Paper No :- 13 Assignment

Name :- Mansi Upadhyay
Roll no :- 16
Semester :- 4
Year :- 2019-20
Paper no :- 13 (The New Literatures)
Assignment Topic :-  Character Study in One Night @ The Call Center

E-Mail :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumar sinhji Bhavnagar University.

Words :- 1882

·     Introduction :-

                 Chetan Bhagat born 22 April 1974 New Delhi. Chetan Bhagat studied at Army Public school new Delhi, and went on to obtain his degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology IIT, Delhi. He also holds an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management IIM. After finishing his degrees, he start working in Hong Kong as an investment banker.Chetan Bhagat has also received many awards such as the Publisher’s recognition Award and Society young Achiever’s Award and Society young Achiever’s Award in the year 2010, Chetan Bhagat was listed among the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine. Chetan Bhagat is Indian Chetan Bhagat is Indian author and columnist, known for his India - English novels about young middle-class Indians. Bhagat was included in time magazine's list of world's 100 most influential people in 2010.

·     Chetan Bhagat Famous Work :-

1)   Five Point Someone (2004)

2)   One Night @ the Call Center (2005)

3)   The 3Mistakes of my Life (2008)

4)   2 States (2009)

5)   Revolution 2020 (2011)

6)   Half Girlfriend (2014)

                

·     Novel Introduction :-

               One Night @ the Call Center is a novel Written by Chetan Bhagat and first published in 2005. The novel revolves around a group of six call center employees working at the connexions call center in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It takes place during one night, during which all of the leading characters confront some aspect of themselves or their lives they would like to change. The story uses a literal deus ex machine, when the characters receive a Phone call from God. They are mostly smart, relatively affluent young people working their way through messy personal relationship and wondering what to do with their lives.

                        The plot is run of the mill teenage twenty something fare until a near death experience and a phone call from god intervene to shake up the friends ideas about what is important to them. And the story is so creaky in parts that the telephone call from on high is by no means the most fanciful aspect of the tale.

                    The dialogue is often as cheesy as a plate of paneer and some of the characters are just stereotypes with a pulse. But this is a pop novel Ulysses. What is more interesting is the backdrop to the narrative, the attitudes of the characters to their situation, and what the book’s popularity tells us about modern India.

·     Characters about Novel :-

1)  Shyam Mehra :-

                The character of Shyam is narrator. The central character in the young Woman’s story is Shyam Mehra a wannabe team leader who is also known as Sam Marcy when he talks to the company’s customers in America. Shyam Mehra call name Sam Marcy. He is the hero of the novel.  In fact, all of the staff has Americanized aliases for when they are on the phones. Shyam’s ex-girlfriend Priyanka, who he still holds a torch for, has agreed to an arranged marriage to an Indian man working for Microsoft in Seattle, much to Shyam’s dismay. The novel Shyam has seen omen dream in which Mr.Bakshi is trying to sink him by pushing his head in. they are always thought negatively. As Shyam says,

“I was in the water while my boss Bakshi was in a boat next to me. He was pushing my head down in the water.”

                       The same fury is expressed by Shyam when his cousin is going to marry his neighbor. Shyam narrates the situation, “ one aunty was cursing her daughter for leaving the matching bindis at home. Another aunt had lost the little screw of her gold” earring and was flipping out”.   

                       Throughout the novel we see Shyam narrating his past dates with Priyanka with whom he has had a break up. He is a person who lacks self-confidence and therefore he is unable to achieve his girlfriend as well as good position at his work place. He is evtremely talented and efficient. Towards the end we see how he transforms himself into a completely new person and achieves whatever he wants in his life and at the end positivity. Shyam’s close friend is Varun Malhotra. He is simple boy. He sad because the Priyanka engaged with Ganesh who is NRI boy and his boss cheated him Varun. He wants to become successful.

2)  Varun Malhotra :-

                      Varun Malhotra call name Victor Mell, is Shyam’s friend. The character of Vroom is Anti- American. In the novel Vroom insulted by Americans. He loves Bikes and speeds so friends call him Vroom. He stays with his mother who has separated from his father and his father was a businessman. We can say that Varun is the most carefree person in the novel. He has a soft corner for his colleague Esha, but she has never taken him seriously till now it seems and as we know he is a very good friend of Shyam so he helps him to get back with Priyanka. Vroom is the one who saves “Connextions” call center from a major problem using his skills. In the end he gets along with Shyam and starts his own web based company. Vroom wanted to be Journalist but had to left study as a result he came in to the call centre profession by force. Varun’s work website development.

