One night @ the call center by Chetan Bhagat
In the words of Sulman Rushdie, “There are certain books that are so bad that they make bad books look good”. That is exactly how I can describe this book in a single sentence. It has to be one of the worst books I have read so far. The story is set in a call center which the author believes to be the new hub of the youth of this country. It is a story of one night spent in the call center. The members of the team are –
Shyam – He is the narrator of the story. He is in love with one of the girls in his team but is unable to express it as she is soon going to get married. He keeps showing certain signs of frustration which makes him look like a fool at times.
Priyanka – She is the girl with whom Shyam is madly in love with. She has had a failed relationship with Shyam and is desperately trying to move ahead in life by marrying a guy in the US. She gets confused by Shyam’s reaction to the news of her marriage with another guy, and is now thinking of getting back with him again.
Varun Malhotra – He is the clear dude in the whole scenario. He roams on bikes at high speeds (he likes to call himself Vroom) and goes from one girl to another as far as his love life is concerned. He has his own dreams and wishes to make big in life.
Esha Singh – She is a pretty girl from Chandigarh and is trying to get a modeling assignment for herself. She is always rejected by the ‘modeling gurus’ because of her short height. She even sleeps with one of the modeling gurus but even then she is rejected. She feels extremely dejected and lost in her life.
Radhika Jha – She is a housewife, struggling to find her own destiny but stuck up between the call center job and her family. In the course of the story, she also finds out that her husband is cheating on her.
Military Uncle – He is an ex-military official working in the call center. Not much is told about him except for the fact that he lives alone as his son has left him.
In short, they are all a bunch of losers, stuck in the same place. Also, their boss keeps giving them a hard time (which, according to me, is the only good/humorous part in the story). For a long time, the author keeps us busy with their lives and how they spend every night at the call center. Then, they get a call from God. God makes them realize how they should get out of the troubles in their lives. The book ends in a freakish manner with Shyam and Varun quitting the call center after ‘saving’ the jobs of a hundred other employees in the call center, and open a website developing company. Also, Priyanka and Shyam finally get back together (Hindi movie ish-style).
While reading this novel, I never really felt that I was reading any sort of ‘literature’. It seemed more like a hindi movie script. The author turns extremely predictable at times and reading this novel was a real drag.
Shyam – He is the narrator of the story. He is in love with one of the girls in his team but is unable to express it as she is soon going to get married. He keeps showing certain signs of frustration which makes him look like a fool at times.
Priyanka – She is the girl with whom Shyam is madly in love with. She has had a failed relationship with Shyam and is desperately trying to move ahead in life by marrying a guy in the US. She gets confused by Shyam’s reaction to the news of her marriage with another guy, and is now thinking of getting back with him again.
Varun Malhotra – He is the clear dude in the whole scenario. He roams on bikes at high speeds (he likes to call himself Vroom) and goes from one girl to another as far as his love life is concerned. He has his own dreams and wishes to make big in life.
Esha Singh – She is a pretty girl from Chandigarh and is trying to get a modeling assignment for herself. She is always rejected by the ‘modeling gurus’ because of her short height. She even sleeps with one of the modeling gurus but even then she is rejected. She feels extremely dejected and lost in her life.
Radhika Jha – She is a housewife, struggling to find her own destiny but stuck up between the call center job and her family. In the course of the story, she also finds out that her husband is cheating on her.
Military Uncle – He is an ex-military official working in the call center. Not much is told about him except for the fact that he lives alone as his son has left him.
In short, they are all a bunch of losers, stuck in the same place. Also, their boss keeps giving them a hard time (which, according to me, is the only good/humorous part in the story). For a long time, the author keeps us busy with their lives and how they spend every night at the call center. Then, they get a call from God. God makes them realize how they should get out of the troubles in their lives. The book ends in a freakish manner with Shyam and Varun quitting the call center after ‘saving’ the jobs of a hundred other employees in the call center, and open a website developing company. Also, Priyanka and Shyam finally get back together (Hindi movie ish-style).
While reading this novel, I never really felt that I was reading any sort of ‘literature’. It seemed more like a hindi movie script. The author turns extremely predictable at times and reading this novel was a real drag.
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