A call on behalf of Call Centres.......

Why does it take a Shilpa Shetty for a Whole Nation to sit up and take notice for something as serious as Racial Discrimination....Well Discrimination in any form is a highly undesirable phenomenon and should be discouraged. In this case I am surprised at the reactions of the Indian Media and everyone else.....

In fact the fact that we are crying "Foul" over others calling us " brown" etc is really funny- given the fact that our society itself places high premium on fair skinned people and calls them " beautiful" just by the virtue of them being fair.
Also our society is divided in many frgaments on the basis of castes, communities etc...and there is a prvilent norm of people being considered " high" and " low" based on their castes....etc....
But we will come to that later- maybe in a different post.

This time I am more concerned about Racial Discrimination against Indians and more importantly our take on it...

Consider this- A celebrity who is being paid in crores to appear in a reality show goes and puts her foot in her mouth by calling herself Angeline Jolie of Asia etc and also trying to prove herself as more elite than the rest of the showmembers and ends up being targetted -She gets to hear things which are considered unacceptable in the Racial Discrimnation Dictionary. The entire nation, media and even the Govts of the two countries go into a frenzy denouncing the whole thing. The Sponsors of the programme withdraw their support, public sympathy pours in -and finally Shilpa ends up winning the show and bagging many laurels and movie and brand endorsement offers along with a couple of more crores- And the perpetretors of the hate culture in the show came under a lot of flak and fire- I would call it as Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish....Nice Very Nice- Never seen such a apt and quick poetic justice to unfair treatment....

But my question to the Media, to the People of India is - Why Shilpa? Why only Shilpa?? Is she the only one going through such trauma ? Do they know- Are they aware that there are millions of Indians who face abusive language, rude behaviour, hear derisive language in their own country from millions of people all over the World- just for doing their jobs- and these people are based in India- At Bangalore, At Gurgaon- they are young people who do not have a professional degree to be able to bag a higher end job, they belong to different parts of the countries , they are people who have left their homes to earn some money and make a career. They are people who work in the BPO-ITES Industry, some of them have backend data processiing jobs and others take up calls for customers for clients based in USA, UK and the rest of the world.
Their jobs are not easy- they have to work at nights, at odd hours, they have to forsake public holidays and festivals so that they can align to the customers in the other countries, they have to forsake their sundays, their social lives and sometimes even their dignity....Cos their jobs have been outsourced...... Their customers view them as outsiders who have taken away their jobs....and frequently vent their anger on these hapless employees who have no choice but to take it and keep quite- That is considered "professionalism"....
I have been associated with a Call Centre as a HR manager for 6 months - and 6 months was all I could bear - for it was frustating for me to be unable to help this people from their daily trauma of hearing things like: "u indian filth", "u dirty pig", " do u guys worship cows... for us they r beef", how much will u charge for sleeping with me" - the list is endless..........

There was a woman who used to leave her 6 month old baby with her cousin and come to work at night because she needed the money.
There was a lady whose husband had died in the Kargil War and the govt compensation was not enough.
There was a 20 year old boy from a remote poverty striken part of Orissa- who had big dreams .
There was a handicapped boy who was not able to get employment in any other area......

I have spent some sleepless nights thinking of their traumatised sad tales and my and the authorities inabilites to help them out- True we arranged for professional counselling, true we arranged for stress busters on the floor, improved the incentive plans and even put forth a complaint to the Client- But we all knew that this will not stop- because the Calls meant Revenues-Period....

And yes this is true for most Call Centres- after some time the employees get de-sensitized to everything, all slurs and move on with life...

Meanwhile let us take a look at how the Media behaves with this Industry-

There are frequent articles in leading national dailies describing Call Centres are breeding grounds of sleaze, drugs, indecent behaviour - the list goes on.....

Call centre employees are represented as young people earning lots of money early and consequently going astray and getting involved in alchoholism, substance abuse, late night binges and sexcapades. They are portayed as people of lose morals , people who are thieves , people who cant be trusted etc etc- they face problems in getting accomodation and many such services.

Recently there was a case in Delhi- a call centre employee was brutally raped in dhaula kuan- reactions to that incident have been like the following-

#What was she doing out of her house in the middle of the night

#Call centre gals are anyways used to sleeping around- Big deal

#She must have been drunk......

