Line #23 Literature/BangaloreCalling


1	Bangalore Calling is the debut novel by former corporate executive Brinda Narayan. It focuses on various characters working at a Bangalore based call center named [=CallUs=]. The CEO is an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology, India’s MIT) graduate who is chafing that his call center isn’t as successful and renown as the one started by his classmate Basu. Yvette is an Anglo-Indian English language and accent trainer who starts to have serious misgivings about what she is doing to her trainees. Jimi is a spoilt rich kid who thinks he is Music/JimiHendrix reincarnated. An innocent Malayalee girl named Bitty hooks up with Jimi and her life plunges. And a toilet cleaner’s petty theft just might bring the entire company crashing.
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3	!Tropes found here are
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5	* AuthorTract: Through her character Yvette, Brinda states her own misgivings about what assuming an accent and completely different persona does to the typical OperatorFromIndia’s mindset.
6	* BecomingTheMask: Jimi ultimately starts to believe that he is the reincarnation of Music/JimiHendrix
7	* DeusExMachina: Just when it looks like [=CallUs=] is going to be taken over by BODMAS, [[spoiler: Basu’s accounting scam is uncovered, thereby taking BODMAS down, making it ripe for [=CallUs=] to acquire]].
8	* DisappearedDad: Yvette’s father committed suicide by train years ago.
9	* [[spoiler: DrivenToSuicide]] : Basu, upon having his accounting scam revealed.
10	* {{Expy}}: Basu is one of [[spoiler: South Indian IT tycoon Ramalingam Raju, the philanthropic CEO of Satyam one of the Big Three of Indian IT, along with Infosys and Wipro. Raju was revealed to have been running an Enronesque profit inflation scam just as Basu is shown having done here]].
11	* GentlemanRanker: In a manner of speaking. Jimi is a rich kid working as a call center operator - a job normally taken up by lower middle class people looking to move into the middle class.
12	* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion : Deconstructed. Bitty the sweet innocent girl gets seduced and knocked up by Jimi. She is clearly ashamed of it, but being an unwed mother is a lot worse. She therefore goes to a very discreet clinic funded by Basu.
13	* GranolaGirl : Akriti, the company’s resident psychologist.
14	* HeirClubForMen: Why the shuttle bus driver keeps playing devotional music all the time. He wants his next child to be a boy. Ultimately he gets over it.
15	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Akriti thinks the company CEO, who she’s taken a shine to, is this fiery passionate visionary. When his personality test reveals him to be an [[IceQueen icy]] inflexible executive who only prefers to follow standard procedures, it puts a damper on their budding relationship.
16	* InnocentBigot: Akriti reveals she is one, when she uses the phrase “dings” to refer to Eurasian people in India. Yvette who is Anglo-Indian is understandably miffed.
17	* HonestCorporateExecutive: Basu comes off as this. He pays his employees very well, makes sure their long term well being is looked after and even funds a few charities. He [[spoiler: actually isn’t, as he has been running an Enron-like profit inflation accounting scam.]].
18	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Bitty is the operator who has the most difficulty losing her “mother tongue influence”. She ditches the American accent completely and cussed out an irate customer in a thick Malayalam accent before quitting.
19	* NouveauRiche: Bitty starts making a ton of cash at the call center, but immediately starts blowing it on tacky clothes, makeup and jewelry.
20	* OperatorFromIndia: A company full of them.
21	* ReallyGetsAround: Jimi. Akriti too. The two of them even do each other sometimes.
22	* SitcomArchnemesis: Basu to the [=CallUs=] CEO
23	* UpperClassTwit: Jimutha is a listless rich stoner who doesn’t need this job. He is only here because his parents twisted his arm to get a job.

Context Literature / BangaloreCalling