Bangalore Calling Brinda S. Narayan

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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 petetitions the god Ayyappan by playing devotional songs inside the van. A brash, Jim 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.