As a reader, he nearly convinced me that he doesn't. He hates that she's moving on, but he feels he doesn't quite deserve her. The night is broken up by his reminisces about dates with Priyanka and her phone conversations with her prospective groom from America. Shyam is paralyzed with self-doubt and hung up on Priyanka, whom he works with and used to date. The flat language use may be a problem with the translation. I assumed that the apology would turn out to be false modesty or a foil to underscore the brilliance of his insights, but the language of the novel is straight-forward and workaday to the point of becoming boring and the brilliant insights never materialized. Shyam, the narrative character of the interior story, apologizes at the outset for his plain speech. The characters, all of whom work at the call center of the title, go to work, gossip, take breaks, and worry about the impending 'rightsizing.' Their boss speaks in impenetrable business jargon, and his incompetence may be a leading factor in the upcoming layoffs. But despite the reality-blurring frame, the story itself is average. The framing of the story was interesting - while on an overnight train, a mysterious, beautiful woman tells the author the story of the call center, but only after he agrees to the woman's terms: if she tells the story, he must use it for his next book. I didn't dislike it, but I can't think of anyone to whom I'll be recommending it either.
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