One Night @ the Call Centre is the second book written by Chetan Bhagat after Five point Someone.The book opens up with a train journey from kanpur to Delhi in which the author meets a beautiful girl who promises to tell him a story on the condition that he will make it into his second book.Initially the author appears hesitant but later he accepts her request.
The story is told through the eyes of one of the 6 call centre employees, Shyam Mehra.All of them work in a call centre in Gurgaon called “Connexions”. Shyam is their ad hoc team leader. Their shift begins from 10:30pm and ends at 6:30am.A cab comes to take them and the author introduces each character in detail. That night all the employees experience a troublesome shift. The story is about thwarted ambitions, lost love, absence of family affection, pressures at home and the work environment at a call centre. Shyam is very upset to know that his ex-lover Priyanka, a colleague is going to get married to a man called Ganesh Gupta who works for Microsoft in the US. He and his colleague Vroom are horrified to know that their boss Bakshi had cheated them by submitting the troubleshooting to headquarters without crediting them. Bakshi had plans to layoff a lot of call centre workers and so they are all worried about their jobs. There are many other stories associated with each of the characters and then a phone call comes from God. God gives them advice on improving their lives, both long term and the immediate danger. The conversation with God motivates the group to such an extent that they get ready to face their problems with utmost determination and motivation. They sit together and chalk out plans to get rid of the problems in their lives. Priyanka dumps her fiancé and marries Shyam. They trap Bakshi and save their own jobs. The most catching thing in this book is when the author finds out who the lady in the train really was.
The style of narrating is very good. But some parts of the story seem way too elongated. This book would be enjoyable mostly to the young people and others can give it a pass unless they love Chetan Bhagat’s books