The employees at the Callus call centre in Bangalore juggle false identities, abusive customers and the tugs of family and community. An Anglo-Indian trainer is aghast at the overt Americanisms adopted by her eager trainees. A van driver who yearns for a son petitions the god Ayyappan by playing devotional songs inside the van. A brash Jimi Hendrix-loving agent tries to change the music and stokes the driver’s deep resentment. A young girl travels across the great divide between the slum she lives in and the shiny glass complex where she works as a toilet cleaner.
Through fifteen linked stories, Bangalore Calling explores the social costs of outsourcing – the erosion of cultures, the displacement of vernacular languages and accents – in a world that’s not yet flat.
