Tuesday, August 29, 2006

One Night @ a Call Centre

This is the second book written by Chetan Baghat (read IIT--> IIM (A). It starts with a train journey from Kanpur to Delhi. Here he meets a pretty lady. She agrees to tell him a story about 6 call center agents. Her only condition is that Chetan should convert that in his second book. With reluctance he says yes.
The story, told in first person through the character of Shyam lists the happenings of that eventful night. With others, Priyanka, Esha, Radhika, Vroom and Military Uncle, Shyam faces enlightment in that night. Apart from dealing with commonplace problems like Break-Up's, Extra Marital affairs, Casting Couch and Employee lay-offs, the story deftly touches the borderlines of issues related with Outsourcing, Indian Youth and Globalization. Though the key of the book remains their "conversation with god." The ending is also very good.
I dont know whether to call this book as Spiritual, Real or Unusal.The books leaves you with a question mark:What is the book about? Is it about the agents or Indian youth all together?Is it about god or the lady in the train? As good as the book is, I still feel that Chetan has not aptly conveyed the it's mission apart from the promise to write one.

And yes, I finished it in one day(paradoxically!)

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