I wonder- even if all of the above is true -does it justify Rape?? Would the reaction have been same had the victim been a housewife with 3 kids??


At the end of the day- this industry generates millions of jobs for people who might have been umemployed or underemployed otherwise.

Attention Media- Can we have a matured outlook and view and not taint an entire industry just for the sake of sensational news reporting?

Just adding a biblical context- the lord said " he who hath not sinned cast the first stone".....Get the drift??

Do a dipstick of other industries and see if instances of alchoholism, substance abuse, romance in workplace etc do not exist?

Shilpa Shetty is just one case- there are millions out there who face racial slurs each day- go out and reach to them- help their voices be heard by the country and the indifferent world....

You have the power- Do justice to it-

Are u listening- Times, NDTV, Aajtak etc etc..........????

Biggest Advantage of being a Women

There are a million reasons to be happy you ended up with two X chromosomes -- shoe shopping, girls' nights, and cheaper insurance, just to name a few. This was a survey done -women were asked to answer- "What in your opinion is the biggest advantage of being a woman?"
Some of the more interesting answers-




1. The biggest advantage of being a woman the art of being able to talk the hind legs off a donkey.



2.Hello?! Boobs! I love having boobs. They're my best accessory!



3.The best thing about being a woman is the variety. As women, we experience so many changes in our bodies and minds over the course of our lives. We get to experience life in a whole different way than men do, and I love that.



4.I love having lots of dressing options and looking pretty. It would be terrible to be a man and have to choose between the blue suit or the blue suit.



5.The "superpower" of being able to grow another life inside you, and produce the food to feed it too.



6. Women have so many choices. They can work or stay home. Be a nurse or a soldier. Despite the fact that we think men have it good, ask a man who has chosen a career viewed as predominantly for women, like a secretary or a nurse, or one who has chosen to stay home and raise the kids while Mom works. They get a lot of flack and are looked on as less of a man.



7.Multiple O's.



8.My six-year-old son answered this one for me a couple nights ago. All snuggled up beside me in his jammies, he says very sincerely, "It's better to be a girl than a boy." When I asked him why he thought that, he said, "Because the kids always love you best."



9.A woman can do all the things that women naturally do and she can do most things a man can do also. A woman can keep a house looking like something out of House Beautiful, a woman can make a delicious meal from leftovers, a woman can create life. A woman can plow the north 40, hot coat the roof, milk the cows, come in, take a bath, and be ready for a night on the town. Men can't even put a dish in the sink.

History of Nursery Rhymes

I dont remember my history lessons, neither my geography, biology, physics, chemistry lessons etc-atleast not word by word...But I remember my Nursery Rhymes in toto- So I dug out the history of each one of them- Quite Interesting:)

Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold,Pease pudding in the pot - nine days old.Some like it hot, some like it cold,Some like it in the pot - nine days old


What is pease pudding?Pease pudding hot - the origins of the lyrics based on a traditional British dishThe pease pudding referred to in the lyrics of this nursery rhyme is a dish which is still enjoyed in Britain today. It is a smooth, thick sauce, (referred to as a pudding in the rhyme for the sake of alliteration) which has a dark yellow color and is made from dried peas. Pease pudding is traditionally served hot with boiled bacon or a form of sausage called a saveloy.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of waterJack fell down and broke his crownAnd Jill came tumbling after.Up got Jack, and home did trot As fast as he could caperHe went to bed and bound his headWith vinegar and brown paper.

French (history) connection!The roots of this child's nursery rhyme is in France and the Jack and Jill referred to are Louis XVI who was beheaded (lost his crown) followed by his Queen Marie Antoinette (who came tumbling after). The words and lyrics were made more palatable for the nursery by giving it a happy ending and has further been altered by the passage of time - the actual beheadings occurred in 1793. The first publication date for the lyrics of this nursery rhyme is 1795 which tie-in with the history and origins

Mary Mary quite contrary,How does your garden grow?With silver bells and cockle shells And pretty maids all in a row.

The origins are steeped in history...The Mary alluded to in this traditional English nursery rhyme is Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary, who was the daughter of King Henry VIII. Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic and the garden referred to is an allusion to graveyards which were increasing in size with those who dared to continue to adhere to the Protestant faith. The silver bells and cockle shells were colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'maids' were a device to behead people similar to the guillotine.

