One Night @ the Call Center or
ON@CC is a
novel written by
Chetan Bhagat and first published in 2005. The novel revolves around a group of six
call center employees working in Connexions
call center in
Gurgaon,
Haryana. It takes place during the span of one night, in which all of the leading characters confront some aspect of themselves or their lives they would like to change. The story takes a dramatic and decisive turn through a literal
deus ex machina, when the characters get a phone call from
God.
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.
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
Shyam is very upset to learn that Priyanka is engaged to a person called Ganesh Gupta, who works at
Microsoft in the
US because he had dated priyanka for a long time and the two had engaged in sex . To add to his woes, he is horrified to learn that Bakshi had cheated him, and Vroom, by submitting the
Troubleshooting Website to the Boston centre as his own without crediting him and Vroom.
- Priyanka's woes
Priyanka is first happy when she is engaged to Ganesh Gupta, who works for Microsoft but becomes furious when she hears that her parents have planned her marriage the very next month, which she feels is too early. Both her mother and Ganesh press her to agree to this proposal. She is even more saddened by the fact that Shyam was
eavesdropping on her conversation with Ganesh. When Vroom and Shyam show her that Ganesh had forged his pictures to hide his baldness, she disapproves Ganesh for having cheated her.
- Esha's woes
Esha had earlier done a
compromise by sleeping with a designer to get a modeling contract. However the guy turned out to be opportunistic as he betrays her by telling her she can't become a model due to her height. He also tries to console her by sending her some money. Esha feels terribly betrayed and tries to suppress the mental pain by inflicting herself with physical pain by purposely cutting her skin.
- Vroom's woes
Vroom is shocked to learn that Bakshi has cheated him and Shyam by submitting their work as his own. To add to his miseries, he overhears Esha telling the other girls that she had slept with a designer to get a modeling contract.
- Radhika's woes
Radhika, who loved her husband very much, is shocked to learn about his dark side. When Vroom calls up her husband portraying as a
radio jockey and asks him to dedicate roses and a song to someone special, he chooses his girlfriend Payal over his wife. Radhika who listens to this gets terribly upset as her husband has betrayed her.
- Military Uncle's woes
Military Uncle tries to be nice to his son and grandson. But when he sends some pictures via mail to his grandson, his son loses his cool and asks him to keep out of his life. This leaves Military Uncle heartbroken.
- Phone call from God
The phone call from God is one of the salient features in the novel. The author has represented god as a friendly figure rather than a boss. He is shown as speaking in modern English rather than the stereo-typical pure English or Latin that one usually encounters God saying. The circumstances in which the characters of the novel get a phone call from God is discussed in the next paragraph. In order to cheer themselves up, all the lead characters of the novel decide to go and enjoy at a night club. After enjoying for a while, they leave for office. Midway through the journey, Vroom starts to feel nauseated after drinking alcohol and so they stop and venture out. Vroom throws up and also breaks the window-pane of a shop thus spreading an alarm. They rush out of the place in fear. While returning, they face a life-threatening situation when their Qualis crashes into a construction site hanging over a mesh of iron construction rods. As the rods began to yield slowly, they started to panic. They are unable to call for help as there is no mobile phone network at that place. In this situation, Shyam's mobile phone starts ringing. The phone call is from God. He speaks to all of them and gives them suggestions to improve their life. After that, God also advises them on how to get their vehicle out of the construction site. The conversation with God motivates the group to such an extent that they get ready to face their problems with utmost determination and motivation. Meanwhile Vroom and Shyam hatch up a plan to throw Bakshi out of the call center and prevent the closing of Connexions call center, whose employees are to be downsized radically. When they emerge out of danger, they have clear-cut goals in their mind. On returning to the Call Center, they carry out their plans with dexterity.
Translation
This book has been translated into
Hindi and is published by
Prabhaat Prakashan [1].
Reception
Like its predecessor ,'One night @ the call center" met with largely negative reviews.
[citation needed] Also Chetan Bhagat began to receive widespread negative attention for the modest pricing of his books. Considered
[by whom?] to be a deliberate marketing ploy , the pricing led to debates all over the indian publishing industry with some
[who?] calling it ' a shrewd move by a clever IIM graduate'.
[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.
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