• Full title: One Night @ the Call Center • Author: Chetan Bhagat • Type of work: Novel • Genre: Humour, Fiction, Romance novel • Date of first publication: October 2005

1. Batch : 2018-20
Email : d.d.diyora@gmail.com
Submitted to : Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University.
Group Task

2. • Introduction by Nasim
• Key Facts, Character Analysis, Translation
and Movie on on@tcc by Dhaval
• Plot Overview by Richa
• Themes & Symbols by Alisha and Mansi
• Various Interpretations, Issues, and
Bibliography Records by Minkal
Index

3. Chetan Bhagat is an Indian
Author, Columnist, Screenwriter
and Speaker.
He was born on 22nd April 1974
in New Delhi.
Chetan Bhagat is one of the
most popular authors in the
fiction category in recent times
in India.
Chetan Bhagat

4. Blockbuster novels
Five Point Someone (2004)
One Night @ the Call Center (2005)
The 3 Mistakes Of My Life (2008)
2 States (2009)
Revolution 2020 (2011)
Half Girlfriend (2014)
One Indian Girl (2016).
Three non-fictions
What Young India Wants (2012)
Making India Awesome(2015)
India Positive (2019).
Famous collections of his works are

5. • Full title: One Night @ the Call Center
• Author: Chetan Bhagat
• Type of work: Novel
• Genre: Humour, Fiction, Romance novel
• Language: English
• Date of first publication: October 2005

6. • Full title: One Night @ the Call Center
• Author: Chetan Bhagat
• Type of work: Novel
• Genre: Humour, Fiction, Romance novel
• Language: English
• Date of first publication: October 2005
• Publisher: Rupa & Co
• Narrator: Shyam who narrates the whole story.
First Person Narration - through Shyam’s perspective which
seems to be author’s perspective also.
• Point of view: The narrator speaks in third person
though occasionally he speaks in first person and voices his
thoughts and feelings
Key Facts

7. • Tone: Straightforward and mysterious
• Tense: Past, and present
• Setting (time): 21st century
• Setting (place): Gurgaon, Haryana.
• Protagonist: Shyam and Vroom
• Major conflict: When Shyam and Vroom were
cheated by Bakshi, Priyanka was cheated by Ganesh
and almost all other characters were cheated by
one-another
• Rising action: Shyam recalls his memory by
hearing the words related with his past relationship
with Priyanka
Continue

8. •Climax: When God interferes in the matter of all the major
characters.
• Falling action: When all the major characters changed
their mind and tried to hear their inner call.
• Themes: cognizance, Nationalism, call from the God
• Motifs: Call
• Symbols: God, knitting the scarf, cigarette
• Foreshadowing: The breakdown of the connection in call
center suggests the comingconflict in the
characters’ lives.
Continue

9. Shyam Mehra (Sam) (Narrator) Priyanka Sinha
Varun Malhotra(Vroom,Victor Mell) Esha Singh (Eliza)
Military Uncle Radhika Jha (Regina Jones)
God as a character

10. Shyam Mehra
The narrator and the most important
character of the book. Hero of the novel
along with his close friend Varun. He is a
person, who lack self-confidence.
Priyanka
An intelligent and a practical girl who is too
pre-occupied with her mother who was an
extremely important person to her
Compromise- love.

11. Varun Malhotra
Rationalist, Who like to watch News channel like
NDTV. He loves speed and wheels. He is the most
carefree person in the book but sometime he in
stressful life because of his parents. In the end he
starts his own web based company.
Esha Singh
She wants to become a model but she faced
hurdles because of short heights. In the end she
joined one N.G.O. She taken all the steps to be
model and Guilt what she has done to be a model.

12. Radhika Jha
Caring and Hard working girl. She had
married her husband against her parents but
cheated by her husband.
Military Uncle
Loneliness (Live alone)
He works at the call center to earn some
extra money apart from the pension that he
gets.

