Name: Baraiya Bhavna P.
Roll No: 3
Sem: 4
Paper: New Literature
Topic: 'One night at the call center' as a popular fiction
Submitted To : Department of English
M.K. Bhavanagar University
'One night at the call center'
as a popular
fiction
Established genres of popular novels—such as romance,
thriller, sciencefiction, horror novel and Western—have each drawn extensive
attentionfrom a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives, but
theyhave more often than not been considered and analyzed as disparate
categories.
Recent years have seen a proliferation of
English language Indian novels that can be categorized under the rather
slippery genre of "popular" fiction — "literature's"
opposite, according to Ken Gelder. Much of this revolves around the lives of
the educated, urban, English-speaking elite. Characters are middle-class, with
aspirations of social and economic mobility,from sections of society benefiting
from the economic liberalization that began in India in the early 1990s. Some are
set in India's premier educational institutions, or fictionalized versions of
them, or in what are collectively known as IT enabled workplaces — call
centres, banks, or business process outsourcing companies (BPOs). Characters
are usually young and grapple with some kind of
identity crisis
brought about by the "clash" of tradition and contemporary life. In
the article at
hand I examine two
examples of Indian popular fiction to identify how the genre reflects
contemporary
middle-class anxieties over social change caused by globalization, especially
social
change regarding
gender norms.
Traditional forms of
Indian adult subjectivity revolve around marriage, family, and community. An
individual is judged in society by how well he/she adheres to agreed upon notions
of appropriate behavior for men and women, on getting married, and producing a
family at the right time, and on subsuming individual desires to these social
processesThe social worlds and characters depicted in the novels both accept
and reject certain aspects of traditionalist and individualist approaches to
life and relationships.
Chetan Bhagat is one of
the most popular writers of popular fiction. His books have sold an estimated
three million copies, making him India's best-selling novelist at the moment.These
novel dramatize the anxieties that many Indians are feeling over the
redefinition of middle-class social structures and gender norms in the context
of globalization by depicting female characters in particular as a metaphor for
social change. As the said changes are relatively recent and ongoing, limited
scholarly attention has been paid to the issue. Contemporary middle-class
Indian anxieties around globalization revolve around widespread perceptions of
growing Westernization among youth and young adults and the threat of corruption
these pose. Increasingly, major corporations in developed countries have
established BPO divisions in developing countries, enabled by advancements in
information and communication technologies. India is the major hub of such
operations, a phenomenon which has been aided by the liberalization of the
economy since 1991:To many, the call center has become the symbol of India's
rapidly globalizing economy. While traditional India sleeps, a dynamic
population of highly skilled, articulate professionals works through the night,
functioning on U.S. time under made-up American aliases In IT-enabled
workplaces, found that consumption of alcohol and sexual promiscuity were
amongst the practices encouraged by the workplace culture .
It is not surprizing
that young people are attracted to such jobs, as positions in BPOs are amongst
the best paid in India for relatively unqualified or inexperienced youth ,
although a certain level of education and English-language skills are requiredmeaning
that even these young and unskilled people are firmly placed within India's
socioeconomic elite. Women are highly visible in this workforce.
It is fact that they
sometimes employ more women than men stating that "Slowly and steadily,
India is becoming Westernized". What "becoming Westernized"
actually means, or is perceived to mean, is hazy, but it is generally
associated with a party lifestyle, sexualpromiscuity and exploration,
conspicuous consumption of brand-name consumer goods, andrelaxed social
policing of women's behavior. In India, where "respectable" jobs forwomen
have largely been restricted to teaching, nursing and secretarial work the
visibility of women in the IT-enabled sector is confronting to conservative
sectors of society.
As
Nadeem suggests, the clash between the celebration and the anxiety
engendered by the
growth of BPOs supposes two different moral worlds:
"The first is one in which
marriage is arranged
by family, gratification is delayed, and the individual is engulfed and defined
by a dense web of
family and social obligations. The second posits an autonomous, pleasureseeking
self that no doubt derives succour from family, but is defined more by the
voluntary choices it makes".
The consumerist
individual subject is posited as anti-family and antitradition. Globalization
is shaping the aspirations and identities of the Indian middle class,
especially those
employed by BPOs, and while these aspirations do not have a clearly defined
object,
“they cluster around an idea of
the West as a locus of modernity”
Here in novel presented
a more ambivalent reflection on processes of change induced by globalisation.
