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Modern Literature assignment



Name:- Zankhana .M.Matholiya
Roll.No:-36
Paper No.-13- Modern Literature
Class :- M.A. Sem-4
Topic:- Social issues in chetan bhagat novel “One night @ the call centre”.
Enrollment No:- 2069108420180036
College:- Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English
Email ID :- zankhanamatholiya96@gmail.com
Submitted:-Department of English M.K.University, Bhavnagar

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Ø  Introduction Of The Writer:



·         ChetanBhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter, television personality and motivational speaker, known for his English-language dramedy  novels about young urban middle-class Indians. he is contemporary writer who has earned a different name and made their distinction in the literary world. 

·         Bhagat writes columns for popular English and Hindi Newspapers, including The Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar  which is  focusing on youth, career and issues based on national development. Bhagat has a talent for tapping into the zeitgeist, that he is not much older than the people he writes about makes him a particularly credible portray of their world. We can say that because he includes some basic problems of Indian people.

·         ChetanBhaga is a famous novelist of this century who knocks down the book bazaar with great accomplishmen. All his live novels were bestsellers and they had been filmed by famous Bollywood direciors. his vibrant and witty way of portraying stories has motivated reading habits among many Indians. Writing was his passion in 2010, his name was enlisted in the Time's magazineas "World's 100 Most influential people

Ø  His Top-selling Novels:

®    Five Point Someone (2004)
®    One Night @ the Call Center (2005)
®    The Three Mistakes of My Life (2008)
®    2 States (2009)
®    Revolution 2020 (2011)
®    What Young India Wants (2012)
®    Half Girlfriend (2014)
·         Chetan Bhagat has represented the contemporary middle class urban social milieu of India in the novel One Night@ the Call Center very faithfully and accurately. The picture of the society, which is described in the novel, is not utopian in nature. The novel mirrors the portrait of the present society of Indian urban milieu which is, in many ways, similar to the actual social set up of the modern time. The reflection of contemporary Indian society can be understood with the three basic constraints of the characters’ lives in the novel; their personal life, their professional life and their social life. In each of the constraints of the characters, a complete replica of the contemporary pang and predicament of the middle class people of the present society is presented in a realistic manner.
·         All the six major characters in the novel represent a separate issue of the time. From the personal constraints of the characters, one can observe that the problems in the lives of all the characters are the consequences of their involvement in the changing scenario of the society. The root of the issues in their life is their restlessness

·         The Novel One night @ the call centre (ON@TCC) is included in the 'New Literature'. New literature means something which is published in 21st century with contemporary issues.

®    Issues Related to the Changing Indian Family System
®    Broken Interpersonal Relationship
®    Generation Conflicts
®    Condition of Women
®    Rising Individualism
®    Ruin of Indian Social and Moral Value System
®    Dowry
®    Changing Urban Metropolitan Realities in the Westernized Scenario
®    Issues Related to Globalized Job Environment
®    Governmental Policies and their impacts on the Young Generation
®    Cross-Cultural Issues
®    Issues of Metropolitan Youth Culture; Need for Counseling and Motivation

§      Issues Related to the Changing Indian Family System
·         Indian family system has established as an exclusive model for centuries together. The concept of joint family is one of the unique characteristics of the system. Some other distinctive features of it are dedicated interpersonal relationships, sharing of common resources like dwelling, kitchen, property, and other ancestral belongings.
·         The joint family system offers economic, social and emotional protection to all the members of the family irrespective of age or earning capacity. The third generation the children are nurtured with love, care and kindness. Good education and values of life are nurtured in them by the first generation i.e. the elders in case the middle generation.
·         EX:-
Military Uncle had to leave his son’s house and had to do the job of a call center’s agent to supplement his income. As time passes, he realizes his mistake of interfering in the individual life of his son and daughter-in-law. He wants to settle the matter with his son and he wants to live again with him. He was in touch with his grandson who is a school boy. He sends some e-mails containing various pictures of animals and birds. The son is still angry with the father and he comes to know that his father sends useless emails to his son. He writes a mail to his father as:
·         Dad you have cluttered my life enough, now stop cluttering my mail box. I do not know what came over me that I allowed communication between you and my son. I don’t want your shadow on him. Please stay away and do not send him any more emails. For literally or otherwise, we don’t want your attachments. (BHAGAT)