Georgie Porgie pudding and pie,Kissed the girls and made them cry When the boys came out to play,Georgie Porgie ran away.

The Early Battle of the Sexes?A Nursery Rhyme demonstrating the different attitudes between the sexes! Even at a very early age children in Britain would play a game called 'Kiss Chase' - in fact the girls would actually chase the boys and then kiss them! their were no tears from the girls but the boys fought like mad to get away! The origins and history of the lyrics to this nursery rhyme are English and refer to George (Georgie Porgie), the Duke of Buckingham, from 17th century English history. His dubious moral character was much in question! This, however, was overlooked due to his friendship with King Charles II until the parliament stopped the Kind intervening on his behalf - at this point all of the jealous husbands vowed to wreak their revenge causing Georgie Porgie to 'run away'!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.All the King's horses, And all the King's menCouldn't put Humpty together again!

Who was Humpty Dumpty?Humpty Dumpty was a colloquial term used in 15th century England to describe someone who was fat or obese - giving rise to lots of theories pertaining to the identity of Humpty Dumpty. However, in this case the question should be not Who was Humpty Dumpty but What was Humpty Dumpty? Humpty Dumpty was in fact an unusually large canon which was mounted on the protective wall of "St. Mary's Wall Church" in Colchester, England. It was intended to protect the Parliamentarian stronghold of Colchester which was in the temporarily in control of the Royalists during the period of English history, described as the English Civil War ( 1642 - 1649). A shot from a Parliamentary canon succeeded in damaging the wall underneath Humpty Dumpty causing the canon to fall to the ground. The Royalists 'all the King's men' attempted to raise Humpty Dumpty on to another part of the wall but even with the help of ' all the King's horses' failed in their task and Colchester fell to the Parliamentarians after a siege lasting eleven weeks.


Old Mother HubbardWent to the cupboardTo get her poor doggie a bone,When she got thereThe cupboard was bareSo the poor little doggie had none

Origins of lyrics in British historyThe Old Mother Hubbard referred to in these nursery rhyme words and lyrics allude to the famous Cardinal Wolsey. Cardinal Wolsey was the most important politician and churchman of the Tudor history period in 16th century England. Cardinal Wolsey proved to be a faithful servant but displeased the King, Henry VIII, by failing to arrange the King's divorce from Queen Katherine of Aragon which would enable him to marry Anne Boleyn. The King was the "doggie" and the "bone" alludes to the divorce (and not money as many believe) The cupboard relates to the Catholic Church

Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?""I've been up to London to visit the Queen.""Pussycat, pussycat, what did you dare?""I frightened a little mouse under her chair""MEOWW!"

The origins of the nursery rhyme!The origins of this rhyme goes back to the history of 16th century Tudor England. One of the staff of Queen Elizabeth I had an old cat which tended to roam throughout one of her castles. On one occasion the cat went underneath the throne and the cat's tail brushed against the Queen's foot, startling her. But 'Good Queen Bess' had a sense of humour and declared that the cat may wander through the throne room on condition it kept it free of mice!

Tom Tom the pipers sonStole a pig and away he ran,The pig was eat and Tom was beatAnd Tom went roaring down the street.

Origins of a Scottish nursery rhyme?The words and lyrics of this nursery rhyme were not based on a person in Scottish history (pipers son). The term 'piper's son' could allude to any piper in the British army and the origins of this tale probably date back to the 18th century It is a children's nonsense rhyme which has an obvious moral. The imagery used in the phrase 'went roaring down the street' is very strong and would indicate to a child that Tom's punishment was severe!

The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts all on a summer's day;The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts and took them clean away.The King of Hearts called for the tarts and beat the Knave full soreThe Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts and vowed he'd steal no more.

The Queen of Hearts lyricsThe origins of the title the 'Queen of Hearts' can be found in the work of Lewis G. Carroll in his book entitled 'Alice in Wonderland' first published in 1805. In more recent history the term was used by Princess Diana during a famous interview as her preference to the title the Queen of Hearts to that of Queen of England.

No to Microsoft

Came across this amusing article on the Net- am sure there are more of them:)

http://microsoft.toddverbeek.com/