The characters in this novel hold the West up as an ideal, the symbol of a
lifestyle to aspire to, demonstrated by the fact that they adopt the outward
accoutrements of what they perceive Western culture to be, namely clothing,
partying, consumption, pre-marital sex, etc. But at the same time, they do not reject
everything that is Indian and in fact the narrative progression of these novels
depends upon a realization that Indian culture and customs should not be
rejected outright. The opportunities presented by Western companies in these
novels are welcome, but are not depicted as problemfree and the West is
certainly not seen as a flawless utopia.
The novel discussed
suggest that it is a generational dynamic, one that is possibly long-lasting,
but that does not necessarily represent a serious reappraisal of Indian
culture. The authors are simultaneously
critical of the blind
aping of what are perceived to be Western ways and of unquestioning adherence
to tradition. The women characters and gender dynamics in One Night demonstrate
that rejecting the traditional can be liberating, opening up new opportunities,
but it can also lead to stress and a lack of fulfilment in personal and
workplace relations.
Globalization does not herald an era of
unprecedented personal or consumer freedom, but neither does it signify a
crisis of the traditional Indian family.
As Nadeem states, methods of negotiating
globalization and tradition are enacted as "an Indian morality play where
the pleasure principle clashes with the demands of custom and obligation, where
kama (pleasure) and dharma (duty) meet in an uneasy suspension".
Bhagat's One Night is
narrated by Shyam, one of a group of colleagues who work the night
shift at Connexions, a
call centre in the Delhi IT suburb Gurgaon. The narrative unfolds over the
course of one night at
work using flashbacks to give the background stories of the protaginists.
Shyam is still in love
with his ex-girlfriend and co-worker Priyanka, who has recently become
engaged to a rich man
based in the United States and is upset that his failure to gain a promotion
at work has affected
his chances of winning Priyanka back. Priyanka herself has a strained
relationship with her
mother who simply wants her to find a good husband and settle down.
Another protagonist,
Vroom, is frustrated with the mundane nature of his work at the call centre,
but is angrier with
himself for becoming reliant upon the good salary he earns there as he feels he
is compromising his
ideals. Radhika is a young married woman with an over-demanding motherin-law
and an unappreciative husband, whom she discovers is cheating on her. Esha is
an aspiring
model who moved to
Delhi from Chandigarh and has been sexually exploited in her attempts to
find modelling work.
As well as these central characters, Bakshi, the despicable and exploitative
boss, and Military
Uncle, a fifty-something retiree who works at Connexions to supplement his
pension, also feature.
During the night in question, technical faults prevent the protagonists from
taking calls thus
prompting a middle-of-the-night excursion which nearly ends in disaster. Vroom,
driving drunk, almost
crashes into a pit at a construction site. As the group are teetering on the
edge of the pit, they
receive a phone call from God. God says he will save them from certain death
if they promise to
strive for what they really want in life, not succumb to the exploitative
demands
of others. This
encounter encourages all of the characters to reassess the directions their
lives are
taking, and to
implement drastic changes.
Whereas in One Night
gender relations and anxieties appear as a sub-theme among several
others
One Night depict and
explore the tension between traditional gender roles, particularly those of
women, and those required by a new, contemporary, "global"
workplace that appears
to be in conflict with "traditional" values and practices. These
tensions are best exemplified in novel
through the motifs of clothing, sexual harassment, and the free
mixing of young men
and women at work, all of which lead to generational clashes between the
protagonists and their
elders.
Although the
comingling of young men and women is portrayed as a process which can lead to
increased career,
financial, and personal opportunities for women, in both novels its negative
flipside is also explored, namely sexual harassment. While by no means
restricted to the BPO sector,
sexual harassment of
women employees is a theme in novel.This novel condemn sexual
harassment when it
appears in obvious and indisputable ways — such as pressure to have sex in exchange
for career advancement — but their representation of it in other ways is more
ambivalent.
Shyam is suggesting
that Esha's attractiveness is at fault for luring Vroom's attention. Where does
this assumption go if
we take it to its logical conclusion? If Vroom were not an innocent character, if
he did want to force himself on Esha, would the suggestion be that it was her
fault for alluring him with her beauty
However, there is
nothing inherently progressive or liberating in
descriptions of sex or
expressions of sexuality if these are not matched with an understanding of
what has led to
attitudes being shaped as they have.
In One Night Esha's agent encourages her to
have sex with a photographer to get a job in a fashion show. She does so and is
told immediately afterwards that she is too short to be a catwalk model anyway:
"Like the bastard
didn't know that before he slept with me" says Esha .