13. Translation and Movie on ON@CC
કોલ-સેન્ટરની એ રાત
અનુવાદ: સુધા નિખિલ મહેતા
વર્ષ : 2007
Hello (हैलो)
Film by Atul Agnihotri
10 Oct 2008

14. Star Cast
Sharman Joshi as Shyam Mehra (Sam)
Sohail Khan as Varun Anand (Vroom/Victor)
Gul Panag as Priyanka Saxena(Pearl)
Isha Koppikar as Esha Malhotra (Elizabeth)
Amrita Arora as Radhika Jha (Rebecca)
Sharat Saxena as Military Uncle- Col.Arvind Tripathi
Dalip Tahil as Bakshi
Anusha Dandekar as Shefali
Arbaaz Khan as Anuj Jha
Rishi Nijhawan as Ganesh
Suresh Menon as System's guy- Lokesh Chandaramani(Loki)
Salman Khan as Himself (Special Appearance)
Katrina Kaif as Mysterious Storyteller-Angel of God

15. Star Cast

16. Compare/Contrast of a novel ‘ON@CC’
with a Film ‘Hello’
Beginning
Characters
Work and Boss
Tricks
Relationships
End

17. • Nationalism
• Modernization
• Globalization
• Cognizance
• Phone call from God
• Deus ex Machina
• Human Relations,
Love , Sex, and Marriage
Theme of ON@CC

18. Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk plot spins around conflict
among artificial intelligence, hackers and
Mega Corporations
E-Mail, “Operation Yankee fear” – MS
Word,
Characters dealing with Bug,Email, FM
radio, Copmuter, Email, Internet

19. Self-help book
Improvement: Moral lessons,
solution of problems, helps in
building personal philosophy
Representation of young
generation’s problems that followed
by solutions as well
Intention to instruct readers
God’s
message
 A medium
amount of
intelligence
 A bit of
imagination
Self-
confidence
Facing,
suffering
problems

20. Mannepean Satire
Reflection of real society
Reflects the real situation of
people rather than to create
illusion
Cricise of society: Bossim
Power, god making a call,
Priyanka: Profession is
important than family
Characteristics
More comic than
Socratic dialogue
 Use of fantasy,
manipulation of
perspective
Full of contradictory
behaviour and
characters

21. Popular Literature
Tries to define the problems of
young modern Indian generation
 love and break up
Politics
Highlights the problem of middle
class
Problems of unemployment
Language is lucid and easy to
understand

22. Issues
Colonialism:
Bossim
America: White World
India: Third world
Supernatural influence:
Call from God
Interrelationship
sentiments
Social issues: Extra
Marital affairs
Psychological issues:
instillation of stress due
to modern life style.

23. An Annotated
Bibliography

24. Gayathridevi, A. “Social Concepts: A study & analysis of Chetan
Bhagat’s one night @ the call centre and Revolution 2020.”
International Journal of Innovative Science and Research
Technology (2017): 3.
https://ijisrt.com/social-concepts-a-study-analysis-of-chetan-
bhagats-one-night-the-call-centre-and-revolution-2020
This research paper deals with present resent scenario of burning
social issues being taken as main concepts of Chetan Bhagat’s
writings. In this novel One Night @ Call Centre, he speaks about
social dowry system through the character of Priyanka who stand
against the very tradition of dowry system. He also talks about
Radhika who marries Arjun and after that she burdens her to look
after at his father like a good daughter-in-law. In such way Chetan
Bhagat deals with social mindset of people towards a good women.

25. Tharoor, Shashi. “India Finds It’s Calling : One Night @ Call Centre by
Chetan Bhagat.” India Finds It’s Calling.
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC, 2006.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25462017
It is a worth reading article by Shahshi Tharror, here he reviewed
Chetan Bhagat’s Novel . The main fact pointed out is that,
“The author sees call centres as soul-destroying sweatshops, soaking
up the energies of young Indians who could be doing better for
themselves and their country.” In a way he praised detailed
observation done by Chetan Bhagat about younger generation and
their problmes.

26. Avula, B Karuna and Pavaniasidhar. "CORPORATE EXPLOITATION IN CHETAN
BHAGAT'S ONE NIGHT @ CALL CENTRE." Impact Factor (JCC): 1.5429- This article
can be downloaded from www.bestjournals.in CORPORATE EXPLOITATION IN
CHETAN BHAGAT’S ONE NIGHT @ CALL CENTRE B.KARUNA1 ( Impact Factor (JCC):
1.5429- This article can be downloaded from www.bestjournals.in CORPORATE
EXPLOITATION IN CHETAN BHAGAT’S ONE NIGHT @ CALL CENTRE B.KARUNA1 &
PAVANI SASIDHAR A2 1Associate Professor, Acharya Nagarjuna Universid).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303683967_CORPORATE_EXPLOITATION
_IN_CHETAN_BHAGAT'S_ONE_NIGHT_CALL_CENTRE
This article aims to represent the living ambience in society with
various perspectives such as social, religious, economic and so on. In
the novel we can figure out how Chetan Bhagat used characters to
bring out these factors. It showcases how the boss of the call centre
addresses all the call centre employees as resource rather than
human beings. The writer also deals with God as the preserver of our
faith when these employees received a call from god and tried to
make them out of stress by keeping all the Psychological stress aside.

