One Night at the Call Center - Softcover

Bhagat, Chetan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345498321 ISBN 13: 9780345498328

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2007

Synopsis

Press 1 for technical support.
Press 2 for broken hearts.
Press 3 if your life has totally crashed. . . .

Six friends work nights at a call center in India, providing technical support for a major U.S. appliance corporation. Skilled in patience-and accent management-they help American consumers keep their lives running. Yet behind the headsets, everybody's heart is on the line.

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.

Chetan Bhagat's delicious romantic comedy takes us inside the world of the international call center, where cultural cross-wires come together with perfect pathos, hilarity, and spice.

About this title

Review:

"A charming comedy about the serious emotional issues facing a group of friends ...in a case of Godly intervention, and the result is no less enjoyable for being implausible. IN A WORD: Divine" (The Sunday Age (Aus))

" 'ADMIT IT, at some stage you've been rude to a friendly Indian manning an international call-centre phone. In this funny yet poignant novel, call-centre colleagues all have love issues...a light-hearted book, but the dialogue is good and the characters well developed and believable'" (Herald Sun)

"'The blurb say this book was a bestseller in India. It's not hard to see why... the novel has some cutting things to say about globalisation and modernisation, wrapped in the light and fluffy pastry of a romantic comedy. At the end you might even feel sorry for the Indian cold-callers who have just interrupted your TV viewing ...'" (M-Preview)

Book Description:

Richard Curtis meets 'The Office' , a provocative romantic comedy with a unique perspective -set in a call centre in India on the night six troubled friends get a call from God.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0345498321
• ISBN 13: 9780345498328
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320