Something of Value

In the quiet dark hours of the night, when the country sleeps, when we dream of the finer objects of life, thousands of Indians keep awake dreaming dreams of their own. They epitomize the proverbial small idea that became a movement. We ridicule them, we are loathe to call what they do work, we hold the sum of their existence as means to support our end. They are the unseen and unwanted, the unsung heroes - the Call centre workers.

Before you smile and snigger, before you jump back and forth to investigate whether I've ever worked in a call centre let me assure you I haven’t. That is not my reason to post this here. But this was overdue, inside me somewhere.

Sometimes I see those early morning cabs, with a host of men and women heading home. They are not all pageant winners or dumb blondes. Sitting and smiling to herself, wearing a pullover in summer to save herself against the cold office and office cabs, getting a measly sum after being on the job 6 nights a week, she still holds a dream in her heart. A dream that bears fruit every time she brings home the groceries and refuses to accept payment from her mother. A dream that looks achievable whenever she buys her kid brother the mobile phone she couldn't afford growing up. The guy walking up to his dad and telling him to take it easy at office, the guy forcing the room rent onto his father's trembling hands or passing an extra hundred to his mother, in secret, for the household - now these are dreams worth living for.

But these are small people aren’t they? Cause they have such small dreams.

In a matter of 10 years, our country has grown from being mystical India where people came to find themselves to a country where foreigners and PIO prodigal sons come to find jobs. Yet all this wasn't an overnight effect of a magical plan. We opened our economy, we risked unknowing the effect competition would have on our small and medium enterprises. The result is there for us to see. !ncredible !ndia...

When girls and boys all over the country began waking nights, answering calls, taking in the irate customers and indecent language, the abuse, the long hours, the minimal pay, the inability to enjoy the sunlight which we enjoy every day, on that day they made this country a beautiful place to work in..and they visualized the India we live in today. 

The story does not end here. The story becomes bigger. The banks and mobile service providers started to adopt this dream. Call centres became a 24 hour businesses. They adapted when the call for banning off shore work became loud in America and they maneuvered through thick and thin and red tape of regulatory compliances. Service industry became a buzz word in all our dictionaries. GDP became the key through which we were to achieve our superiority. More foreign exchange flowed than ever before. Exports rose as India became a cost saving haven, a place where quality work came cheap. The Golden bird, the 'soney ki chidia' was flying once again. 

We grew as a nation. Sadly, not as a people. There was never any respect for the menial worker in India and the call centre employee became a menial accessory like other grade 4 staff. We joked about them and still do; we compared them to prostitutes and still do. We started to involve our time in mergers and acquisitions, overseas buy outs, private equities and hedge funds and the call centre became a run of the mill cost saving exercise. The job that started the gold rush was now valued as old rust. Rightly so, for its not a value creator, but a value saver.

Today, if you have the words 'call centre', 'technical support', 'night shift' in your resume you are a pariah. Nobody wants to touch you other than a call centre. I even know of a few who hide and deny their call centre experience knowing very well that it would contribute towards them being shown the door quicker.

Am sure you all have stories for how many call centre workers get paid handsomely and drink it all away or waste it all on their girlfriends. But then so do many others who have smart careers ahead of them, ones who aren't treated as mercenaries.

Fact is, nobody considers the work done by the typical diminutive invisible call centre employee at par with the rest of the Indian corporates. All I hope is, many of you read this, talk about it, and the next time you talk to a call centre employee, you don’t have to be kind to him/her like I am - just don’t be rude.

After all, it’s their dream come true. A dream bringing joy forever, it's loveliness lasts, and will never fade into oblivion.