§      Broken Interpersonal Relationship
·         In One Night @the Call Center, the writer Chetan Bhagat has thrown light on the very serious issue of broken interpersonal relationship in present Indian society. All the prominent characters in the fiction acutely experience the embarrassment of broken relationship with their relatives and its effects on their personal and professional life.
·         Ex:-
·         To begin with Vroom’s or Varun’s parents, one can observe that his father does not live with his wife and an only son. Varun’s father had a relationship with his office secretary and he left his wife and only son. Shyam narrates the case of Varun’s family as: Vroom’s dad was a businessman who parted from his wife two years ago. He preferred banging his secretary to bring with his family, so Vroom and his mother now live without him
·         The case of Radhika and her husband Anuj is another such example of broken interpersonal relationship. In spite of all the loyalty and committed dedication for Anuj and his family, her husband Anuj has a so called modern type girlfriend in Delhi named Payal.
§      Generation Conflicts
·         Another most important issue related to the changing Indian family system of contemporary Indian Society depicted in the novel One Night @the Call Center is generation conflicts between the young generation and the old generation.
·         Priyanka the chief female protagonist belongs to a middle class family but she is a modern type of girl. She is a graduate. She has a boyfriend. She dates with him. She does the job of a call center agent in the night shift. She wears clothes with suits her modern looks. She prefers to eat fast food in expensive restaurants so that she can express her modernity. She does not like golden jewellery as she thinks that it is old fashioned and only ‘aunties’ prefers to wear it. She has a mother with the traditional mind set. She wants her daughter Priyanka to be obedient to what she thinks of her daughter.
·         Priyanka is very individualistic in nature. She, initially, follows what her mother instructs but gradually when she grows up, thinks that she has grown up enough and her mother is trying to dominate her without meaning. She rebels against her mother’s domination. Her mother wants Priyanka to marry a well settled boy, most preferably NRI and she wants Priyanka to be away from her boyfriend Shyam who is her colleague at the call center; a loser of some kind. Her mother has a bitter experience in Prominent Issues of Metropolitan Society in One Night@ the Call Center 174 Select Issues of Contemporary Indian Society in the Fictional Works of Chetan Bhagat her life of marring a middle class person and all the hardships of her life are due to it. She doesn’t want her daughter to experience such hardships as she has experienced in life. The mother loves her daughter a lot but she wants her daughter to be careful in important decisions of her life. Priyanka shares with Shyam, the reason for her mother’s over conscious worries for her future as:
·         She married my dad who was just a government employee only because he seemed like a decent human being. Her sisters waited better qualified boys and they are richer today. Her concern for me comes from there. She is my mother. It is not as if she does not know what is good for me.

·         The generation clashes can also be observed in the father son relationship between Military Uncle and his son.

·         Another illustration to be observed regarding the generation clashes between the young generation and old generation is between Esha and her parents., Esha wants to become a model. She has moved to Delhi from Chandigarh against her parents’ wish. She works at the call center to earn regular income but she is passionate about her modelling career. Her parents were not in favour of her decision of becoming a model as they thought of many ills in this field but Esha did not listen to them.
.

§      Condition of Women
·         The issue of the condition of women has been one of the major concerns of contemporary Indian society. For years together, woman has been used as an object in the hands of men. Male domination has been one of the chief characteristics of the traditional Indian society. Apart from a few examples of revolutionary women in the history of India, over all condition of woman in Indian society has been pathetic.
·         The woman characters like Priyanka, Esha and Radhika are modern and revolutionary; they are also victims of the age. The women are mostly represented as exploited physically, emotionally or psychologically in the novel.
·         Radhika, she is very a sincere and obedient daughter-in-law but she is not appreciated for that. She is a very loyal wife to her husband Anuj but she does not get equal loyalty in return. Esha becomes a prey of casting couch and she is physically exploited by a forty year old modelling professional for giving her a break in modelling career but she finally comes to know that she has been deceived and rejected.

