ELTWeekly, a refereed journal and newsletter
[ELTWeekly Volume 10, Issue 1 | January 2018 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Portrayal of IT Professionals in Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ The Call Centre: A Critique
Dr. Tarun J Patel
Assistant Professor-English
Government Engineering College, Gandhinagar
Aasif Rashid Wani
Research Scholar
Deptt of English, SUBIS, Barla-Raisen (M.P.)
Dr. Naveen Kumar Mehta
Associate Professor & I/c Head-Deptt of English, SUBIS, Barla-Raisen (M.P)
Abstract
“The younger generation is surrounded by the Internet, apps and video games. But somehow, my books make them read”–Chetan Bhagat
The turn of the 21th century was the dawn of a new age in communications. A few decades earlier, in 1876, the telephone had been invented and telephone service was proliferating rapidly. As telephone services extended, the public began to depend on and even expect reliable service from tele-communication providers. The problems of youngsters in the society are the main attention and worries of the novelist. If the youngsters are deprived of success, they move towards wrong direction like drugs addiction and suicide. The young generation feels that they are not getting proper care from their parents. Yet they are ready to face day to day problems of their common life. The novel gives the notion that the middle class family members suffer a lot in the society. The present paper deals with the issues related to the life of IT Professionals as portrayed by ChetanBhagat in his novel One Night @ The Call Centre.
Keywords: Challenges, Struggle, Stress, Problems, and remedies.
Introduction
Chetan Bhagat has changed the Indian English fiction and inaugurated a new era of Indian novel to represent the realities of life of youngsters. Chetan Bhagat has effectively depicted the impact of globalization on Indian call centers in the novel. Ina night,the novel takes place duringwhich all of the main characterscompact with some characteristic of themselves in their life and they wish to changes their life. One Night @ the Call Centre is basically a call to India and to the young generation surrounded by it. It visibly examined how globalization has affected the call centre employer in the name of raising financial system. The novel deals with the troubles of people who are working in the call center, which is the current issue of modern world as the young generation is mainly enchanting by the kind of working system. All the characters in the novel work in the call center not out of concentration but mainly because of the highly-paid salaries.
Methodology of Research
The present paper will be based on primary and secondary sources. The information is collected from literature reviews, internet, and the use of library, Research journals, magazines, books, and newspapers and relevant.
Literature Review
Sunalini K. K. (2016) explored that how the whole team suffers a lot of agony professional as well as personal that night. They share their pain, sorrows, ambitions, love, personal trauma and the happiness. Vroom and Shyam are shocked to know that their boss Bakshi has cheated them by submitting the troubleshooting to headquarters without crediting them. Bakshi has plans to lay off a lot of call centre workers and so they are all worried about their jobs.
Jemi A. R. (2016) examined that the Impact of Westernization in Indian Youth in Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ the Call Center aims at exploring the ramifications of westernization in the lives of Indian people, especially Indian youth. It also presents the advantages and disadvantages of westernization and the many-sided problems faced by the Indian youth, when they internalize western concepts.
Ruprah and Saluja (2016) depicted a new generation of young, iconoclastic and cosmopolitan writers are rapidly expanding India’s literary horizons in novels and short stories. With the writings in English, these authors are able to present their disarmingly, intimate and often unconventional images of India to readers beyond their nation’s borders.
C. SreeVijayaDurga and V.B. Chithra(2017) presented the facts existing in the call centers and the corporate exploitation, cosmopolitanism as the reflectionsof urbanization, privatization and globalization. The novel is a symbolic portrayal of the contemporaryglobalised world; call center.
Problems Faced by the Youth Today
The young generations are facing many problems in their day to day life. They want to earn more and more money in their life. The youth of today has been commonly outclassed; they do not consider themselves to be too young to be pampered, and they are not supposed to be old enough to take duty on their own shoulders. The most main problem a person faces at this phase of life is peer pressure. They are pressures by either dares or threats into doing what one would rather avoid. Some people are obviously competitive and they struggle to act in ways that could help settle their representation either to impress or intimidate others. This can be seen in their disobedience of their elders who try to advice them through knowledges which these young ones lack at the moment but fail dismally. The drugs and the alcohol are other challenges that are faced by the young Indians.
