One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat

I must admit I haven’t read Five Point Someone, Bhagat’s debut novel when I picked up One Night at the Call Center during my recent visit to Lubbock. It was AR’s and he had left it at BR’s house where we stayed. One Night is about the life of three guys and three girls who work at a call center, their story told us over the course of, well, one night. Their company is called Connexions and they are the telephone representatives that resolve the home appliances’ worries of the Americans. The narrator is Shyam, the leader of the small group, a cynical and reluctant man. He shares with us what happens the whole night (they work US business hours). He has broken up with Priyanka, one of the three girls, and is trying to mend his heart. Meanwhile he, with Vroom, the hippest guy in the circle, is trying to get promoted by writing a helpful customer service web site manual. The other male in the group is Military Uncle. He is an old retired man, as the name suggests, who is estranged from his son’s family in America and to support himself takes this job. The others are the other girls: Esha, the aspiring model and Radhika, the devout daughter-in-law. Bakshi is their manager, a man with no real talent other than using the efforts of his subordinates. Shyam tells us the problems each member of his team has. He is still yet to get over Priyanka and revisits their time together whenever he can. Priyanka is someone you never understand. She bewilders and exasperates us. In his prologue, the author explains the reason behind the gestation of this book. One Night was born as a solution to the mild allegation that his first book did not represent totally the Indian youth. I still don’t think the book answered its purpose. Bhagat could have chosen not to reveal the reason claiming it to be just light-hearted material. His prose is simple and sometimes runs the risk of being ordinary. He has a qualifier though, that it is Shyam who is telling us the story. Bhagat has humor, folks. (“He was thirty, looked like he was forty, and talked like he was fifty”). There are laughs in scenes where the manager Bakshi makes his appearance. You also appreciate the sincerity of the story in general, though it is very predictable. It was easy, after a long time, to read something where you don’t have to work your imagination. His style is definitely no-brow. It seems he has written this with a film adaptation in mind. I think he would be a better screen writer than a novelist. The Indian youth in his book is obsessed about dates, is technology-conscious, is calorie-conscious (the women) and is of course, independent. There is America-bashing and the flippancy gives way to moralizing at points. An important character in the book appears to have no real work to do and sounds just like a management guru. There is not enough insight into the problems the characters go through. It would surprise me if anyone thought Shyam and Priyanka wouldn’t make up at the end. Bhagat should do more research is he is to talk about American accents and phrases (An American swearing “bloody”?). One Night is like a once-watchable movie. See it, Laugh out, End it. You definitely do not understand anything new about India Shining or India Inc. or whatever name one gives to twenty-first century India, especially its youth.
Bottomline: Bhagat’s book is pulpy Bollywood spice, no more. Don't expect logic or language.