One Night @ the Call Center
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| One Night @ The Call Center | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Author(s) | Chetan Bhagat |
| Cover artist | Chetan Bhagat and Samantha Holyoak |
| Country | India |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | Rupa & Co. |
| Publication date | October 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 267 (11th imprint) |
| ISBN | ISBN 81-291-0818-6 (Paperback edition) |
| OCLC Number | 63276386 |
| LC Classification | MLCM 2005/00074 (P) PR9499.3.B |
This is the second best-selling novel from the award winning author after Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT!.
About Chetan Bhagat
Chetan Bhagat is a popular Indian speaker, columnist in major news dailies, and an author. When he’s not busy writing novels, he serves as a motivational speaker.
Bhagat has authored other bestsellers.
Some of his works include:
Revolution 2020
Five Point Someone
Three Mistakes of My Life
Two States
He has a very light-hearted and lucid style of writing and his books are often well received, thanks to their cinematic plots and interesting characters.
Chetan Bhagat is a graduate from IIT-New Delhi and a post graduate from IIM - Ahmedabad. After enjoying a successful investment banking career, he married Anusha Suryanarayan, whom he met during his post graduation. They are blessed with twins.
Synopsis
The book begins with a frame story which recounts a train journey from Kanpur to Delhi. During the journey, the narrating author meets a very beautiful girl. The girl offers to tell the author a story on the condition that he has to make it his second book. After a lot of hesitation, the author agrees. The story within the story, which comprises the bulk of the book, relates the events that happen one night at a call center. Told through the eyes of the protagonist, Shyam, it is a story of almost lost love, thwarted ambitions, absence of family affection, pressures of a patriarchal set up, and the work environment of a globalized office. Shyam loves but has lost Priyanka, who is now planning an arranged marriage with another; Vroom loves Esha. Esha wants to be a model, Radhika is in an unhappy marriage with a demanding mother-in-law, and military uncle wants to talk to his grandson; they all hate Bakshi, their cruel boss. Claimed to be based on a true story, the author chooses Shyam Mehra (alias Sam Marcy) as the narrator and protagonist, who is one among the six call center employees featured.Book Summary of One Night @ The Call Center
One Night @ The Call Center is the story of six colleagues from a call center who spend a night together, one that they’ll forever remember. Bhagat portrays the issues faced by a section of the Indian society and how people deal with their problems.Summary of the Book
Chetan Bhagat’s second novel, One Night @ the Call Center, is based on a group of people working at a call center who have a chance encounter with God. The book describes a bunch of completely different characters with differing aims and ambitions, and how they pull themselves together and resolve these issues finally.
Shyam, Priyanka, Vroom, Esha, Radhika and Military Uncle are colleagues in a call center. An unfaithful husband, a scheming boss, apathetic grandchildren and a forced engagement are just some of their collective problems, and when the gang decides to take some time off work, a freak accident leads to a precarious situation – one that’s life altering.
In his trademark style, Bhagat fiddles around with issues like battered ambitions and the poignant aspect of love. The book was converted into a movie by Atul Agnihotri and was re-christened as Hello. It released in October 2008, and starred Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Gul Panag and Sharman Joshi.
