The book is not bad, not bad at all if you, as a reader, have the mental capacity and outlook of a 12 – 14 year old. If you are actually a 14 year old, go ahead, read the book, get a glimpse of life in a call centre, a job which hopefully is not on your intended profession for future. (I am not demeaning a job in a call centre, I have worked in them. But, really, I am sure, no 10th standard student will say, I aim to be a call centre agent one day….)
Coming back to the book, “One night…” can be analyzed as a book written at different levels of/for perception and sensibilities:
Observation 1, is, as I have mentioned, the story of the call centre, the job, the work culture, work environment, the night shifts, the nature of work etc… At this level, the author touches upon briefly and sometimes explains in detail, the call centre/BPO industry. The author Chetan Bhagat, mentions, that in this he has been aided by cousins and others who are actually working in a call centre and also a bit of self ‘snooping’.
Observation 2, is, the lives and stories of the people working in the call centre. The characters of the plot, that is. The characters all have interesting stories and these are woven into the plot and sub plots.
Observation 3, a love story starring the main character ‘Shyam’ (the voice of the entire story), his on/off relation with his colleague/girlfriend/colleague/ex-girlfriend/colleague/girlfriend (in that order), related incidents told in flash back, Shyam’s inability to move on, their relationship before and now etc….
Observation 4, the main incident of the call that changes the lives and thinking of the characters. A philosophical flavour about how a single incident can be the catalyst to a change in your outlook, thinking, your entire life.
Observation 5 and finally, nourishment for the reader’s soul intending to stir emotions strong enough to review his life till that moment and reconstruct and renovate it for a peachy future. A kind of self help / self motivation undertaking.
Presuming Chetan Bhagat had these five ideas or notions in his mind when he wrote the book (he may have more or maybe totally different motifs, but let’s ignore those as the five mentioned points seems to take care of all possible viewpoints an average reader can conclude), let us now examine how he has fared, going over the five mentioned observations first and then the book in totality:
Conclusion on observation 1: I have said before, I have worked in more than 1 callcentre, I have spent a lot many days and more nights in callcentres and hence have had an opportunity to study them from inside. Sure, it is a world in itself, a life so alien to most of the people who have never been associated with it, that it might breed weird ideas about the people, work culture and associated lifestyle. I will not be surprised if my uncle who has worked in a government company for 32 years thinks that it is a perpetual party inside with a defective or totally missing work structure. However, what is appalling is the way Mr. Bhagat portrays the working style of a callcentre. Agents hijacking and taking over the lines, blackmailing their boss into doing their biddings, changing the scripts, lying to the customers about potential virus attacks, propelling them to call back in order to facilitate more call flow, eventually saving the call centre…….. My God!
Mr. Bhagat has no idea what he is talking about. Actions like these will doom the call centre, not save it!!!
Moral – Mr. Bhagat, do more research on matters you have no idea about, don’t take your cousins advise and realise, snooping doesn’t help.
Conclusion 2: Isn’t it hard to believe that the team (and the cab) has some 5- 6 characters and all of them are going through interestingly tough times. Isn’t there even one in that team who does not have a sad story to tell, who is leading a normal life with normal, staying together parents, no girl friend/boyfriend troubles, who might have troubles and hiccups, but nothing too grave. I guess normal people don’t make for interesting reading, so, leave them all out of it….. excusable so let’s not harp on that!!
Conclusion 3: The love story is as interesting as a masala filled Bollywood mishap. Good enough only to be discussed and mocked when you are drinking with like-minded friends.
Conclusion 4: The incident which provides the philosophical angle. Till this part, the book is as deep and insightful as Tushar Kapoor’s acting abilities. So, you have somehow managed to read your way till here, the twist in the tale, the atory is now poised to take a turn, you realise that Mr. Bhagat’s flash in the pan, big idea of a call from GOD is actually here, and you think, that is not a bad idea, it has a lot of potential and you start looking forward to the forthcoming pages. You want to know how the author has used this seemingly interesting idea…… I am sorry to reveal, HE HAS GOOFED IT! He has cooked the interesting idea into a masala filled, flatulent curry. No thought provoking philosophy here, am sorry, move on people……
Conclusion 5: If you are looking to read one of the ‘Thanks for motivating me, you just changed my life’ books, the kind that are, these days, thronging the shelves with every other nobody trying to feed us enlightening and soul stirring advices (some in your face and some subtley), intending nothing less than changing your entire developed paradigm in a pre determined time frame, then, this book …….. fails miserably in that area as well.
FINAL CONCLUSION - Ofcourse, Mr. Bhagat’s book motivates you… it motivates you to review the reason you wasted those couple of hours reading the book. It then changes your life in such a profound way that you will become a social worker, roaming the streets warning people off the book.
P.S – Mr. Bhagat, your rendezvous on the train with the almighty (in the form of a beautiful young lady?????), hopefully, has affected you enough not to punish the readers by writing such… putting it mildly… hollow, unreasonable, pretentious, drivel. Thank you!
I’d love to know your opinions, please do comment.