27. Pandya, Nishant B. "CHARACTERS @ THE CALL CENTRE IN CHETAN
BHAGAT’S ONE NIGHT @ THE CALL CENTRE." Scholarly Research
Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies (2017): 9.
http://paper.researchbib.com/view/paper/186216
This research paper deals with most striking features of Chetan
Bhagat’s novel. In this work he depicts the transformations of young
generation or their journey from traditional point of views to modern
one. In this novel, he shows this changing phase of society by his
characters or with the life of call centre employees. Chetan Bhagat
has portrayed the Indian Youth with all their dreams, aspirations,
traumas, and turmoil with special reference to One Night @ the Call
Centre

28. Dr. Vadivelraja, R. "SOCIO-SCIENTIFIC ISSUES AS FOUND IN CHETAN
BHAGAT’S “ONE NIGHT @ THE CALL CENTER”." International Journal of
Development Research (2016): 4.
https://www.journalijdr.com/socio-scientific-issues-found-chetan-
bhagat%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cone-night-call-center%E2%80%9D
This research paper deals with the role of Socio-Scientific issue in the
novel ON@TCC. It is said that science fiction is a literature of change,
in the same manner Chetan Bhagat mirrors this changing phase of
society in his novel and how they have had to face greater
psychological issues, hurting relation sentiments and how the
exploitation of employees could be done on the name of
Globalization.

29. Lajwani, Raj. One Night @ The Call Centre 28 10 2005.
<https://www.rediff.com/getahead/2005/oct/28night.htm>.
http://uswww.rediff.com/getahead/2005/oct/28night.htm
In this one, Chetan Bhagat was interviewed by Raj Lajwani,
particularly Chetan Bhagat talked about his inspiration behind
writing this novel is of the lifestyle of his sisters-in-law and cousins
who worked at call centre. Their life began when the whole world is
going to sleep. This is the fact which fascinated Chetan Bhagat as
well he also talked on phone calls from god.

30. R.Pandya, Dr.Sachinkumar. ""THE WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN
CHETAN BHAGAT'S NOVELS"." www.ijariie.com (2015): 3.
http://ijariie.com/FormDetails.aspx?MenuScriptId=14673
The very much striking features of Chetan Bhagat’s novel is that his
writing is more feminine than masculine. In this novel One Night @the
Call Centre, he also represents women as they have their abilities and
own intellect. For instance, Esha who exists in Delhi leaving her home
in order to become model.

31. Mukerjee, Amit. book excerptise. 11 5 2015
<https://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/bhagat-2007-one-night-
at.html>.
https://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/bhagat-2007-one-night-
at.html
This is a one of review by above mentioned website, which is mainly
about marketing strategy or about the reason behind the what makes a
novel best-seller. This site provides information the genesis of the
novel .

32. “One Night @ Call Centre by Chetan Bhagat – A Mystic call..”
HUMANDISTA ACADEMY . 27 December 2017.
<http://hamandista.com/review/one-night-at-the-call-center-
chetan-bhagat/>.
http://hamandista.com/review/one-night-at-the-call-center-chetan-
bhagat/
This resource deals with most amazing features of novel; call from
God (Deux ex Machina. However this particular episode from novel
get various interpretation of its reader. Some readers find it unique
or funny while other find it as a source to look back at the life and
boost their life with God’s call.

33. Debraski, Paul. Chetan Bhagat–One Night @ the Call Center (2005).
16 December 2008.
<https://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/chetan-
bhagat-one-night-the-call-center-2005/>.
https://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/chetan-
bhagat-one-night-the-call-center-2005/
In this one there is an interesting review on ON@TCC. And also
talks on overall plot of the novel and on Microsoft bugs. As well as it
several issue of employees were also mentioned in this.