Major themes
The themes involve the anxieties and insecurities of the rising Indian middle class, including questions about career, inadequacy, marriage, family conflicts in a changing India, and the relationship of the young Indian middle class to both executives and ordinary clients whom they serve in the U.S.A. There is an aspect of self-help in the book as the author invites readers to identify aspects of themselves and their lives that make them angry and that they would like to change. One of the salient features of this novel is that all the characters experience a dramatic and disturbing event during the night when they receive a call from God, and all use this moment to re-examine their own lives.- Shyam's woes
- Priyanka's woes
- Esha's woes
- Vroom's woes
- Radhika's woes
- Military Uncle's woes
- Phone call from God
Translation
This book has been translated into Hindi and is published by Prabhaat Prakashan.[1][citation needed]
Film adaptations
Main article: Hello (film)
Noted Bollywood film director Rohan Sippy had bought the rights from the author Chetan Bhagat, but later Sippy let the rights pass on to director Atul Agnihotri, brother-in-law of Salman Khan. The movie version of the novel is titled as Hello
starring Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Amrita Arora, Katrina
Kaif, Gul Panag, Sharman Joshi. Hello was released on 10 October 2008 to
average to bad reviews and did poor business especially in multiplexes
of big cities and was declared flop as it did 5 crore business in the
first 2 days itself.books review and critics comments
A Book Review of Chetan Bhagat's, One Night@the Call Center chillibreeze writer — MaitabiAfter the success of Five point someone, Chetan Bhagat’s latest venture, One Night @ the Call Center received mixed reviews. This 289 pager is a tale of six people working in a call center called “Connexions” in Gurgaon. The characters are Shyam, Varun, Esha, Priyanka, Radhika and a Military Uncle. It’s a story of their pain, sorrows, ambitions, love life, personal trauma and the happiness they share together. The PlotOne Night @ The Call Center revolves around six people, three men and three female to be precise, working in the same group in a call center. Though distinctly different in all aspects there was something which bound these folks together - their messed up lives.The story is about them and how a night in their office changed their lives forever. CharactersShyam Mehra, call name Sam Marcy, is the narrator of the story and if you are looking for a more detailed intro, I can add that he is the hero of the novel. Pretty confused in life and more so because of his screwed up love life. Shyam’s character is that of the ‘boy next door’. Does his life change after God’s call and does his love life finally get a happy ending?Varun Malhotra, call name Victor Mell, is Shyam’s friend. Very smart and loves speed, which is why his friends call him ‘Vroom’. Varun hates the call center and his Americans employers. Unfortunately, he has to compromise for the simple reason that he has to keep up his standard of living. Otherwise he runs at risk of ruining his image in front of his friends. Does he stay back at the call center or does he find another way for himself? Esha Singh, call name Eliza Singer, is the pretty face of the group. An aspiring model, who ran away from home and took up a job at the call center so that she could achieve her dreams. She works as a call center agent by night and meets model coordinators in the day. But does everything go the way Esha planned? Does she make it to the modeling world? Radhika Jha, call name Regina Jones, is the only married one in the group. Trying to manage the household activities and her job, Radhika’s main aim in life is to earn money and settle down on one hand, and manage her mother-in-law on the other. She loved her husband deeply until she found out about her husband’s love interest. After knowing the truth does Radhika forgive her hubby or walk out of the relationship? Priyanka is the heroine of the novel. To be precise, Shyam’s ex-girlfriend. Priyanka’s mom wants her to marry an NRI and she finally agrees. Though Shyam and Priyanka had called it quits on their relationship a long time ago, her feelings for Shyam still linger. Who does Priyanka finally marry, Shayam or NRI Ganesh? Military uncle is the oldest of the lot and the odd man out. A family feud forces his to stay alone even in his old age, an uncommon phenomenon in India. Military uncle’s heart cries out for his grandson. Will they ever be united? Shefali and Mr.Bakshi have special appearances. CommentsBhagat’s writing is simple and clear. He writes in a comfortably natural style, without complicated words, which keeps the narration lucid and easy to follow. His writing is also loaded with subtle humor, especially the one-liners, which are just awesome.The realistic characters and easy language undoubtedly make the novel interesting but there are places where it tries your patience as well. The narration of Shyam’s dates with Priyanka are a bit tedious and long winded. Another point which drew my interest was the resemblance of the novel to any Bollywood ‘masala’ movie. I don’t know whether I would call this a shortcoming of the novel, but there were so many instances where I thought this was just like a movie! On the whole, like my brother, I too believe One Night@ the Call Center is fab! It definitely makes an interesting read and Chetan Bhagat has proved himself once again after his debut novel, Five Point Someone. However,do not compare this novel with his first one as this would lead to the essence of the former being lost. Bravo Chetan!!! sarang bhastkur's After almost 6 months of not reading any book , I read this book a few days back . I had earlier read Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone which was indeed good .
I must say comparing this to Five point someone is not
cool , as this book does not deal with the students , although it
represents the youth of the country . This book is about 6 call centre
employees – Shyam , Priyanka , Esha , Vroom , Radhika & “military
uncle” . Just like Five point someone was adapted in a movie , the
bollywood movie -”Hello” (2008) starring Salman Khan was adapted from
this story . Turns out that this book has twist through the literal
”deus ex machina ” – a plot device where a complicated problem is
abruptly solved by an unexpected intervention of a new character. The
new character in this story is none other than God.
The preface includes a train journey by Chetan Bhagat
from IIT Kanpur to Delhi where he meets a beautiful girl who narrates
him this story provided he makes the story , his second book . The book
then starts with the Shyam , as first person – who tells the readers
about his misfortunes as a call centre employees . Turns out that each
one of his colleagues had their own woes to share . As it said – every
head has its own head ache , Shyam also shares the woes of the other 5 .
