ON@TCC

   One night@the Call Centre 

The text "ON@TCC" is included in the category of 'New Literature'. New literature means something which is published in 21st century with contemporary issues.  we all know that literature is not only mirror of the society but it evaluates, too.  Writer of the novel, Chetan Bhagat really has given the new sight and way to see, to read,  to evaluate and to observe the  literature. Apart from the love story , 'Social realism' is fully presented in the text.

He doesn't give truth in totality but gives grains of truth in his text. No doubt, any literature is the reflection of the age and the society. The same way , this text is also  the reflection of particular group of  age and particular society also. Because in this novel, writer talks about middle class youth who are well educated, well cultured and have jobs  and even they have their own problems of life.  Means, writer selects the  urban area of  the India where as real India live in Villages. 

  Novel follows the  rules of  Greek traditional writing which is specially decided for drama - Unity of  Time, Place and Action.  If we compare his works with 20th centuries writers' works like..... " The Waste Land, Waiting For Godot, To The Light House, The Birthday Party, etc...readers are not happy  with his writing  and may feel  the lack of literariness and the depth of philosophical concern but yet there are some thought provoking points in his novels, which must be considered while evaluating the work. 


 Narrative Structure:


The most effective and important part is the narrative technique of the novel.  As we already discussed about this in class that he uses 'Dues ex machine' in his narration and gives alternative to describe the same event giving prologue and Epilogue in the novel.  He gives mysterious elements to lady. After discussing the novel 'Life of Pi',  we come to know that the narrative outlay of the ON@TCC is much similar to Yan Martel's Life of Pi.  Though there is some dissimilarities at some extent we find more Similarities like..... The beginning of the novels,  An experience of God, Alternative way to read story, The first person Narration. God is present in the  both text but Chetan Bhagat is not able to convinced the reader how it is possible because cause and effect are not found together in the ON@TCC where as in Life Of Pie it is fully convinced by the writer with much deep apprehension.  The whole text can be read  as " Dream sequence" also.



Current Issues:


  As  the part of New literature, it deals with new crisis. Its not all about morality and other things but its all about  inner suffering and pain in the age of Globalisation, and Bossism. At surface level all things look like gorgeous but actually it is not.  Text is dealt with  career, inadequacy, marriage, family conflict and other thing and Working in the call centre is the itself problem, Anti American sentiments interwoven with National pride. All six  Characters have their own problems. Esha is seduced, Radhika is not happy with her marriage and wants the divorce , Vroom has his own problems of his parents , Military  Uncle suffers through his own traditional idea to restrict his daughter in law, Priyanka   is not happy with her mother.


Menippean satire :


Menippean Satire is 'Serocomic' genre in which contemporary issues of any institutions and ideas are criticized. In his all novels , institutions are targeted through the use of this satire. Do the satire on the idea is the heart of menippean satire. like.. "In 3 Mistake of my Life" he satires on group and ascribes Cricket as great phenomena.   Due to the effect of Capitalism , we find the much control of authority over workers means... Bossism begins from the here. And Bakshi rules over other employee in the Call Centre. Traditional ideas also can be satirized because each is free.we find satire on traditional way of looking life and get new ideas to free from that like............

 'Individual happiness is more important '

'Radhika is ready for divorce from Anuj'

'Military Uncle's readiness to accept daughter in law's life style doing compromise with his own rules.'

'The throwaway-culture in dumping relations.'


Self Help Book: 

                 " The text is the celebration of failure first.

It teaches us to accept the failure as the part of life and motivates us to keep journey ahead. Self-help book is also connected with ' Popular Psychology' to high light the problem of one's life. 

It is post modern phenomenon. No literature escape from the category but very few are able to understand what actually it is. Very few have deep philosophical thought to understand the meaning of the words. So, writer clarify the things in simple language so that everybody can understand the meanings. Self -help book is stood for motivated the self.   This book has the feature of the self help book as the writer gives some space while introducing prologue and epilogue  to evaluate readers themselves during reading also. some lines are that like...........

" Everyone feels pain, because everyone  has a dark side to their life." Dark side? 
 Yes, dark side- something you don't like about your self, something that makes you angry or something that you fear: all this makes up our dark side."

Though God's call is 'Chamtkar' in  the novel, God doesn't do Chamtkar. He just gives the advices what can be done? means.....There is no any difference if he is present or not but necessary thing is that one has to help one self. God's call gives the solutions of problems that is also connected with inner call - Voice from the within must be listen that leads always correct path to walk. 


Cyber Punk: 


It is connected with science and technology.  It changes the social command. It is the part of genre of Scientific fiction. Things totally operated through the use of technology. . Heroes  use technology and save other from  villains. Hackers will be found as controlling from the problems also “high tech and low life” . We have example of 'Frankenstein' that shows how too much science  and technology becomes the curse for the human being and  damage  the human existence.

In this novel , we find much use of technology like... Microsoft word, E-mail, F.M,etc.... The 'Bug virus' is used as the plot mover in the novel. Now, things are changed to keep accumulate. Bakshi does one mistake to keep open his mail box and that makes disaster for him in the novel. Other examples like...

 Vroom hacks Bakshi's Email and writes email to Esha on his behalf
The Americans are terrorized with the help of bug in MS Office as virus attack on Internet


Anti American Sentiments: 

America is quite represented with negative aspect in the novel. Anti American Sentiments is also the thematically distress in the novel. with Vroom character it is clearly visible that national pride is interwoven with this.  Vroom has different sight to look at America. We read this with the reference of the Harold Pinter's speech also.  This text is much spoken about patriotism and rejected the western culture which is imposed forcefully.

Examples from the text like....

"Americans  may have many things , but they are not happiest people on the earth by any stretch. Any country obsessed with war can't be happy."

"Meanwhile bad bosses and stupid Americans suck the life blood out of our country’s most productive generation."

 " A thirty-five-year-old American’s brain and IQ is the same as a ten-years-old Indian’s brain. This will help you understand your clients. You need to be as patient as you are when dealing with a child. Americans are dumb, just accept it."

"Our government doesn’t realize this, but Americans are using us. We are sacrificing an entire generation to service their call center."