One Night @ the call center by Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat ON@TCC blog 

(1) Contemporary issues in on@tcc:

From the beginning we are discussing the nature and function of literature. What is literature and what does literature do?Literature is not just imaginative stories written in leisure time only for entertainment. But it is reflection of time, place and society in which we are living. Literature is mirror or photographic image of society. Equally literature is also an X ray image portraying ugly, darker sides of society.

Similarly this novel also throws light on the contemporary issues of present society. All six major characters have their own problems in their personal life. Actually, they are not just imaginative characters, but they are mouthpiece or representative of majority of Indians.

Call center  is a place which unites all the six major characters. Bhagat calls Call centers  as a Soul destroying, air conditioned sweatshops. Most of people were considering it as a great help in boosting our economy. It gives new job opportunities to young people with handsome amount of salary.

But nobody was able to see the under current damage it does. This is the most productive and educated young generation of India. India was never so young before. But this young generation has to work according to American clock, have to talk in American accents and have to change even names also. For example Varun - Vroom, Shyam- Sam, etc.How painful it is to lose identity of one's own for the sake of others or job!!!!!. This is the newer form of slavery and colonization.(Slavery was never abolished; it is just changed to include everyone.-New work culture in office).

And more than that they condition the mind of youth by Ads. what does it mean to be young ?Being youth means  to eat pizza, to drink Coca-Cola, view item songs only. This conditioning is done to majority of people.

Apart from this other issues are also beautifully touched upon like... Love/ arranged marriage, breakup & patch up, Bossism, exploitation in modeling or other sectors, OLD MORALITY- NEW MORALITY, family values, constant fight of parents and its effect on children, low self esteem, emotional blackmailing, hire & fire work culture, anti- American sentiments and many more......

Anti- American sentiments are very strong in this novel. Bhagat through character of Vroom criticizes american policy. American DREAM is just myth. they are not happiest people. He also criticizes war mongering habit of america. those who fight a lot they are the most fearful people. vroom says  Americans suck the life blood out of our country’s most productive generation 

 ‘a thirty-five-year-old American’s brain and IQ is the same as a ten-years-old Indian’s brain. This will help you understand your clients. You need to be as patient as you are when dealing with a child. Americans are dumb, just accept it. this quote explains strong anti American sentiments.

2. Can you justify this observation?

“Bhagat's tone is pitch-perfect, hisObserver’s eye keenly focused on nuanceand detail. Verisimilitude is all: The firsttwo thirds of the novel evokes, indeedreproduces, the way the young callCenter workers think, talk, eat, and drink,Dress, date and behave.” (Tharoor).

Yes, it is quite true observation depicted in the novel of young people in the novel. Vroom complains about America and its negative effect on Indians. He also criticizes call centers. At that time someone says that if this is what happens then why don’t you leave the job. But he replies that I can’t, because I also want to live the way my other friends live. And for that he requires money.

“Bhagat has a talent for tapping into the zeitgeist; that he is not much older than the people he writes about makes him a particularly credible portrayal  of their world.”(Tharoor). 

☆ zeitgeist =¤The spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit /characteristic of a period.

¤spiritus mundi   
temper of the times

It is interesting observation by Shashi Tharoor that this is what "New" India is. Generally YOUTH hadn’t found enough space in past, especially in Indian writing in English. But Chetan Bhagat is able to catch the spirit of the age. This is what we find happening in and around world. The way youngsters live, eat, talk, drink, behave, spend money is brilliantly capture here. In DRYDEN's word it is JUST & LIVELY IMAGE of contemporary India.


Had Bhagat’s vision been shallow, he wouldn’t’t have been able to see “call-centers as soul- destroying sweatshop, soaking up the energies of young Indians who could be doing better for themselves and their country”. 

 Chetan Bhagat with this observation has captured the skeleton image of the undercurrents in the society

Many people criticize Bhagat's novels as simple, childish things without philosophical depth and keen observation. Though book is written in simple diction, it is not good idea to neglect its importance. It does present the skeleton image or undercurrent of society. It is a kind of reality which may gave shock to many people. Because working in call centers makes them submissive. Why they have to speak in American accents only?? Because if this people identifies them as Indians, then they may abuse Indians. Even if they abuse this people has to speak in decent language. This creates huge Psychological damage/ impact on the minds of the youngsters. It generates LOW SELF ESTEEM, which is found in the character of Shyam.

Corporate sectors USE energy of youngsters by showing dangling carrot. Success story of just 5% people are being told again and again. But what about other 95% people

.their stories never come out. It gives more opportunities to younger people. Because they are full of energy and enthusiasm. Older people cannot work like them. So they are thrown out of job. The same will happen with young generation also, that when their stamina will decrease, when they grew old they will be thrown away from job. (THROW AWAY CULTURE) .they is trapped, used as ploy. And when one comes to know about this, it’s too late.

This is what happening at present time. Everybody is not able to see the undercurrent effect. But Bhagat has very well presented these issues.