§      Changing Urban Metropolitan Realities in the Westernized Scenario
·         The fiction One Night @the Call Center throws noticeable light on certain very serious issues related to the globalized job environment experienced by the middle class people at their job places in contemporary Indian corporate scenario. Industrialization and globalization promise visible modernization of the trade, commerce or the business sector of contemporary India. The same promises unprecedented advancement in manufacture or production sectors.
·         In this novel writer wants to give message to the Indians that who working in call center they just get good salary but it not give it a opportunity to do something else or for their skills and creativity Americanized form of English in the Call Centers. How globalization forced the characters of this Novel to change their names to Western:  e.g. like,
                       Shyam Mehra – Sam Mercy

                  Varun Malhotra  - Victor

                  Radhika Jha – Regima Jones

                  Esha singh – Elina  


§      Governmental Policies and their impacts on the Young Generation
·         The author Chetan Bhagat in the present fiction One Night @the Call Center has criticised the ruling governments for the contemporary situation of our country. It has been more than seven and a half decades since we got independence but the country has not done considerable progress like that of Japan, Germany or China having fresh starts almost at the same time. There can be many reasons for that but one of them can be the will power and the developmental policies by the then ruling governments. The politicians have taken due care up till today to save and secure their power and positions by all means. The governments seem to have drastically failed to make effective policies that promise the country peace, progress and prosperity.
·         character of Varun who can be called his mouthpiece. Varun is an extrovert young boy from the middle class urban background. He is not satisfied with his present situation in life. He and his colleagues work hard but they do not get the rewards of their work.
·         Vroom says: There is nothing wrong with working night and I agree money is good. But the difference is, we don’t have jobs that make us work to our potential. Look at our country, we are still so behind, these Americans, even when, we know no less than them. (. . .) like there is so much to do. We should be building roads, power plants, airports, phone networks and metro trains in every city like madness. And if the government moves it’s rear-end and does that, the young people in this country will find jobs there: Hell, I would work days and nights for that-as long as I know that what I am doing is helping build something for my country, for its future. But the government doesn’t believe in doing any real work, so they allow these BPOs to be opened and think they have taken care of then youth. (BHAGAT)

§      Cross-Cultural Issues
·         The fiction One Night @the Call Center also throws light on the reciprocal cross cultural issues in the minds of people between the Americans and Indians in considerable varieties. The author seems to have taken a chance to criticize some of the routine behaviors of the American people. Americans are obviously taken as the most advanced citizens in their standards of living. They are considered world’s most progressive population having an advanced life style and modernized approach to life. One of the clients of the call center, in which all the six major characters work as call center agents, is the Western Appliances..
·         Mr. William Fox becomes very irritated and annoyed and starts passing racial comments which can raise the eyebrow of any Indian. The further talk is like:
Who am I speaking to?
Victor, sir.
 Tell me your fucking name. You are some kid in India, isn’t it?
Sir, I am afraid I can’t disclose my location.’
You are from India. Tell me boy.
 Yes sir. I am in India, Vroom gave in.
So what did you have to do to get this job? Fucking degree in nuclear physics?
Sir, do you need help with your cleaner or not? Vroom said.
C’mon son. Answer me. I don’t need your help. Yeah, I’ll change the dust bag.
 What about you guys? When will you change your dusty country?
 Excuse me sir, but I want you to stop talking like that, Vroom said.
Oh, really, now some brown kid will tell me what to do? (BHAGAT)

§      Conclusion

the present novel One Night @the Call Center represents some of the very serious issue of contemporary Indian metropolitan society which is modernized in form, westernized in character and globalized in nature.Bhagat's novels are audience centric and not literary centric. The themes involve the anxieties and insecurities of the rising Indian middle class women, including questions about career, inadequacy, marriage, family conflicts in a changing India, and the relationship of the young Indian middle class to both executives and ordinary clients whom they serve in the U.S.A. There is an aspect of self-help in the book as the author invites readers to identify aspects of themselves and their lives that make them angry and that they would like to change. But women employment is totally different from women empowerment. Tension arises when their independence and individualism conflict with traditional, cultural and social values. Though his women characters display westemized life styles, some seek eloser relationship with their husband, parents than their modern life style. But in general, the attiude of the modern trendy young women need to be mended as going against the will of social restrictions and getting success put them in greater complexities.


Bibliography

BHAGAT, CHETAN. ONE NIGHT @ THE CALL CENTER. 2005.




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