The 6 of them had their own American names , as the callers from the US
could pronounce their Indian names . They had to deal with all kind of
meaningless calls , regarding every silly problem that could occur after
purchasing a product and they had answer all of their callers patiently
.
Three-Fourth of the book goes at a good pace describing
the lives of the 6 people . Apart from the problems with the callers ,
they also had a terrible boss – Bakshi . Shyam and Vroom had designed a
new website for the firm and they submitted the report to Bakshi . Shyam
was expecting to be promoted as the team leader while Bakshi submitted
the report to Boston with his name in it . Thus , Bakshi not only
affected the Shyam’s work life but that had impact on his personal life
as well . The 6 of them had a terrible personal life as well .
The twist comes when the lives of the 6 people
dramatically gets affected on the same day and they leave in a Qualis at
2 am . They end up in getting the Qualis skid of the road into a
construction site where they battle for life. It turns out that Shyam
gets a phone call then , a phone call from God . The call is also heard
by the others and God tells them the reason for their misery and how
they can overcome it .
The story then speeds up with Shyam & Vroom
threatening Bakshi , saving the jobs of the colleagues and then
improving their own lives as well . They have plans of starting their
own web designing firm , and Shyam get backs his love- Priyanka . The
story makes an abrupt change after the phone call of God . I was
expecting a good twist in this story but turns out that this wasnt upto
the expectations . But the book is definitely worth a read . Turns out
that the girl who narrates the story turns out to be Goddess Shakti ,
herself or was it Chetan Bhagat’s dream ?
Well , inclusion of the new character – God was a good
idea but turns out that it didnt fit the storyline very well . The
post-phone-call story isnt that good . One thing why I like Chetan
Bhagat’s books is that he describes the characters in the story really
well . He does the same here – may it be the mysterious story teller
girl or Shyam . The pace of the book is really good till the phone call
from God & I was drowned into the story . I feel that the post phone
call story could have been better. Thats it for now , I had a nice time
reading the book while travelling in the bus . Hope you readers have a
nice time too :-) .
lens mann says, My all-time favorite
I’m
a book lover since my school days and have read hundreds of books till
now. But one book is my favorite and remains close to my heart, which is
One Night @ the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat. This book was published
in the year 2005, the time when I was in the initial stages of my career
and was myself working at a call center in Delhi. May be that is why I
could relate to the characters and events of this book so closely.
Other books by the same author are Five Point Someone, 3 Mistakes of My Life and 2 States. All did well in the market, but One Night @ the Call Center remains my all-time favorite. Read Other works from Chetan Bhagat
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Story Outline
This
is an awesome book revolving around the lives of 6 people working in
Connexions Call Center in Gurgaon. The characters are Priyanka, Esha,
Radhika, Vroom, Shyam and Military Uncle, all of whom are caught in
issues related to their career, marriage and family conflicts and their
relationship with their executives and clients.
Shyam and Priyanka were in love earlier, but now, they have broken up and Priyanka is not engaged to Microsoft personnel, Ganesh Gupta. Priyanka is happy with Ganesh Gupta, but later finds out that he is bald, he has lied to her and she is not happy with her marriage the very next month too. Esha is frustrated because she slept with a designer in order to get a modeling contract, but later the guy refused that she cannot become a model because of her height. Vroom secretly loves Esha, but feels hurt when he hears her telling her friends that she slept with the designer. Radhika is devoted to her family, serves her in-laws and loves her husband who does not live with her due to job. But she finds that he has affair with some Payal and she goes on to take anti-depression pills. Military Uncle seems to be strict and quiet from the outside, but at heart, he loves his son and grandson so much. But his son is so mean to ask him to stay out of their life. Other works of Chetan Bhagat
How it related to My lifeComing back to One Night @ the Call Center, it is a book that talks about problems that almost all of us face in our everyday lives. It deals with almost all problems that young people in India face, including issues related to their girlfriend or boyfriend and no guaranty of the job. I myself worked at call center at that time and could easily relate to the scenes of the book when US clients are bashing and blaming the call center executives unreasonably. Even if you have never worked in a call center or you have no idea about how life is there, then this book will inform you about the work culture in small BPOs. An Interview with Chetan Bhagat
The
memorable thing about the book is the phone call from the God, after
which, the characters get motivated and their lives change. God speaks
to them in modern English language and suggest them how they can improve
their lives. After that, all of them get motivated to face their
problems, they make a plan to screw Bakshi, their Boss, and to increase
their sales so that the downsizing can be prevented.
