“To…..my one particular ex-boss. My life when I was working for him was living hell, and was probably the worst phase of my life. I used to wonder why this is happening to me. Now I know. Without that experience I could not have done this book. Thank you Mr.Ex-boss for making me suffer.”
This appears in the acknowledgements page of the book and from then on I was hooked. Having had my share of bad bosses I knew I would surely relate to a guy who suffered with one.
The book begins in a novel fashion. The author meets an absolutely stunning lady in a train journey. She says she could tell him a story if he promises to make it his next book and he should narrate it in first person, as one of the characters in the story. Of the six protagonist of the story (three guys and three girls), the author chooses to narrate it through the eyes of Shyam because he says, “I found him the most similar to me as a person”
As I read the story, I felt in many ways Shyam could have been me, especially in his complete lack of assertiveness. He lets his mean and stupid boss walk all over him. The rest of the characters include Vroom, who hates his job but does it only because it is good money. Military Uncle, an old man who fell out with his son and does this job for sustenance. The very beautiful Esha who aspires to become a model. Priyanka, who is Shyam’s ex-girlfriend and has a very dominating mother, Radhika who married the man she loved but also got a bad mother-in-law in the bargain.
The whole story takes place on one memorable night at their call center in India. Since their customers are based in the US, these call centers operate during the night. The job pays well, but is rather mind-numbing. You are required to read out the responses from a pre-written script. Even your name is changed to something which Americans can pronounce easily.
This call center is in the verge of getting down sized. The bad boss takes the credit for work done by his subordinates and gets himself placed in Boston while more that 40% of the employees are going to be fired. At this juncture, they get a call from god. No, that was not a typo, they get a call from GOD. He helps them introspect and discover what they really want in life. The rest of the story is how they save the call center and get even with their nasty boss.
The solutions are rather simplistic. Made me wonder if it is really a book for grown-ups. Maybe it is reflective of the generation whose story the book tells. People who have been rudely shoved from their Mills & Boons and thrust into a larger than life adult world. You can see some of those confusions in the characters of the book. Like, Priyanka who is upset that her fiancé hid the fact that he was bald but seems to have no qualms about the affair she had with Shyam. Esha, who sleeps with an agent who promises a modeling contract in exchange.
There is an interesting twist at the end of the book. Remember the stunning lady in the train who is narrating this story to the author. It turns out to be none other then……………… no, you guessed it wrong. On second thoughts, I should not break this to you. Read the book 
There is so much of Chetan Bhagat in Shyam and at the end of it all you come to like him. He is an OK writer, but appears to be a reeeeeally cool guy.
Nice review. Looks like you enjoyed the book.
Yes I did. thanks Sukumar
I did read this book Archana. Dint like the book that much but ya anybody could read it once just for the sake of it
If you are looking at something serious and sensible to read, definitely not the book for you.
I read it on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was looking for something light and easy. Just takes a couple of hours to finish the book.
It did lighten my mood, I liked it. Have you read the other book of his (five point someone), Its nice.
Very true Archana. It did make a good book for light-hearted reading. Infact I loved your review better than the book:)
ths is interesting book
Thank you Saraswathi. You made my day
Nice post!I enjoyed the book ,yes,but not to a great extent.Chetan’s okayish.In this particular book,i like Vroom’s character.Enjoyed reading five point someone too.
Btw,i’ve not read any indian authors other than chetan bhagat.care to enlighten on some of the best books?I’d appreciate that a lot!
Regards,
ranjani aka rampantheart
Definitley Ranjini,
Geetha Mehta is very good, have you tried her River Sutra, its one of my all time favorites.
Sudha Murthy (W/o Infosys Narayanmurthy) also writes well. Wise and otherwise is a very good book.
Do try “The Holy Cow”. It is written by an Australian women, Sarah Macdonald of her experience in India. It was hilarious.
no,i have not read Geeta Mehta yet.But i have read sudha murthy’s wise and otherwise.It’s an excellent book.will try to get the holy cow and the river sutra soon.thanks anyways.
PS Sorry to point out but i spell my name as ranjani:)
Sorry Ranjani. I will use the right spelling hence forth.
Hmmm I got to see this book a year back but didn’t get a chance to read it tho’ . Thx for the wishes and I have wrote a post already abt your q on Invisible China here – http://invisiblechina.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html
Tho’ it explains y I’m called as China. Invisible is cos I’m not visible in the www. That’s y. Pls do the snaps in the sides of the blog. My recent read – Kite Runner is absolutely good to read
Currently I’m reading It’s not About the BIke – Lance Armstrong – It really peps me up 
I have tagged u in my blog !!
I ve heard somewhere abt this book….but obviously, never n ever tried even to see it….