     

                              When Vroom talks to God, Vroom says, “That I should not have taken up a job just for money call centers pay more, but only because the exchange rate is in the favor of Americans. They toss their loose change at us. It seems like a lot in rupees. But jobs that pay less could be better. There could be jobs that define me, make learn of help my country”. So from that Vroom says that thirty five year old American IQ is same as ten year old child in India. Vroom loves Esha a lot but can’t describe only because of her dream of modeling and desires.

3)  Priyanka :-

                    Priyanka is the heroine of the novel. To be precise, Shyam’s ex – girlfriend. Priyanka is an intelligent and a practical girl who is too pre-occupied with her mother who was an extremely important person to her. Priyanka’s mom wants her to marry an NRI boy and just for the sake of her mother she had decide to break up with Shyam and marry with NRI boy Ganesh but we can say that still she loves Shyam.  Shyam and Priyanka both are not just friends but they have physical relationship with each other. Priyanka loves her Mother. For mother happiness she ready to marry NRI Ganesh.  Her character like Indian Girl, for their parents she sacrifice their choice and decision and accept parents decision. Priyanka are such character. Priyanka wished to complete her B.Ed but had to work for gathering the money for doing B.Ed.

4)  Military Uncle :-

                   Military Uncle is an ex–army man in his fifties who lives alone after falling out with his son and daughter-in-law. Military Uncle who live alone and having some problems with his son and grandson but at the end he realizes his mistake and decide to apologize. Military Uncle who works at the call canter to earn few money apart from the pension that he gets. In group of six he only one who is oldest person do a Job in Call Center. Military Uncle and his son and his son lives apart physically and mentally. There are many incidents in the novel where Uncle tries to stay in touch with son but the generation gap does not allow him to do so. Uncle tries to mail some Picture that he has taken at a Zoo to his grandson. When uncle mailed the photographs to his son, he got reply from his son which shredded him totally. The mail read;

     “Dad… you have cluttered my life enough, now stop     

       Cluttering my mailbox. I do not know what came over

       Me that I allowed communication between you and

       My son. I don’t want your shadow on him. Please

       Stay away and do not send him any more emails. For,

         Literally or otherwise, we don’t want your

         Attachments.”

5)   Radhika Jha :- 

                       Radhika Jha call name Regina Jones, is the only married one in the group. Radhika is living a confusing existence, a young woman with an indeoendent income also trying to be a traditional wife in an arranged marriage. Trying to manage the household activities and  her job. Her aim is that “to earn money and settle down on one hand and manage her mother-in-law on the other.” She had married her husband against her Parents’ wishes and always tries to adjust with him and into an orthodox family. Radhika is a very upset One day she finds out about her husband’s affair with another woman and sudden decides to give him a divorce and stay with Esha. She is not happy with her mother-in-law. Her character reflect working women in India. 

6)   Esha Singh :-

                              Esha Singh, call name Eliza Singer, is the pretty face of the group. An aspiring model who run away from her home because just want to be model so that she had joined call center so that she could achieve her dreams. Just because her designer to get a offer and after that she realize that she was cheated by him and with the guilt she cheated by him and with the guilt she decides to give up her dream to become a model and continued to work at the call center. She has compromised by sleeping with a designer to get a modeling contract. For the role in the movie or the in TV serial actress molested. Esha hottest woman in the company who dreams of being a model but is an inch too small for the catwalk. In one night @ the call centre Esha is health and diet conscious as she is keen to be successful model. She does not take high celery food and maintain her figure in order to look attractive.

·     Conclusion :-

                       This novel shows the different. It shows the different problems of the youth and give the ideas their solutions. Chetan Bhagat shows the reality of India. The characters it shows the problems in the relationship and it’s effect on the nation, condition of women in India. So, it highlights the problems and trying to give the solution at the end of the novel. All characters have their individual life and struggle and at the end they got their answer and positive end comes.

Thank You

 

 

Bibliography

Pandya, Nishant B. . "CHARACTERS @ THE CALL CENTRE IN CHETAN BHAGAT’S ONE NIGHT @." Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language, VOL- 6/29. ISSN 2348-3083, ( 2018): Pages 1 to 8.

Solanki , Pratiksha M. "Characters in One Night @ the Call Centre." http://pratikshasolanki21.blogspot.com/2015/03/characters-in-one-night-call-centre.html ( 2015).

Bhagat, Chetan. One night @ the call center. First in Rupa Paperback 2005. New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd., 2005.