Am from Pune and am working as an Operations Manager in a call center here.
I just completed ’’One night @ the call center’’ book last night - it was a ’one sitting’ read. And today some strange force drove me to write this feedback even when I actually felt sleepy.
To start with - ’’ON@TCC’’ was indeed very good however I just couldn’t help but compare it with the earlier book ’’Five Point Someone’’ which just rocked. On a rating sclae, I’d give ’on@tcc’ a 6/10 whilst ’fps’ would probably get a 10/10. I won’t do in-depth comparision of both the books, neverthless am going to highlight what worked and what didn’t with ’on@tcc’.
What worked with ’ON@TCC’’
1. Sarcasm/ Dark Humur - Chetan is first-rate at it. There were pages which made me grab my stomach, roll on the bed and laugh out for minutes together. He has the knack of saying ’’moron’’ in the sweetest way. It is this trait in the book that made me complete it in one sit reading.
2. Topic - The topic that was chosen, ’’Call Center’’ was brilliant. Call Center being the current buzz word, it represents many facets of today’s youth - it’s young, fast, stylish, rich and contains lots of sex. This would indeed attract anyone.
3. Language - Though the language is simple, it hits you staright at your heart. It’s this simplicity that brings the Indian touch to this book, something very much like a R.K.Narayan’s work.
What didn’t work with ’ON@TCC’’
1. Story/ Plot - This book heavily relies on humur to hold the readers interest. Unlike ’’FPS’’ where there was a prefect blend of story (3 friends trying to be succesful in IIT), I don’t think this really had any plot. I understand there are 6 ppl whose life isn’t very smooth, however the reader doesn’t really have the urge that everything should get fixed. The narration was good till the time they get the phone call from god - thenceforth entire thing seemed like a bollywood movie. Not even humurous. I loved when I read about god making a call in synopsis - it was a fall of expectation when I read the story. That idea didn’t seem to fit in well.
2. Characterization - I don’t know why but I never felt involved with the characters in this books. Probably 6 people were too many to develop the feelings for them in a book of 280 pages. However FPS made me almost cry when the three friends split in the end of story, each pursuing their career. In this one, I really didn’t care whether Shyam gets Priyanka or Vroom gets Esha. The touch was lost. Also Esha sleeping with a 40 yr old guy for a modelling contract made me kind of hate her (Which is not good if the author wants the reader to like that character), I wouldnt’ve cared even if she would’ve died in the construction site. The later part of story sounded too mechanical, hardly could captivate any interest.
3. Call Center Info - Being in this industry for four years, I expected little more call centerization in the story. I anticipated humur in Americanization of words and calls with customers even before I started reading the book. I couldn’t find anything more. Various departments like Quality, Training and Analytics could have been covered (I may be wrong in this one but that would be the expectation of any call center guy). And in the end, calling customers about virus to increase the volumes seemed like a brain teaser. I mean, we all know, a thing like that can never happen. Americans/ Clients are not that dumb.
With all these pro’s and con’s, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. It was a perfect weekend read.
Hope my feedback helps. I have myself written quite a lot of short stories, I know how tough it is once you start moving on the groove. I find it impossible to comprehend whether my writing is good or bad, hence I beg for feedback from my friends, who sometimes do give me.