Major
themes in One Night @ the Call Center
Name: Jinal B. Parmar
Roll no.:11
Paper no.: 13 “The New
Literature”
M. A. Semester: 4
Year: 2015
PG Enrolment no.:
13101025
Email ID:
jinal.parmar989883@gmail.com
Submitted to: Department
of English
Smt. S. B. Gardi
Maharaja Krishnakumar
sinhji
Bhavnagar University
Introduction: Chetan Bhagat:
Chetan Bhagat is one of the great
Indian writers. Chetan Bhagat in his books always writes about the young India.
In his books he always writes about the problem in Indian society. Chetan Bhagat
also who is a best seller of his books.
Bhagat is also columnist for
newspaper such as “The Times of India” and “Dainik Bhaskar”, where he writes
about the youth career development and current affairs. “The New York” times
called him as “The biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history”.
Time magazine named him amongst
the 100 most influential people in the world and fast company, U. S. A. listed
him as one of the world’s 100 most creative people in business. In the novels
he uses very simple language so that reader can easily understand and prefers
to read more.
Bhagat’s novels have been adapted
into Bollywood films like, 2 States, 3 idiots, Kai po che!, Hello, etc.
His
Works:
1. Five point some one
2. The 3 mistakes of my life
3. 2 states
4. One Night @ the Call Center
5. Revolution 2020
6 . What young India Wants
7. Half girlfriend
Introduction:
One Night @ the Call center
One Night @ the Call Center is one
of the novel written by Chetan Bhagat. The novel published in 2005. In this novel
Bhagat talks about the call center where there are six character are working, Gurgaon,
Haryana in the novel.
The characters of the novel are
: Shyam, Varun, Esha, Priyanka, Radhika and Military Uncle. They are working in
call center which is “Connexion call center”. All the character faces the
problems in their family. One night they get call from God and God said them to
listen your inner voice of your heart. All the characters inspired by the call
of God.
The story takes a dramatic and
decisive turn through a literal Deux ex Machina, when the character receives a
phone call from God.
Major Themes in
the novel One Night @ the Call Center:
1.
Nationalism:
In the novel One Night @ the
Call Center writer introduces a young India and their problems like six
characters, shyam, Radhika, Esha, Priyanka, Vroom, and Military uncle of the
novel they facing problems because they working in the call center. Once they
get call from God to solve problem and the novel also about to call to alarm to
India to the young people within it.
“Nationalism involves national identity, by contrast with the
related construct of patriotism, which involves the social conditioning and personal
behaviors that support a state’s decisions and actions”
Having had to suffer the
country being screwed up by politicians for so years, the potential of the
nation and its people is finally being allowed to flourish. In call center most
of the people work in a night shift and get many calls from the America and
solve their problems.
In the novel characters working
in the call center and their bay’s name is “Western Appliances Strategic Group”
or WASG. They deal with the customers of home appliances such as refrigerator,
oven and vacuum cleaners. These strategic customers call a lot and are too difficult
to figure out things. So they thinks that they dealing with on the lines from America
and even bigger up the management pecking order.
When Vroom talks to God, Vroom
says,
“I
should not have taken up a job just for money. Call center pays more, but only
because the exchange rate is in the favor Americans. They toss their loose
change at us. It seems like a lot of rupees but jobs that pay less could be
better there could be jobs that define me, make me learn or help my country”
Vroom’s ideas are very anti American
so he says that,
“Americans suck the life blood out of our country’s most
productive generation”
The implication is that Indian too
must develop a greater sense of itself and reject the easy path of playing
second fiddle to the U. S.
2.
Phone call from God:
The phone call from God is one
of the major theme and the salient feature in the novel. In the novel writer
has presented God as a friendly figure rather than a boss. God is presented in
a modern way and shown as speaking in modern modern rather than the
stereo-typical pure English or Latin that one usually encounter God saying.
In the novel each characters
suffers from their personal problems and when they are in difficult situation
they get phone call from God. When they all go outside from call center at the
night to go to club. After enjoying they coming back to the call center at that
time their car Qualis crashes into a construction site hanging over a mesh of
iron construction roads.
They are unable to call for
as there is no mobile phone network at that place. In that circumstances shyam’s
mobile phone starts up ringing. The phone call is from God. God talks with
everyone and listen their problems and gives them suggestions and to improve
their life.
The conversation with God
motivates the characters to such an extent that they get ready to face their
problems with utmost determination and motivation. The story takes a dramatic
and decisive turn through a deux ex machina when the characters receive a phone
call from God.
“Deux ex machina is a calque from Greek meaning “God from the
machina”
Deux ex machina is term which
has evolved to mean a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is
suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of
some new event, character, ability or subject. It can be intended to move the
story forward when the writer has “painted himself into a corner” and sees no
other way out, to surprise the audience.
In same way Chetan Bhagat has
also used deux ex machina in this novel. Where he finds that the all characters
are in trouble situation he uses a call from God to resolve a plot.
