Duex ex Machina with reference to One Night @ The Call Center and Symbolic Significance of it

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Name: Ranjan P. Velari

Class: M.A. Sem. 4

Paper No: 13 (The New Literatures)

Enrollment No: 14101032

Email Id: ranjanvelari@gmail.com

Topic: Duex ex Machina with reference to One Night @ The Call Center and Symbolic Significance of it.

Guidance: Dr. Dilip Barad

Submitted to: Smt.S.B. Gardi     

                                Department of English

                               Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Duex ex Machina with reference to One Night @ The Call Center and Symbolic Significance of it.

Introduction of the Novel:

  One Night @ The Call Center is novel written by Chetan Bhagat in 2005. Genre of this novel is fiction. Protagonist of the novel is Shyam and Vroom. Shyam who narrates the whole story. First person narrator is Shyam and through his perspective story goes on and author’s perspective is also same. Major characters are Shyam, Vroom, Military Uncle, Esha, Radhika and Priyanka. They all are working in call center. Plot mover of the novel is Call from God. All characters are faces some kind of the problems and they once time meet with an accident.  Suddenly God comes and give answers of their solution. Here we can find that to living a life some kind of moral support is necessary.

   

Introduction of the Writer:

  Chetan Bhagat is an Indian author, columnist, screen writer, and speaker. Bhagat writes columns for popular English and Hindi Newspapers, including The Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar.

His Bestselling Novels:

§  Five Point Someone (2004)

§  One Night @ the Call Center (2005)

§  The Three Mistakes of My Life (2008)

§  2 States (2009)

§  Revolution 2020 (2011)

§  What Young India Wants (2012)

§  Half Girlfriend (2014)

Meaning of Duex ex Machina:

  Duex ex Machina it means “God from the machine”. The term has evolved to mean a ploy devise whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object. Depending on how it is done, it can be intended to move the story forward when the writer has "painted himself into a corner" and sees no other way out, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or as a comedic device.

 Major Characters and their Problems:

  In this novel six characters are major, Military Uncle, Shyam, Vroom, Priyanka, Radhika and Esha. One invisible character is God and through his all the problems are solved. Every character has their own problems. All of them are working in a same different group in a call center. They all are different from each other but they have a similarity in them that all of them are fed up with their lives are very messy.  This story is about a night at the call center which changes the lives of all the people, not lives actually it changes their way of thinking. It changes their way to deal with the problems of their lives.

§  Shyam Mehra is the narrator of the story and is the main character of the story. He is very much confused in his life. He is a very simple boy. He loves Priyanka who has got engaged with Ganesh an NRI boy. He is sad because of it and second thing is that his boss has cheated him and Vroom.

§  Varun (Vroom) is a friend of Shyam and does not want to do the job but he wants to keep up his standard up so he has to work there.

§  Priyanka, her mother wants her to marry Ganesh next month but she does not want. She still feels something for Shyam. Later on Shyam tell her about the baldness of Ganesh who hide this from her.

§  Esha Singh or Eliza is an ambitious girl who wants to become a model. She runs away from house and join call center in order to fulfill her dreams. She does many compromises. But she is bluffed by a man who said her that she is not suitable for being a model. Her life represents the ambitious middle class youth who are running after blind race of materialism.

§  Radhika- call name is Regima Jones. She is married but not happy with her mother in law. She loves her husband a lot but when she comes to know that on a radio program he selects another girl over her at that time she gets very upset.

§  Military Uncle is the oldest person in call center but he is living a lonely life. His heart cries for his grandson but he gets more upset when his grandson asks him to stop mailing him.

§  In this way everyone in the call center is fed up with their life but one day at night everyone receives a call from God. God motivates everyone and tells the way to handle their problems. He tells them not to get frustrated by problems. He suggests them to face the problems and to do 100% of efforts. After receiving the call the life of everyone is changed. Everyone starts facing the problem with full of courage and finds out the best solution. Shyam finally gets his love. Priyanka also refuses to get marry to Ganesh who hide his baldness. Esha starts working for NGOs. Military Uncle also gets his family back at the end.   

§  When call of God comes at that time he said that there are four things a person needs for success. One is a medium amount of intelligence. Second is a bit of imagination third is confidence and the fourth ingredient is the most painful one. And it is something all of you still need to learn, and it is failure. To be really successful, you must face failure. You have to experience it, feel it, taste it, softer it. Only then can you shine.

Duex ex Machina in One Night @ the Call Center:

  Call from the God represents Duex ex Machina. Author puts this kind of matter because it is necessary for the story. But question arises when some people don’t believe in God that’s why writer puts another option for it. May be it happens that the voice from call is not God but it is the voice of Military Uncle. So, God used as some kind of medium and through it proper message conveyed and these all characters begins their new life with new thoughts. To convince reader some kind of object plays a vital role. Here also God used as a machine or tool to conveyed some kind of positive message. At the end all characters lived happy life with their attitude.

Symbolic Significance of Duex ex Machina:

  When no other ways to open the story at that time some magical or mysterious things are necessary. When earlier dramas happen at that time also some “Aakaskvani” happens and through it God give some kind of boon. Same story also we can see here that Chetan Bhagat puts and gives unimaginable turn to the novel. It is impossible that without battery mobile is working. Though it is working and they heard voice also. So, God is some kind of archetypal symbol who represents great figure for the story. When writer puts this kind of image of God then people believes are increases.

Conclusion:

  In this way the story of One Night at the Call Center is based on facts and fiction. The characters are taken from the real life. They represent the problem of middle class Indians. The story denotes the six different problems of six different people. Priyanka represent the girl in India who has to follow the decision of parents at the matter of marriage. God gives the solution to it and tells her to believe in herself. Military Uncle also represents old people who are ditched by the family and it is a common and a serious problem in society. At the end he also gets family back.

Works Cited

Bhagat, Chetan. One Night @ the Call Center. n.d.

Bhagat, Wikipedia of Chetan.

http://gyandaata.com/notes/english-literature/summary-of-one-night-at-call-centre/.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina.