Thinking activity: One night at the call center by Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat

Indian Author, Columnist, Screenwriter and Speaker.

' amongst the ‘100 most influential people in the world’ and Fast Company'

- Time magazine

Date of Birth and place:  

22 April 1974, New Delhi

Education:

The Army Public School, Delhi (1978-1991)

IIT Delhi, Mechanical Engineering (1991-1995)

IIM Ahmedabad, MBA (1995-1997)

Novel and Non-fiction

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).

 ‘The biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history’

-The New York Times

This blog is part of my academic activity. To open task click here

One night @ the call center

·       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

Comment upon the narrative structure of the novel On@tcc

        Mostly people like fantasy, because it gives ecstasy to us that's why in this story he has used mysterious elements, like God. Always this is an end of the story in childhood when grandfather or grandmother tales a story. 

અને દાદા પછી શું કર્યું ?

દાદા: પછી ખાધું પીધું અને રાજ કર્યું.

People mostly believe that, if God is there than everything will be good. So here with the help of God, writer has given a happy ending.  

Book

'Life of Pi' is a novel by Yann Martel, it was published in 2001.

'One night @ the call center' novel was published in 2005.

The narrative structure of On@tcc, it can find a similar narrative structure as a 'Life of Pi' novel. It may possible that Chetan Bhagat got a hint from that novel about narrative technique because in both novel the element of God is there and tricks to describe things to people with logically and mysteriously also.

I've not read that novel but with the help of quotes, summary and class discussion, I can say, Yann Martel, did deep observation about Indian places, schools, faith, spirituality, and religion and life of the animal world and ocean in his book, even he is not an Indian.

Yann Martel has a deep observation and classical thinking about life where Chetan Bhagat is more practical. 

Here we can see the difference of the mindset

“You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”

-Yann Martel, Life of Pi

“as with money in your wallet the world gives you some respect and lets you breathe.”

- Chetan Bhagat, One Night @ the Call Center

Movie

'Life of Pi' is directed by Ang Lee, published in 2012.

'Hello' movie is based on On@tcc, it's directed by Atul Agnihotri, published in 2008

In the movie, Atul Agnihotri changed many things, he used a helicopter and lounge for a conversation with a lady rather Train as per the novel, other things are okay okay types, he worked well in camera study in a few scenes but not good as Ang lee did in Life of Pi.

Is on@tcc self-help book?

Is on@tcc self-help book?

Every day of life is not the same, day by day we face different types of experience and sometimes when we get a failure at that time we need motivation. There are many books and nowadays videos also available but some people write these types of book to make money so it depends on the person who has written the book  so we need something different or more convenience things like

(સનાતન સત્ય, જે હંમેશા વધુ સાચું હોય અને બધાને લાગુ પડતું હોય મુશ્કેલી સમયે)

For example:

ચાણક્યનીતિ

Some Theology books like શ્રીમદ ભગવતગીતા (ક્રુષ્ણ ઉપદેશ)

        Here,  in the On@tcc in last part, it can find that, God comes and said to them I am with you. One thing is that he will not say Tathastu and you will get everything whatever you want but he just gives guidance to 6 people and they must work on the way with thinking and smart work. It is like you are helping you with the help of self.

A self-help book is one that written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. The books take their name from Self-Help, an 1859 best-seller by Samuel Smiles, but are also known and classified under "self-improvement", a term that is a modernized version of self-help. Self-help books moved from a niche position to being a postmodern cultural phenomenon in the late twentieth century

Reference:

http://www.chetanbhagat.com/books/ontcc/

https://dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2014/12/chetan-bhagars-one-night-call-center.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-help_book

Journalism: Feature Writing and Lead Writing

હું અને મુર્તુજા એટલે એક ઇમારતમાં મંદિર અને મસ્જિદનું સ્થાન

જેની દીવાલે લખેલું રહિમ અને રામ...

ઉનાળોં ચોમાસામાં બદલાઈ જાય અને ખબર ના રહે એમ જ કંઈક મળ્યા પછી અમારી પાકકી ભાઈબંધી ક્યારે થઇ ગઈ એ ખબર નહીં. એક બીજાના નામ સિવાય કંઈ જ પૂછેલું નહીં.  બંને હૃદયથી વાતો કરવા વાળા ક્યારેય મગજ વાપરેલું નહીં.

સાદી જિંદગી વિતાવતો મારો બ્રાન્ડેડ ભાઈબંધ એટલે મુર્તુજા 

મુર્તુજા ભાગ્યે જ સાંભળવા મળતા નામની મેં જ દઈ નાખેલી... મેં પાડ્યું નવું નામ મુસ્તુ અને મુસ્તુફા...