He sends her money afterwards as
"compensation." Although she is not actually forced to have sex with
the man, she feels guilty and is exploited afterwards. Esha is in an especially
vulnerable position because she left her home and family to try to break into
modelling in Delhi. Her appearance and selfpresentation causes tension at
Connexions too, as the boss Bakshi tells her:
"You wear tight skirts
and tops, but I only
look at them from a distance"
thus suggesting that
she is always objectified and vulnerable.
In One Night there is
a clash between the younger
protagonists — who
want or choose to wear modern, Western-style clothing — and their parents,
who disapprove or
would prefer them to wear more traditional clothing such as saris or salwar
kameez, and have long
hair Here things traditional and Indian are portrayed as uncool in contrast to
things perceived as Western. As Nadeem states, amongst the aspirational
middle classes
"the consumption of high-end goods and the emulation of Western lifestyles
becomes a means of
drawing status distinctions and marking socioeconomic position".This consumption
is particularly noticeable in these novels through the motif of clothing,
particularly female clothing:
"Mediating between
the body and
the external world,
which simultaneously requires decent concealment and display, [clothing]
becomes an important
indicator of social identity and difference.For women, it also marks
conformity with
accepted ideals of femininity"
(Jones 378).
Women's choices of
clothing are one such practice through which the honor, respectability, or
social mores of a community are expressed. It is not accidental that in One
Night much more attention is paid to what women characters wear than the men.
Shyam continuously expresses bafflement at the
amount of attention
his female friends and co-workers pay towards their own and each other's
dress:
"Only women have this special area in the
brain that keeps track of everything they and
their friends have
worn during the last fifty days".
Such claims represent
a "stereotypical
example of
fetishization" and an embodied set of cultural codes (Cook 357):
"Clothing
performances" are
not as frivolous as is sometimes assumed, and are a form of cultural expression
that can reveal a lot
about perceptions and practices of subjectivity (Cook 353). For example, in
One Night Priyanka's
conflict with her mother revolves around ideas of what is appropriate clothing
and behavior for a
young woman. She tells Shyam:
"She had different rules
for me and my
brother, and that
began to bother me. She would comment on everything I wore, everywhere I
went, whereas my
brother… she would never say anything to him".
Priyanka's change in attitude towards
traditional clothing and accessories is symbolic of her acceptance of other traditional
practices. In one of Shyam's flashbacks to several months earlier, Priyanka
recounts having a fight with her mother who wanted her to wear a gold necklace
that had been gifted to her. Priyanka did not want to wear it:
"And I was like, no
Mum, it won't go with my dress. Yellow
metal is totally
uncool, only aunties wear it".
After announcing her
arranged-marriage plans several months later, Priyanka states,
happily:
"I can see what Radhika says now about
getting a new family. Ganesh's mum came
around today and gave
me a big gold chain and hugged me and kissed me".
Priyanka's earlier reluctance to wear
old-fashioned, traditional or unfashionable accessories is presented as being
in direct contradiction to her agreement to marry a man chosen by her mother.
Her later approval of
a gold necklace
symbolizes her change in mindset, one that could allow her to accept something
that had previously
caused conflict with her mother. Adhering to tradition in one aspect of life is
portrayed as being at
odds with fashionable, youth culture. Not only does Priyanka agree to an
arranged marriage, but
this agreement is accompanied by a change in attitudes towards clothing.
This same
shift can be seen in Radhika in One Night. She is married and wears only Indian
clothing as she lives with her husband's family, who are conservative. Shyam
describes Radhika as follows:
"She wore a
plain mustard sari, as saris were all she was allowed to wear in her in-laws'
house. It was
different apparel from the jeans and skirts Radhika preferred before her marriage".
Furthermore,
Radhika must cover her head with her sari when at home, as
"all married women
in their house do it".
These examples suggest
that not only is it Radhika's in-laws imposing this dress code upon her, but
the very institution of marriage, demanding she relinquishes her individual
preferences in favour of social norms. As with Priyanka, marriage and
Western-style clothing
are presented as mutually exclusive. The individualism of BPO culture is
constructed in
opposition to practices central to social organisation such as marriage. Being
an
individual implies
resistance to incorporation into a social order. Marriage is still expected of
everyone, but these
instances from One Night suggest that young Indians have not necessarily
resolved how to adhere
to this expectation while keeping hold of the westernised lifestyles they
create for themselves
as young, single adults. As they are apparently unwilling to do away with
the traditional idea
of marriage, it is the other aspects of their lifestyles that are sacrificed.
The
dichotomy is set up in
these novels as a sign of how deep the anxiety, and the perception of a
clash, runs for many
people, affecting all aspects of life, from the "macro" — marriage
partners,
and who chooses them —
to daily clothing.