Shyam joins call center for more high salary,Varun joins there leaving journalism. Priyanka joins to get financial support in order to do her B. Ed. Radhika joins to support her family. Military Uncle joins to have a compromise on his pension amount. Esha wants to be a model.The action of the novel takes place in one night. The night has some symbolic implications here. Throughout the night, Shyam, Vroom, Radhika, Esha, Priyanka and Military uncle are not in a state of peace and harmony. Throughout the night, they struggle hard and struggle for betterment. There is complete confusion in the night. The night is the symbol of new life of all the characters of the novel.The family related issues are well focused in the novel. The women managing both household tasks and work load is shown with the reference to the character of Radhika. Radhika, do the domestic for whole day and works for night shifts in “Connexions” without any objection. Her husband, Anuj, always remains outside for work. She expects only love and care from her spouse. Buther husband always ignored her. Radhika is the example of a smart customer care representativeand good housewife. She is anskilled in kitchen and managing office punctually.
The novel is different in features that ChetanBhagat has mentioned God using cell phone. God gives them secrets of achievement to lead a cheerful life. The phone call encourages the survivors to settle account with their chief. When a person finds no other way to come out of the death pit, he finally resorts to the arch power for the help. He listens to the fast beats of his heart. Such situation occurs to Shyam and his friends. All of them hang over the pit of death. With the fear of death, all struggles and all differences come to an end. The call from God on Shyam’s phone surprises him.
Bhagat inputs the divinepause in the novel. He tends to make the people bold and planned in hard times. Actually, this is the call from the within of everyone. This is the call of their “will to do” or “will to live”. God advises the people to focus “the inner call” which are more noteworthy than many other calls someone attends in a day. This interior call is the call of vivacity which is the ruling power of the cosmos. The blissful voice asks the survivors to think over over two things, one is “Think about what you really want” and the other is “what you need to change in your life to get it”.
Remedial Measures
Emotion is responsible for many types of disease. Negative emotions like stress, tension, anger, fear, greed, jealousy give rise to somatic illness where on the other hand positive emotions like love, compassion, friendship, affection etc. give the strength to combat the stress. Illness due to negative emotions includes hyper acidity, hypertension, insomnia, menstrual disturbances, loss of appetite etc. The healthy psychological effects of yoga reduce the possibility of illness. Meditation and awareness will change the life of our young generation and meditation may help our young generation to restrain their mind and provide them deep insight into the life.
Conclusions
The paper gives the impression that the young generations suffer a lot in the society. This reflects the result of the start of globalization. The rises of global companies and call centers have opened new roads for the Indian youth of development. Thus, the novelist revealed the hard work of six call centre employees in Delhi and one special night that changes their life. Thus, God’s call makes them “capable persons” and tells them that there are some qualities required to be successful.
References
• Agarwal, Beena. “Chetan Bhagat: A Voice of Seismic Shift in Indian English Fiction”. One Night at the Call Centre: Exploring the inner World of New Tecnocrats. Jaipur: Yking Books, 2013.
• An International Refereed e-Journal of Literary Explorations. Volume 4 issue 3
• Bhagat, Chetan. One Night @ the Call Center. New Delhi: Rupa& Co, 2005.
• Durga, C. SreeVijaya and V.B. Chithra (2017), “Emerging Trends and Reflections of Globalization on HumanSensibility, Aspirations and Ambitions: An Overview ofChetanBhagat’s Select Novels”, International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research,Volume 4, Issue 12.
• Ghosh, Tapan K. And R.K Dhawan “ChetanBhagat : The Icon of Popular Fiction”. Interrogating the World of Illusion: One Night @ the Call Center and Five Point Someone New Delhi: Prestige Books International, 2014.
• Jemi, A. R.(2016), “The Impact of Westernization in Indian Youth Portrayed in One Night @ The Call Center”, research Scholar, Vol. 4 Issue III.
• Kumar, S. Karthick and S. Sathyapriya. “Impact of Globalisation: a Study of ChetanBhagt’s One Night at the Call Centre.” Contemporary Vibes. September 2012.
• Ruprah and Saluja (2016), “Indian Social Milieu in the Novels of ChetanBhagat”, JELR,Vol. 3. Issue.4.,2016.
• Sablok, Reena. “The Emergence of the Indian Best Seller: Chetan and His Metro Fiction”. One Night @ the Call Center: How the Losers Can Turn It Around? New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2013.
• Somwanshi, Anagha P. “Illuminating the Dark Side in Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ the Call Center”. Contemporary Discourse. January 2013.
• Sunalini, KK (2016), “Youth Genre of ChetanBhagat’sOne night @ Call Center”, Journal of The English Literator Society Volume 1 Issue 3