મુસ્તુફા નામથી માણસોને એમ થાઈ કે કોઈક ખાં હશે પણ મારો ભાઈબંધ મુસ્તુ કૈક આવો છે. પાંચ ફૂટ પૂરો અને પૂરી જેવા ગાલ, ચકળ વકળ થતી ચબરાટ આંખો, સુકાયેલા નાળિયેર ના છાલા જેવા સીધા એના કાળા વાળ, પવનની ગમે તેવી ફફડાટી હોય પણ શરૂ એકટીવામાંય પવન કે કોઈ માણસ એના વાળ હલાવી ના શકે હું પણ નહીં બાકી પવન ની દિશા ને મારી દશા એ બદલાવી નાખે ખરો એ ભૂલ વગરની વાત. ખાલી બહારથી શાંત પણ ચંચળ તો વાત ના કરો સળિયો તો પુરેપુરો પણ અમુકની સાથે જ, બિઝનેસમેન પૂરો પણ કોઈની લીટી ભૂંસીને આગળ ના વધે હો....

ભાઈબંધીમાં એની દોસ્તી પૂરી પઠાણી, અડધી રાત્રે ફોન કરવાનો ગમે ત્યાંથી મુસ્તુ ક્ષણોમાં હાજર હોય હો. બસ અમે એકબીજાને ખાલી નામ થી ઓળખતા ક્યારેય મેં એને આગળ પાછળ નથી પૂછ્યું ના એણે મને...

આ નાત-જાત નું ચાલે છે તો થયું લાવ ને લખવા દે. કેટલાય મંદિર-મસ્જીદ બનાવવા અને નાત-જાતને જાત-ભાતનું કાઢી કાઢીને જગડે છે પણ મારે ને મુસ્તુને કાંઈ જ લેવા દેવા નહીં

એનો મતલબ એ નહીં અમે સાવ નાસ્તિક છીએ

કે અમને કોઈ બાબતે પરવા નથી

પણ

અમે એમ માનીએ કે ઘર ઘરના બે બાધિને ત્રીજાને શું કામ મનોરંજન કરાવવાનું ??

બસ કઇંક આવું જ વિચારીને અમે જીવીએ છીએ.

ઘાત અને આધાત નડે છે,

રોજ પડે ને જાત નડે છે.

ચાલ ને  સરખે ભાગે વહેંચી લઈએ દોસ્ત,

આપણને જે વાત નડે છે... (સુરેશ ઝવેરી)

Know the Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Know the Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a well known Nigerian author. She has written best known novels and short story collection. 

Novels:

Purple Hibiscus

Half of a Yellow Sun

Americanah

For love Biafra

We Should All Be Feminists

The most important matter about her is that,

The Times of Literary Supplement described her as "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors who is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African Literature".

1) The Danger of a Single Story

She is a well known author and also known as good story teller. In this ted talk she calls herself as a story teller. In a very intresting way she is giving some glimpses of poovrty of her own family and some chilhood experiences. In this she talks about critical misunderstanding. If we hear only a particular story about any country or culture in a particular way then it risks our critical thinking. She speaks about her mental shift in literature after reading African writers like Chinua Achebe and many others. Before reading them her earlier characters are entirely different. She portrayed them as having a white skin and blue eyes while in reality it was diffrent. In reality they have chicalate skin or kinky hair. She talks about many short stories and says that stories have been used to dispossess and malign, but they can also be used to empower and to humanize. From her works it seems that she is quite realistic writers like many other African writers like Chinia Achebe and Ngugi Wa Thiongo. In the end of video she very frimly says that,

"When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise".

What I understand is that she talks on being universal not to stick on particular stereotype.

2) We Should all be Feminist

In this second ted talk, she speaks about her own experiences on this gender biasis. The term Feminist has very different perspectives nowadays. But Chimamanda is not talks about that typical feminist. She gives a very uneasy defination of feminist, 

"Feminist are women who felt unhappy because they couldn't find their husband".

She talks about her personal experince of childhood. She wanted to be class monitor in the class. For that it is necessary for her to stood first in the class. She worked hard for it and got first rank. But she did not able to be a monitor because she is a girl. She added that gender matters everwhere in the world. She talks about her experience with waiter who ignored her because she is woman. This shows the gender sterotype which is taught from very early age. She also talks about mariiage. Marriage is more about ownership rather than of partnership. We believe that we human beings act according to culture but actually we create our culture.

3) Talk on importance of Truth in Post - Truth Era

In this video she talks about value of truth by speaking it courageously. She interprets her own name "Chimamanda" which means personal spirit that can never be broken. She talks on the pronounciation of her name. Whenever she went in any event aenchor mispronounced her name. Problme is not with mispronounciation but the problmes is with changing concept of meaning of her name. She speaks about common lies, she used to speak about her height and struck in traffich when someone ask her for arriving late. She talks on her personal experience where she lies because she did not know the name of the writer. In short she tries to make us to be true.