The book has been published by Rupa & Co. and is available online at amazon on a reasonable price . It proves to be an amazing pastime to kill a Sunday afternoon and after reading it, you will be forced to try to solve your problems, that you may be facing in your daily lives. Critical study of One Night at The Call Center Chetan Bhagat’s second novel, One Night @ the Call Center, is based on a group of people working at a call center who have a chance encounter with God. The book describes a bunch of completely different characters with differing aims and ambitions, and how they pull themselves together and resolve these issues finally. Shyam, Priyanka, Vroom, Esha, Radhika and Military Uncle are colleagues in a call center. An unfaithful husband, a scheming boss, apathetic grandchildren and a forced engagement are just some of their collective problems, and when the gang decides to take some time off work, a freak accident leads to a precarious situation – one that’s life altering. Shyam (Sam to his callers) has lost his self-confidence after being dumped by the girl who just so happens to be sitting next to him. Priyanka's domineering mother has arranged for her daughter's upscale marriage to an Indian man in Seattle. Esha longs to be a model but discovers it's a horizontal romp to the runway. Lost, dissatisfied Vroom has high ideals, but compromises them by talking on the phone to idiots each night. Traditional Radhika has just found out that her husband is sleeping with his secretary. And Military Uncle (nobody knows his real name) sits alone working the online chat. They all try to make it through their shifts-and maintain their sanity-under the eagle eye of a boss whose ego rivals his incompetence. But tonight is no ordinary night. Tonight is Thanksgiving in America: Appliances are going haywire, and the phones are ringing off their hooks. Then one call, from one very special caller, changes everything. this book is a good inspiration for how to handle your problem.. over here shyam a guy who works in the call center his problems are shown and how he handles it but actually he doesn't handle it but gets messed up so here its a thing to learn how to handle situations like this and most importantly you should not loose your confidence at any state keep faith in yourself to know what i am saying do read the book.. its good.. The themes involve the anxieties and insecurities of the rising Indian middle class, including questions about career, inadequacy, marriage, family conflicts in a changing India, and the relationship of the young Indian middle class to both executives and ordinary clients whom they serve in the U.S.A. There is an aspect of self-help in the book as the author invites readers to identify aspects of themselves and their lives that make them angry and that they would like to change. One of the salient features of this novel is that all the characters experience a dramatic and disturbing event during the night when they receive a call from God, and all use this moment to re-examine their own lives. Chetan Bhagat is an Indian author who has written Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT , One Night @ the Call Center, The Three Mistakes of My Life and 2 States - The Story Of My Marriage. He has also written the script of Hello, the Hindi movie based on One Night @ the Call Center. Chetan Bhagat was born in New Delhi and studied in the Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. He studied Mechanical Engineering at The Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) and then studied at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM) where he was named "The Best Outgoing Student". He worked as an Investment Banker with Deutsche bank for eleven years in Hong Kong and moved to Mumbai with his wife Anusha in 2008. Later he gave up his job to devote his entire time to his writings. He is married to Anusha, who was his classmate in IIM. Bhagat's writing style tends to be simple, with linear narratives and vivid storytelling. His protagonists tend to be named after Lord Krishna, like Hari, Shyam, Govind or Krishna.All his books have a number in the title (eg. 'five' in the first, 'one' in the second, 'three' in the third and 'two' in his latest book.) When asked about this Chetan replied 'I'm a banker, I can't get numbers out of my head." In response to poor reviews from critics, Bhagat described the books as entertainment, rather than attempts at serious literature. He is a columnist with Dainik Bhaskar & The Times Of India, and writes on political issues. He is an NRI and a citizen of Singapore. Bhagat has an op-ed column in Dainik Bhaskar, a large Hindi newspaper and another at The Hindustan Times, an English daily.He says "The main purpose of the books and films is to entertain, but the columns allow me to give my views on how the nation should be run." Some of his columns have been discussed in the Indian Parliament. His articles are written in simple English to achieve mass appeal. He also visits Educational Institutions in India to give motivational talks. His speech 'Spark' in Pune attained widespread fame and was published in many newspapers |
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