One Night @ the Call Center

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 3^rd 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 21^st 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.