Arundhati Roy: Know the Author and works

Arundhati Roy: Know the Author and works

Today Indian English Literature achieve certain hight among the world literature. Along with it Indian writers also gain worldwide fame. While talking about Indian writing in English, the name of Arundhati Roy pops up in the mind. Her full name is Suzanna Arundhati Roy but she is widely known as Arundhati Roy. She is ever known for her award-winning novel The God of Small Things published in 1997. Besides being author she is also a political activist. This is the reason why we find political dimensions in her novels. Also, she speaks out very bravely on every political matter.

Her famous works are:

1) The God of Small Things

2) The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

3) Ordinary Person's guide to empire

In her work, "The God of Small Things" she speaks mainly about her own childhood experiences. Mainly the story is constructed about twins named Estha and Rhea.

She remains in the debate because of her work "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness". In this, she dares to portray the Aftab as the third gender. In this novel, we can find lots of political dimensions. She referred Narendra Modi as Gujarat ka Lalla, Manmohan Singh as Caged Rabbit, Atal Bihari Vajpeyi as the Lipsing Poet PM and Arvind Kejarival as Mister Agrval. In such a way she is doing hard-hitting on political events.

As being a political essayist she also takes up radical causes not only in India but internationally. She takes issues like the nuclear tests and the Sardar Sarovar Project in India and America's military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After seeing her work it can be concluded that she is more interested in political changes in India and maybe this is the reason behind she brings out political notions in her novel.

Thinking Activity: Education and Technology

Thinking Activity: Education and Technology

CLICK HERE to know more about task.

In this ongoing technological era, every day we become familiar with a new kind of technology. Almost everything from education to shopping becomes online. There are many software developed for bringing a new education system. It is not the era in which only we can teach or learn in the classroom with chalk and blackboard but we can also learn by accessing certain apps and websites which are available on the digital platform. many traditional people do not like this idea because it creates a threat to their position. But there are people like Sugata Mitra and Salman Khan who thinks about the welfare of the young generation.

Changing Paradigms by Ken Robinson

In this video, he talks about changing the education system of the country and two factors that affect the changing phase of the education system. Economic and Culture, these are two factors. He also talks about the current education system that was designed for different ages. He says about twin pillars of economic and intellectual. Academic people are considered as smart while nonacademic people are considered as non-smart. This is not true in this age. If we look at sports personalities or celebrities, they are not much educated but they are smart and earn a lot of money. And at a last, he also satirizes on the current education system because it believes that education is only for pass exams not to develop critical thinking.

Sugata Mitra: on SOLE and future of learning 

He is a well-known personality his school on the cloud is a learning lab in India. On this platform, one can learn from each other by using resources. In his project, he gave an idea of SOLE.

SOLE- Self Organized language Environment. 

          He started his project in the slum area where he put a computer on the wall and after that out of curiosity children started to learn it by themselves. This supports the idea of self-learning. He also talks about examination threats and punishment. He also contrasted the old and newer education system. In the new system use of technology can help the teacher to bring the world in the classroom. For the future he also gave a new idea of an examination system which is good than the older examination system.

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

          Video is a new form of learning anywhere and at any place without the help of any teacher. The important matter is that this system encourages a student to do homework in class and learn at home. For example, a student can learn at home by viewing the video and ask the questions to the teacher in the classroom. On his application Khan Academy provides different courses. Anyone can join it at free of cost. And I like that it also provides a transcript of the video. And all videos are designed as someone is writing on the board. So if anyone likes to teach in that manner, they also like the video. He also talks about his personal experience behind founding Khan Academy.

Marc Prensky: Digital Natives and immigration

          Here he used the word digital natives for the students who used technology in a good manner. In the 21st century almost every young student use technology. In our department also we use mobile phones and laptops to learn something new. Also, there is fun in learning through technology. We use T.V and mobile phones for teaching or playing video games. Almost everyone started to use facebook and Whatsapp. These are known as digital natives while digital Immigrant does not like this idea.

David Crystal: The Effect of New Technologies on English

          There are some traditional people who do not like technology. Because with the help of the internet there are some changes occur in the English language. Internet and communication tools such as Whatsapp, facebook, twitter, and Instagram create a new form of language. It is known as slang words also. Our conversation becomes very short.

Good Morning- gm

Good Night- gn

I Don't Know- IDK

In this way, he talks about the changing effect of new technologies in English.

David Crystal: The Biggest Challenge for English Language Teachers in the times of Internet and

Texting is 'Good' for English Language

          Because of the generation gap, we can find this problem in any classroom. With the help of technology, everything is changing every day. So that teacher has to be familiar with everyday changes. So he can teach students in a better way. Also, some teachers do not allow us to use a mobile phone in the classroom. It may become an obstacle in the learning process. If the teacher only teaches a particular France or Britain English with the correct pronunciation. It also happens that a student cannot communicate with the world. He also says that by texting also we can learn the language. Whatsapp, Twitter, and Facebook are tools where we can learn by texting also. So here the texting is not only for a kid. Younger people can also learn through it.