34. Quiz
1) Chetan Bhagat’s “One Night @ the Call Centre” was first published in which year?
(A) October,2005
(B) June,2005
(C) November,2005
(D) January’2005
2) Who is the narrator in ON@TCC?
(A) Varun Malhotra
(B) Esha Singh
(C) Shyam Mehra
(D) Radhika Jha
(3) ON@TCC opens in a very dramatic way on over the journey in the winter from _to_.
(A) Mubai to Delhi
(B) Kanpur to Delhi
(C) Delhi to Kanpur
(D) Delhi to Mumbai

35. Quiz
(4) Chetan Bhagat’s ON@TCC is a portrayal of young India and their problems in the rapid
developing era, in order to justify the central focus of the novel; it deals with various
themes. Can you identify it?
(A) Cognizance
(B) Human relations, Love, Sex and Marriage
(C)Deux ex Machina
(D) Modernization
(E) Globalization
(F) All of the above
5) While reading the novel, we came across the surname of Priyanka; from the following
which can be called as Priyanka’s surname?
(A) Sinha
(B) Mehra
(C) Singh
(D) Malhotra

36. Quiz
6) ONE@TCC is also categorized as a self-help book; in the starting of the novel, it asks to fill
up the worksheet. Find out the things which are mentioned in the worksheet.
(A) One thing you fear
(B) One thing that makes you angry
(C) One thing you don’t like about yourself
(D) A and B are correct
(E) All of the above
7) The ON@TCC is revolved around six call center employees, in their bay, they deal with
customers of home appliances. The name of their bay is “Western Appliance Strategic
Group” or “WASG”.
(A) True
(B) False
8) The novel deals with Manippean satire and presents the dark humor of society, in the
novel we have a rebellious character who satirized on politicians and wrote an article
names as “Why don’t politician ever commit suicide?” Identify the name of the character.
(A) Varun Malhotra/ Vroom, Victor Mell
(B) Shyam Malhotra/ Sam Marcy
(C) Radhika/Regina Jones
(D) Esha Sing/ Eliza Singer

37. Quiz
9) “Hello” is a movie based on Chetan Bhagat’s ONE@TCC and it was directed by Atul
Agnihotri. Is it right or wrong?
(A) Right
(B) Wrong
10) At the end of the novel who started web designing company?
(A) Shyam and Priyanka
(B) Varun and Priyanka
(C) Esha and Varun
(D) Shyam and Varun
11) At the end of the novel Radhika applied for the legal course for divorce, Esha started to
work for NGO charity while Military Uncle joined his son and grandson.
(A) True
(B) False

38. Quiz
Short Questions
1) Analyze the theme of Deux Ex Macina in ON@TCC.
2) How far ON@TCC is it categorized as popular literature?
3) Write a brief note on the theme of Globalization and Modernization in Chetan Bhagat’s
ONE@TCC.
4) Write your views on a character study of Shyam Mehra.
5) How far the novel deals with the notion of nationalism? Write your brief understanding
about it.
Long Questions
1) The novel is also known as the ‘Self-help’ book. Illustrate it with reference to the
worksheet given in the beginning of the novel.
2) Illustrate your ideas on the characterization in the ON@TCC by Chetan Bhagat.
3) How far you agree that Chetan Bhagat supports the women empowerment in the novel?

39. Citation
Works Cited
Bhagat, Chetan. "One night @ the call center." Bhagat, Chetan. One night @ the call center.
New Delhi: Rupa. Co, 2005. 289.
Bhagat, Chetan. "One night @ the call center." મહેતા, સુધા નિખિલ. કોલ-સેન્ટરિી એ રાત.
અમદાવાદ: મુદ્રા ઓફસેટ, 2007. 285.
Hello. Dir. Agnihotri, Atul. Perf. Katrina Kaif,Sharman Joshi,Sohail Khan,Isha Koppikar,Gul
Panag,Amrita Arora,Sharat Saxena,Anusha Dhandekar,Arbaaz Khan Salmankhan. 2008.
Kurian, Tini. One night at the call center. CHARACTERS IN A NUTSHELL. 06 December 2010. 07
December 2019 <http://tinikurian.blogspot.com/2010/12/one-night-at-call-center-story-
in.html>.