Here it is appropriate to use words of Coleridge that :-“ Had Mr. Wordsworth's poems been the silly, the childish things … they must have sunk at once, a dead weight, into the slough of oblivion, and have dragged the preface along with them.”  Similarly after so many years of its publication the book and writer both are still alive- read a lot by large number of people. Had it been worthless, childish thing people might have forgotten it. It has something which appeals to many.


★
Mannepean satire is a seriocomic genre, in Greek literature and Latin literature, in which contemporary institutions, conventions, and ideas were criticized in a mocking satiric style that mingled prose and verse.

At much extent this novel is example of it, because it also satirizes many institutions and ideas and conventions. For example Marriage institution, Bossism, work culture



 Cyberpunk:-

→(science fiction) A subgenre of science fiction which focuses on computer or information technology and virtual reality.

A cyberpunk character, a hacker punk, a high-tech low life.

There are few elements which leads us to read this novel as cyber punk.

-The "BUG" found in MS office is turned out as plot mover.

-open G mail account of Mr.Bakshi and as result fake mail drafted by Vroom is fine example of it.

Narrative technique:-

Apart from what is told in story, HOW part is also very important. Writer himself was traveling in train from Kanpur to Delhi. And then he meets a young girl, who tells him a story on condition of writing it as his  second novel. He listens the story, and story is told by  Shyam- one of the characters in the novel. In the beginning Shyam is introduced and then he introduces other major characters. So this narrative pattern in also very interesting.

PROLOGUE & EPILOGUE:-
Chetan Bhagat makes very good use of prologue and epilogue in his novel. In prologue, writer himself comes as character and talks with the reader.
It looks like Bhagat is well aware about the literary tradition of writing. Exact time and place of action is given. Which follows the Aristotelian unities of time, place and action. Deux ex Machina, is something which must be avoided. So he gives alternative narrative of  entire novel .which proves that God's intervention is not a mistake, but author deliberately does so.
There are many parallel/ similarities in Narrative technique of One Night @ The call center  by Bhagat and "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel- the  Canadian writer. For example beginning of the novel- Prologue. Both the writer himself present in the prologue telling how they got inspiration about writing their second novel. Both the writers meets person who tells them stories - a young lady in ON@tcc and an old man in Life of Pi. Both tell that you can meet the real people to collect more information.

Other parallel is Experience of God. There is not clarity about God, but rather it’s indicated and experienced. One can't say with surety that God is present or not.

And one more point is First person Narration in both the novels- Shyam and Pi- narrator and protagonist in both the novels.

EPILOGUE:-

And in the epilogue of both the novels alternative reading is given. When Japanese insurance agents listen the story of Pi, they are not ready to believe it. They say our company won’t believe this. So Pi tells another story replacing Animals with human beings. When Yann Martel asks what correct story is, Pi tells a story which I told you. But now it’s your story, you can write the way you wish. The same lines are also found in ON@tcc also. When Bhagat asks that people may not believe story with God's call. so the lady tells that you can replace the lines of God with Military uncle.

So, this is the parralel in Narrative technique in both novels, which is quite interesting.


★ Popular literature:-

ON@TCC is charged by many critics as popular literature.

But what is popular literature ??
Popular literature
Commonly lacks a sustained plot, worked

Out with close regard to cause and effect.
a good literary text should have cause &  effect justified. But here it is not so. God's call is there but its justification is not given. effect is there but cause is not justified.☆Still more characteristically it lacks the study of character and the intellectual analysis of such varied problems as occupy the fiction of the present age.
Why Bhagat's novel not won awards or critical acclaim ??- the reason is that characters are not well developed. All the characters are flat characters. God’s call comes and they easily accept without doubting or questioning. The details about characters upbringing is not given as it is given in Life of Pi. Pi believes in God, because from childhood he was grown up with stories of god. He believed in all the religions. So when he tells in the novel that I experienced god, it looks appropriate. Whereas in Bhagat's book it isn’t happening.

→The popular romances lay their stress chiefly on incident and adventure or simple intrigue, and set forth only the more familiar and accepted moral teachings.

ON@TCC:-It is not about something very great adventure characters are doing. What is written is the book is the day to day life of many people.And the moral teaching given by God is not something very great, because it is Chetan Bhagat's god. The kind of Teaching given in the book is already told in many books. He is just putting it in simple language. So it lacks that high seriousness. So it is appropriate to say that ON@TCC present an instinctive or traditional, rather than a highly reflective, philosophy of life. It does not raise or answerabstract questions also. It has happy ending, but life is actually not so. But Post Modern text never ends in clear cut way, but it does so.Because of all these reasons critics  have come to be regarded chiefly as the literature of children- because this kinds of stories were told in the beginning or at childhood of civilization. and if still these kinds of stories are told and people enjoy then we have to doubt whether humanity has evolved or not???

So, from much perspective this novel falls under the category of popular literature. But then even to degrade the text because it is popular is not a good idea. To be popular or classic is not in book's hand. Every text has its pros and cons.