3. Human relations, Love, sex and Marriage:
Chetan Bhagat in his novel trying
to say about the young India. In the novel One Night @ the Call center Bhagat
talks about the love story of Shyam and Priyanka and shyam’s dates with Priyanka.
They both are not just friends but they have physical relationship with each other.
In the novel the characters of Esha
who wants to become a model and for that she sleep with designer after that she
cheated by him and said that she has not enough height for the ramp model. Here
Bhagat present the dark side of the India.
4.
Cognizance:
In this novel the theme of
cognizance play very important role in every characters. Chetan Bhagat’s
intention was to convey the self defeating nature of blaming complaining and
not taking responsibility. All the characters that always feel problems by
showing the character’s hypocrisy that how they suffered from an inferiority
complex and psychologically projected their self loathing into America.
After a get call from God,
they improve their selves and listen their inner voice that’s what it says to
do where Radhika decides to divorce her cheating husband and leave from her
mother in laws critical clutches. Shyam rather to criticize himself, he
implementing his ideas into practice and started new web design company with
Vroom. Military uncle realized his mistake and wants to go America to live with
his son and grandson. Esha quit her modeling aspirations and continued to work
at the call center and also work with NGO. Priyanka also work in call center
but after that she will go to college for an accelerated one year B. Ed.
After receiving a call from
God the characters use their newfound self confidence and perspective on life. All
the characters get awareness after solved problems by God.
The book also point out at
valuable life lessons that take responsibility for your own lives, stop blaming
others, stop making excuses and be your own. It also shown that as a citizen of
India, instead of blaming others we need to do introspection that makes the
better society to live in.
5.
Modernization:
One Night @ the Call Center
deals with issues of young people, including questions about career, inadequacy,
marriage, family conflicts in a changing India, and the relationship of the
young Indian middle class to both executive and ordinary clients whom they
serve in the United States.
In this novel Bhagat’s aim is
to convey a message to the people of India from the situation of the characters
like the harshness of the situation of women in India. Esha who wants to become
a model for that she forced to slept with 40 years old designer and it
represents the dark side of the India.
Throughout the novel Bhagat
presents modernity like smoking is the contemporary metaphore of melancholic state
of being depression, stress, feel bad. Bhagat also talks about the Indian family
like the situation of Radhika in her in law’s house. Like on day she do house
hold works and in night she works in call center.
6.
Globalization :
“Globalization is a
process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and
governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment
and aided by information technology”
"Globalization is no longer a theoretical concept; it is a
glaring reality, impinging upon almost every aspect of human existence"
The title of the novel it self
tells about the effect of globalization in call center. In this novel writer
wants to give message to the
Indians that who working in call center
they just get good salary but it not give it a opportunity to do something else
or for their skills and creativity Americanized form of English in the Call
Centers.
In this novel we Workers forced to
change their names to Western one e.g. like,
Shyam
Mehra – Sam Mercy
Varun Malhotra - Victor
Radhika Jha – Regima Jones
Esha singh – Elina
Chetan Bhagat thinks that “On a
different level, I began to think about the number individuals who sacrifice
their creativity and skills and join call center merely because of the fact pay
packet on offer.”
Vroom cannot stand two things:
the Racists and the Americans. Vroom thinks Americans get to act superior to us
“not because they are better people. But because their country is rich and ours
is poor. That is the only damn reason. Because the losers who have run our
country for the last fifty year couldn’t do better than make India one of the
poorest countries on the earth”
In this novel we find rising
anxieties, fear and stress in these six characters in call center are
constantly under pressure. They themselves are to be blamed for it but one can
not deny that globalization is also responsible for it. Due to slack in
software industry the call center wanted to cut down the number of employees in
its main bay and that brings all the people under pressure. Actually this book
talks about the anxieties, fears, and stress of call center employees.
Eroding values means compromising
attitude .in the novel charcter of Esha
who getting modelling assignments, gets
ready to sleep with an influential person in the concerned field. When even
after this compromise she doesn't get a way-in, she realises the horrible
mistake she made. This example of hers reveals a disgusting reality in the
world of modelling and fashion. At the same time it shows us a limitlessly
compromising attitude that has come over today's youth
Thomas friedman gives
definition about Globalization
“Globalization is the integration of capital,
technology and information across national borders, in a way
that is creating a
single global market, and to some degree, a global market”
In this book he gives three
eras of Globalization
1. Globalization
1.0
2. Globalization
2.0
3. Globalization
3.0
The novel One Night @ the Call
Center we can connect with the Friedman’s
idea of flatteners. One Night @
the Call Center connect with 3rd flattener “Workflow software” where he talks about
the technology and tells that world is become flat. In this book he talks about
a new era of 21st century, world become very small.
In one Night @ the Call Center we see some
positive and negative effect of the Globalization. So here we can see the novel
deals with the theme of globalization with the example of “The World is flat”
by Thomas Friedman and connect the novel with his idea.