In the world of BPOs
presented in One Night, women cannot have successful or fulfilling independent
careers unless they break with tradition on some level.
In One Night, Radhika
is married but continues to go to work albeit dressed in a traditional
manner. In this
instance, it is her job that causes the most conflict at home as she finds it
difficult
to fulfill the obligations
of a daughter-in-law while working at night. In this situation Radhika's —
young women struggle to lead independent lives without breaking with tradition.
In Radhika's case she breaks expectations about a married woman working outside
the home.The motif of choices of clothing represents a generational clash in
both novels, but this clash is evident in numerous other ways as well.
Ultimately, the clashes between the old and the new, the traditional and the modern,
the Indian and the Western are what lie at the heart of anxieties. One cause
for generational anxiety is the fact that young BPO workers often earn more
than their parents, which can shift household dynamics, unsettling parental
authority . Financial independence enables identity to be formed via
consumption. The characters take on these jobs either as a way of contributing
to family income, or so that they do not have to financially rely on their
families.
While the young characters generally celebrate
this freedom, the flip-side is also explored in One Night, through the
character of Military Uncle. He is the only call-center worker who is not in
his twenties, but a fifty-something retired army officer. He is not a dominantpresence
throughout the novel and Shyam describes him early on in hazy terms as he does
not
know him well. Shyam
believes Military Uncle was thrown out of his house by his son for not
getting along with his
daughter-in-law. His military pension is too meagre to survive on
and without the
support of his son he has to take the job at the call center to make a living.
Because he is older,
he is assumed to be traditional. When Priyanka announces she is getting
married, Shyam
recounts:
"Even Military Uncle got up and came to shake
hands with Priyanka. His
generation like it
when young people decide to get married".
Military Uncle does not really feature
as an individual in One Night, but as a representative of the older generation.
The only point where he speaks up and expresses his opinions, he is expressing
regret at having previously been conservative and intolerant:
"I want to
be with my son and grandson. I miss them all the time. Two years ago I was
living with them, but my daughter-in-law did things I didn't like — she went to
late-night parties and got a job when I wanted her to stay at home … I argued
with them before moving out. But I was wrong. It's their life and I have no
right to judge them with my outdated values. I need to get rid of my inflated
ego and visit them in the US to talk it over".
The son and daughter-in-law who
reject him are not let off without judgment, however. During the night in which
the events of the novel are taking place, Military Uncle asks for Shyam's help
in
editing some photos of
animals to email hisgrandson in the US. He receives the following reply from
his son:
"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".
By presenting both sides of this
incident of generational conflict, Bhagat is suggesting that the
younger and the older
generations could be more tolerant and open-minded towards each other.
The older generation
could accept that society is changing and that their offspring are unlikely to
behave as they did at
that age. The younger generation should recognize that these changes could result
in selfish behavior, and they should try to minimise this.
In conclusion,
Tensions
between tradition
and contemporary
social change prompted by globalisation. The aping of the West and the
proliferation of Ersatz Western lifestyles is sometimes seen to result in
cultural rootlessness
creating a
materially-obsessed economic elite. These judgments often center around
perceptions
of gender roles. While
these anxieties certainly have elements of truth and could be the cause of
some concern, One
Night and Stilettos also present complex counters to these assumptions. The
protagonists in both
novels do not always reject traditional values radically, although their
familial
elders often perceive
their actions as being such rejections. The same young women are ultimately
seeking closer
relationships with husbands and parents than their "modern" lifestyle
allows them.
Tensions arise when
their independence and individualism conflict with the traditional, culturally-
and socially-derived
relationships they also value. All protagonists display certain levels of
preference for
Westernized lifestyles, but both Stilettos and One Night demonstrate that these
material attachments
are not things around which life should revolve. Personal fulfilment, however
such should arise, is
prioritized over superficial symbols of affluence or success. These tensions do
not result in a
radical rejection of traditional values, but a reformulation of how they could
coexist
with the contemporary
realities of a globalizing India. Sociological studies are helpful in
discerning
what the actors
directly involved in a profession that symbolizes India's economic rise feel
about
themselves and their
work.
However, the study of
literature can also provide nuanced insight. The author of One Night has
stepped back and reflected upon how they perceive the changes in their society
and therefore provide a contrast to informants who may be headily
preoccupied with what
their job means to them personally. There is no doubt about the fact that in
the second decade of
the twenty-first century, two decades after India's economy liberalized and
opened up to global
investment, profound economic, social, and cultural changes are underway.
But change does not
equal wholehearted rejection of the old and novel such as One Night at the
Call Centre in the
Boardroom enable us to see and reflect on this.
