‘One night at the call center’- Chetan Bhagat A GIST

‘One night at the call center’- by Chetan Bhagat, has a weaker concept compared to his extraordinary writing shown in the author’s masterpiece- ‘Five point someone’. The book can be easily understood by an amateur reader because of the language used. But yet for those who aren’t much acquainted with the author’s previous works, may find him less interesting than some of the other Indian writers. To begin with, the book introduces us to an experience Chetan has while travelling in a train from Kanpur to Delhi, which made him write the book. He meets a girl who is ready to narrate about the lives of six people working in a call center on the condition that he would write a book based on it. At first he is reluctant, but the fact that the story is only about one night, makes him feel more eager to learn about it. So he agrees to the condition and introduces us to the narrator ‘Shyam Mehra’ who is one of the central characters in the story. The author chooses “Shyam ”as his mouthpiece because he finds him the most similar to him (the author) as a person.
The story begins with an introduction to the six people- three men and three women who work at the ‘Connexions call center’ in Gurgaon, around whom it revolves. None of them seems to be happy about their life but yet pretend to be so in each other’s company. Each one is unhappy with his or her life in some way or the other. Amidst their difficulties they work together as one family at the call center under a boasting boss Bakshi. The story of the novel unfolds the different details of each one’s lives but mainly deals with Shyam’s life. It can also be called as Shyam’s love story as some of the chapters include his dates with his girlfriend Priyanka. Although “Love” is not the only theme of the book, yet it is an unavoidable one. The most interesting part is the conclusion wherein we are introduced to the supernatural character of “GOD” that seems a bit tough to believe in reality. But it is through this character that the author gives out the purpose of his writing the novel. The way ‘God ‘, through a phone call helps everyone to solve their problem is a point to ponder over. This part of the story is like an eye-opener for every individual who is busy with the routine and has lost one’s identity in search of happiness.
It seems that the author has mainly targeted the youngsters who are so busy that they don’t have time to stop and think about themselves. They are caught up with so many things at a time that they can’t find a way out of it. The end of the book has a kind of therapeutic effect for someone who is confused about himself and is overburdened.
A book worth reading……………………………….