment, while you are stuck with me.

I also want to give you one more warning. My English is not that great—actually, nothing about me is great. So, if you are looking for something posh and highbrow, then I’d suggest you read another book which has some big many-syllable words. I know only one big, many-syllable word, and I hate that word—‘management’. But we’ll get to that later.

I told the author about my limited English. However, the pain-in-the-neck author said big emotions do not come from big words. So, I had no choice but to do the job. I hate authors. For now, let us go back to the story. If you remember, I had just woken up at my home.

There were noises in the living room. Some relatives were in town to attend a family wedding. My neighbour was getting married to his cousin…er sorry, I was too groggy to figure this out—no, my cousin was getting married to his neighbour. But I had to work, so I could not go to the wedding. It doesn’t matter, all marriages are the same, more or less. I reached the bathroom still half-asleep. It was already occupied.

The bathroom door was open. I saw five of my aunts scrambling to get a few square-inches of the wash-basin mirror. One aunt was cursing her daughter for leaving the matching bindis at home. Another aunt had lost the little screw of her gold earring and was flipping out.

‘It is pure gold, where is it?’ she screamed into my face. ‘Has the maid stolen it?’ Like the maid had nothing better to do than steal one tiny screw. Wouldn’t she steal the whole set? I thought. ‘Auntie, can I use the bathroom for five minutes. I need to get ready for office,’ I said. Oh hello, Shyam. Woke up finally?’ my mother’s sister said. ‘Office? You are not coming for the wedding?’ ‘No, I have to work. Can I have the bath…’

‘Look how big Shyam has become,’ my maternal aunt said. ‘We need to find a girl for him soon.’

Everyone burst into giggles. It was their biggest joke of the day.‘Can I please…’ I said.

‘Shyam, leave the ladies alone,’ one of my older cousins interrupted. ‘What are you doing here with the women? We are already so late for the wedding.’

‘But I have to go to work. I need to get dressed,’ I protested, trying to elbow my way to the bathroom tap.

‘You work in a call center, right?’ my cousin said. ‘Yes.’ ‘Your work is through the phone. Why do you need to dress up? Who is going to see you?’ I didn’t answer. ‘Use the kitchen sink,’ an aunt suggested and handed me my toothbrush.I gave them all a dirty look. Nobody noticed. I passed by the living room on my way to the kitchen. The uncles were outside, on their second whiskey and soda. One uncle said something about how it would be better if my father were still alive and around this evening.

I reached the kitchen. The floor was so cold I felt I had stepped on an ice tray. I realized I had forgotten soap. I went back but the bathroom door was bolted. There was no hot water in the kitchen, and my face froze as I washed it with cold water. Winter in Delhi is a . I brushed my teeth and used the steel plates as a mirror to comb my hair. Shyam had turned into Sam and Sam’s day had just be

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rupa Publications India
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 1 January 2014
Edition ‏ : ‎ 2nd
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 257 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8129135507
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8129135506
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 299 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.95 x 1.73 x 19.69 cm
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India
Net Quantity ‏ : ‎ 1.00 Count
Generic Name ‏ : ‎ One Night @ the Call Center
Best Sellers Rank: #7,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #85 in Literary Theory, History & Criticism #322 in Classic Fiction (Books) #501 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)
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