CALL CENTER DIARY

Today was the first day that I logged in, and took calls, it was an amazing experience. Speaking to someone on line, whom, you have never met before, taking a name which is not yours, and imitating as if you are an American, but if the customer asks you, “where are you right now?” you politely, and honestly say, “ I am in Bangalore, India.” But this wasn’t any other day; it was a new year’s day, according to the Gregorian calendar. When the clock ticked 12, o’ clock, happy new years day, was the noise everywhere. Twenty two years have passed since I have stepped into this world, nothing significant has happened, except that, I have grown up, so are the people around me, and so are the situations with me. In these twenty two years of my life, I have seen different governments on seats, politicians being assassinated, buildings being brought down, people rallying through the streets, bursting crackers, half-naked, colored faces, apart from all this things, I have also seen, buildings razing up, new companies on every corner, technology becoming obsolete everyday, clothes on peoples body shortening.

There are few things which, when I think I feel insecure about.  There are companies, and there are customers, and there are laws which govern these companies. There are governments, there is constitution. And there is country, and patriotism. Our nation, our people, our culture. But then, there are also, other nations, other cultures, and other people. Then there are people who are losing jobs because of these ‘other people.’ Because? Because there is money, low paid workers, same work, exploitation, need, greed. One fine day we wake up, and find that all our jobs will be outsourced to an other country, other people, other culture, low pays, that day, people will; loose jobs, earn nothing, with there now acquired American accent will say, “Thank you for coming here, my name is…., I know that you don’t need my assistance anymore.”

‘For all you know,’ said my trainer, before he started his class, talking endlessly about the way American economic system works, the credit cards, their uses, their terminologies, and all those jargons and shit. My trainers. There are lots of them, by the way, they along with my batch mates have become my second family, and the cab drivers are my maid, and my thoughts, my vee-uh-kle. I have completed six weeks of training in this company. Successfully, I should say. But, there is little that I have learnt. I still feel I am no wiser than before. This situation of mine, reminds of a famous quote by Kurt Vonnegut, “Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.” I don’t know, whether Mr. Vonnegut, is talking about people like me, I mentioned this line, just because I like it. A lot of things have happened, after I joined this company. This is the first time ever that I was not there in home to celebrate Eid; I couldn’t savor the hot steamed biryani, nor did I get the eidiie from my family, for all I did, was to board the cab and remind myself about the past years. The next week, I will be hitting the floor, which means, I’ll be in on job training, for me though, it sounds like, “birds out of their nest.”

I got up one cold morning, even without taking bath, I walked into my office. Ruffled hair, rugged beard, and a lost mind. When I left my previous company, also a call center, I thought that, I would never step into a call center again. But, the first interview which I went, after leaving my company, was a call center, and so was my last interview. I met a lot of people, with various reasons, with them for working in this industry, I one thing which I was relived about was that, they were all my kins in their reasons. Only a few weeks in this industry, I have come to know the psychology of this industry, though I have never attended a psychological class, nor have I read a book on this topic. There are people have learnt philosophy, but I have never heard a thoughtful words from their mouths. I have met engineers, but they look broken, I have met people who were trained to cook, but when I meet them, I wonder how they were cooked. Uncooked of course. And I have met men who apart from their physical features bear no resemblance to men. They do not even bear feminine features. They are those poor creatures, who have lost their minds and have completely drained themselves in eunuchs like behavior, that they find disgusting, if that’s the appropriate word to be used.

They are poets, who if published would be charged for plagiarism. They quote ghalib, and Jim Morrison, as good as they quote a language filled with nothing but, vulgarity. The cups of coffee and tea, and the buts of cigarettes are the most common object that one can see. Drowsy eyed cab drivers, garrulous transport administrators. If in one corner you come across a person whose mom delivered him on the golden bridge California, in another corner you’ll most likely meet a person, who takes bath in the Thames. Women who have already laid eggs in the home, but are so desperate beings that they experience with a new person every day, if I am exaggerating.

Twisting tongues to get shred off ones mother tongue influence in the language. Learning new terms, practicing names of the cities and their states, and knowing the culture of America, to serve them better. This is what one learns in something called pre- process, after the successful completion of which, one starts off with the actual product training, or what here it is called as the process training.