Customer Reviews

One Night At the Call Centre

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I happened to buy Chetan Bhagat's One night @ the call center book at a railway station. I should say, that the book had mediocre content and very lame statements about Americans. Comments about the Americans being fat, loud, thick and divorce all the time, and that too said in front of God...and God has no problem with onehuman being demeaning other human beings, was uncalled for.

I am an Indian who has lived in the US for 13 years and recently came back to India. I have seen people abusing their own people here...especially the maids and other low paid workers. I don't think Mr.Bhagat has any clue as to what he was talking about racial abuse. Indians are the world's biggest discriminators and we should clean up our own backyard before mud slinging somebody else's.

Some parts of the book delivered some good humorous comments. To me, the form of narrative was similar to his first book Five Point Someone. I think Mr.Bhagat should stick to what he has experienced first hand and make stories of that.

Good luck and hope for a better performance in your next book.

Chetan Bhagat has written a fun adventure revolving around a group of staff who work in an Indian call centre answering stupid enquiries from Americans on Thanksgiving who can't perform simple tasks with their American (although Bhagat could have used Australia, UK, Europe, all our companies use Indian call centres now) company whitegoods. A unique idea, we get to see the world through the Indian youth' eyes who experience Americans (some racists) who speak down to them even though clearly the callers are less intelligent then they are. Some of these calls are hilarious, Bhagat should have included more.

The author tackles some bigger issues such as how the West treats poor countries like India and how their youth has sold out their country to take on the material items of the west. This book argues the point of how well educated hard working people in one country are worse off than the lazy stupid people in another simply because of where they were born. Chetan Bhagat does write this sort of stuff well without preaching to the reader, as he points out through the a well flowing storyline that these characters are all in the predicaments they are in because of themselves as well not just where they were born.

A few unrealistic occurrences in the plot and I doubt Vroom's solution for the call centre will work. The only major downside is obviously Chetan is a religious man and a passionate one at that. The ending and a middle chapter of the book have unrealistic situations and author uses this book as an opportunity to preach to the reader about his beliefs. Now normally I would recommend just ditching a book that does this despicable act but the rest of the book is high quality and if you know this is going to happen and just roll your eyes at these preaching paragraphs then you'll still enjoy this book. I'll definitely check out other work by this author but if he preaches his beliefs to me again in his next book as well that one will be my last.

Other sensational hilarious behind the scenes of a poorly run company or coping with bully management books are the novels Syrup and Company by Max Barry. The novel Beauty of Truth by Bruno Bouchet and Being Alexander by Nancy Sparling are also must reads.

I cannot agree more with Sean Burke (previous reviewer). Although I enjoyed some parts of the book I felt the racist comments against Americans were unacceptable. Also, at one point the main character refers to sending "another email to the whites". Could American characters get away with referring to Indians as "blacks"? I don't think so.

I recently spent 5 months in India in Bangalore and, admittedly, anti-white sentiment is widespread. I found people were warned off socializing with me as "white girls" had a reputation as promiscuous and immoral. So, in a way, the book is an accurate account of the people it is trying to portray. The question is whether or not they should be proud of that.

I'm not American and I'm not a big fan of a lot of US foreign policy but a book containing so many sweeping anti-American statements laid out as fact made me incredibly uncomfortable. It is disappointing that so few people seem to feel the same way.

I read Chetan Bhagat's "One Night at the Call Center" one night in the train, traveling from Kolkata to Jamshedpur and back. Six call center employees meeting God in the most mundane circumstances makes for the most riveting story, but this novel strays away from such call. Mr Bhagat fails to deliver the charm to make me laugh with the characters, the pull to make me cry with them, and the edge to make me rethink how I should perceive God. At best, he gives us cotton candy spun around a very short stick.

This was a good read, although the way the religious message at the end of the book was expressed was clumsy and preachy (and for me annoying).
The book is set over one night, and is about 6 people who work on the night shift in a call centre unit (in India); it explores the difficulties of their job and having a stupid boss, as well as the daily problems of their personal lives and the larger problem of being true to yourself.
The book is told through the eyes of Shyam, although the other characters all have a story to tell too (to varying degrees). All of the characters are interesting and flawed and most of their experiences ring true (although I can't quite go with the receiving a mobile phone call from God).

Nice book, well written, and humorous with great punch lines. Call center life in India well portrayed. The characters are funny, and at the same time have some serious turns in their life, which makes you think. The flow of the book is amazing,and you cannot just drop it, till you read till the end!! The language is simple and almost like a dialogue between friends which makes it easier to relate to!!

i picked up this book in Hong Kong, i had time and wanted to read something different. I could not put it down! It was very funny and filled with great conversations between the characters. It was a great read. I enjoyed the author so much i just bought another book by him. this is a fun book to read.

Hi everyone. This story had taken my breath now and then making me read in between the lines of the book where in author Chetan Bhagat carves his life story. It is all about how an Indian couple who convinced their parents upon their unwillingness. This novel is a fiction but it is an inspiration of the real story of author and his wife Anusha who are from Delhi and Tamilnadu.
The story starts in IIM -A where krish a Punjabi boy from Delhi and Ananya a tamilian from Chennai meet each other in a mess. They became friends as the days passed by. But he did not like the term friends in between them. So he decides to propose her. This is where in the tragedy starts up. They used to be together in all walks studying till late night. The plot deals with how they convince the conservative parents for their marriage. To convert their love into love marriage they strive very hard to find a smile from them for which they longing for.
This book draws a lot of inspiration in the exact way that the author faced. He has written this book after quitting high paying jog in the financial side. So just think of how much he would have suffered in holding Anushas hand. All those efforts are made as a book inspiring all its readers. This book in turn gives a conceptual outlook for the lovers who strive succeed in love. The author's inspiration is clearly shown. In India the plot is A Boy can love a girl, a Girl can love a boy and the most important thing is that the parents must like the either one in their family. This plot was outrageously shown by the author. Just read to know "will they get along".

The book's fluff plot aside (the guy gets the girl!), its constant statements about Americans trip off my alarm: "Are these comments that, if stated about black people, would be unspeakably racist?"

And in fact, yes, a novel that has God speaking to Indian call-center workers via cellphone and opining that Americans are warlike [p251], is indeed racist-- whereas, we must infer, the Indians have, with infinite pacifistic serenity, transcended all violence, now and forever. One can only imagine the surprise and delight that this news will bring to the residents of Kashmir, or to the survivors of the recurring massacres of ethnic/religious minorities elsewhere in the Subcontinent.

Moreover, on the topic of judging whole peoples to be "warlike", I seem to recall a spot of bother about India conducting nuclear weapons tests on and off over the past few decades. But presumably those were super-special nuclear weapons that irradiate giggles instead of lethal gamma rays, and blast candy into the air, instead of fallout. Good luck with that whole "peace" thing, guys. Glass houses, throwing stones, etc.

Quite interesting is climax of the novel, when the plucky call-center workers "save the day" by phoning up hundreds (thousands?) of Americans and telling them that the whole of the US is under attack from terrorist computer viruses [p275]. That part is especially "hilarious"-- in some special sense of that word that actually means not funny at all, but instead inexcusable and repulsive.

(Call-center workers of the world, here's a hint: if you lapse into racist fantasies, it's long past time to quit.)

I give the book one star, because I can't give it zero, or negative fifty.