I suppose that was Esha…who s narrating to the author…
Is it correct???
cheers…
@Invisible China – Thanks Vinod. Will look up the post
@Praveen – No it is not Esha. That would be too obvious wouldn’t it
Yeah! One thing is true… There is some innocence in the book which we relate to, and you even identified it. Having had our share of Mills and Boon and fantasies like HP and LOTR, when suddenly facing the corporate world, we tend to twitter and look around helplessly and that is what Shyam does in the book. The book is pop corn stuff, I say. Read it when you have nothing else to do, no expectations, no take-aways, just a documented form of a Hindi movie I would say.
I dint quite like the book for keep-sake, but definitely felt I dint lose anything giving it a read, and ya, I even adopted it to my college scenario and wrote a novella. It is published at http://www.jammag.com/campus/index.php?section_id=11
Thanks Naresh. You pretty much summed it up. I will look up your Novella.
Can anyone tell me …. who was lady narrating the story in this novel (One night at call centre) …. I am not able to figure it out.
Neeraj
Praveen, this can’t be esha ….as the lady said that she is not Esah, Priyanka or Radhika. Only young female in the novel was Payal (was referenced only). But payal was not working at call centre, so certainly she wouldnt have known the intrinsic details of call centre and this group.
Rgds
Neeraj
Neeraj – The idea of not revealing it is to encourage you to read the book
Take a guess, who is the only other character is missed out. May be you are not able to take guess because of gender bias (thats your clue)
Wonderful book..But in my opinion,the lady in the end can be of either 2 people.Its hard to say though..I dun wish to say it here ,its up to everyone to read and conclude.For the real answer,we have to ask the writer himself.The book is good,if taken as a light reading material.Very funny till the end..LoL
It can be two people, interesting. I thought of only one. Who is the other, Rajiv?
In my opinion,i felt that the person in the end could either be god speaking to the writer just like he appeared in the book. or a fictional character in which the writer is representing his thoughts and his ideas.I dun think the writer meant that god actually spoke to him,but he was referring to his thoughts.Im doing fine chechi.I have collected to Id and all.Tournament is this weekend.I have been up to a lot of training lately.How is work ?
Very Very Hectic Rajiv. Working with some stiff deadlines
Best of luck for your tournament.
I also conclude it like Rajiv, its must be God or you can say the voice inside of author who made this story while boring insomniac travelling night in an empty compartment. It is only his idea and thoughts and as he is having the hormons of writers which forced him to write his second novella[:)]
But the better part of this book is to retain my inerest till last to know who is she?
Thank you Raina.
my friend gave me this booki told him i am not going to complete this but i did & liked the book ,
i can’t get the name of the girl who narated the story but i guess it’s priyanka…………….
I don’t think she gives a name, Amit. Let me look up the book.
hey guys,
i read the book yesterday and i think that the lady who was narrating the story was SHEFALI?
No, not at all. It was none of the girls in the story. Just think of the conversation during the accident. Who is the only character who has not been mentioned.
The only other characters that were not mentioned are Milliatry uncle,priyanka’s mother.
And uncle is not a lady and priyanka’s mother is not young!
so the left out person is SHEFALI.
No. lady who was narrating was god. We always tend to think of god as a he thats why it is hard to make the connection. Read the last chapter again and see if it makes sense
can any one tell me who was d girl which is narrating d story i hav read dat book but i m not able to find out d correct one plz tell if any body knows who is she……………………….
archana can you help me……………..and plz don’t say
“Read the last chapter again and see if it makes sense “
OK Nitin. It is god. Remember the voice that spoke to them during the car accident, how can you assume that god is male. The implication at the at is that the lady who narrates the story is God.
thanks a lot in was thinking too dat only one character was left dat may be of GOD …………………
and i m nitendra not nitin…………………
OK. Sorry. I shall refer to you as nitendra hence forth.
i just finished reading one night @ the call center and i think its amazing. however, i ‘ve my doubts about the person who narrated the story
All information one night @ call centr
Say the God
come on everybody..It can not be god or chetan since he said cleared in the end oh..its u..as if he there is somebody from the story itself..we can not say it can not be shafali also since she was not there at the call center whenthis happened so she can not have so much info..so we have to figure out who is it…
The girl can be ‘Shefali’, the semi-girlfriend of Shyam. But do the entire drama at the end of the train journey points to intervention of GOD????
I’m confused. We need to see the big picture…..
REally no doubt about that, this is a very nice book,
i m reading..its really intresting
nice….i never read such a nice book in my life thanks to bhagat
nice book.
what is about?
neeraj,that lady who was narrating the story was an angel or may be even god . u can make it out on ur own by looking the movie – ‘HELLO’ . HELLO is based on this novel.
yahhhhh very good bokk i like it
Ya i lkd d story …
bt poor shefali i feel sad for her
