Lesson 2: Shit Happens....Life happens

The thing that i really remember about my journey through the torturous night shifts was the obvious fatigue that gripped your mind, body and soul. After a long night shift which was often dragged by another 2 hours due to heavy call volume. The body used to be tired to the hilt. A stretched shift could drain out the will to live from your body. I remembered, sitting on the front porch, my mind refusing to work, my heart wishing to stop beating for a little while, eyelashes praying silently to drape over the reddened eyes. Add to that the other things that never stopped happening at the homefront. The continuos fights, and upheavel and the crying. (Had recently lost my father that had led me into joining the call centre in the first place.

I used to sit there and pray to god to let me give up. I remembered the tears that flowed in prayer from my eyes. A prayer to god to make me so weak that i would give up on life, stop the misery and reach out to my father who would take care of me. But i could not. Never could i GIVE UP ON LIFE. no matter how much i prayed, no matter how badly my body wished for complete silence, no matter how many times my heart cried for the peaceful sleep for it hurt with every heartbeat...my soul refused.

Nothing, my soul stayed free. And though it was shattered and tired, it was relentless and stayed with me. Through the moments when i was at the lowest in my life, my soul wished to touch the blue sky and take me with it. It stayed with me and I stayed on.

And after those moments, and the comfort of my bed when i woke up, i could hear my nephew giggling somewhere in the house and i realized...Shit happens....LIFE HAPPENS!!!

Lesson 1: Lights, phones and SMILE!!

Call Centres have taught me so much. But one thing that they kept up with was a smile. The only word that runs a mile they say. Hmm...
Well...It was more monotonous than anything i had ever done...so i used to think at that time. It was always the same, log on to the system, the Avaya, mark your attendence, check the connection, the notepad and all, take a deep breath, push the button and SMILE. It was always the same. But was it?

Was it only the BPO mantra for good CSAT? Was it a call centre way of conducting business?

I don't know. The other day, all tired and frustrated i waited at my seat, trying to make sense of some numbers that had nothing to say to me. It was just plain numbers, arranged in a haphazard manner, overwhelming my mind into the oblivion where all i wanted was to close my eyes and sleep a dreamless sleep. And then i remembered the front porch of Daksh and Hughes, my favorite spots, where i used to sit after my days shift, all tired and puffy eyed, wanting nothing more than a wink of a sleep. I could feel the same stress, the same anxiety to get out of the monotonous routine life was slowly setting into. I so wanted to get back to my own comfortable bed and work on my book i am writing. And then i did what was the first lesson of my days in the call centre, take a deep breath and SMILE.

And there it was, for some reason the pattern emerged. I could see the numbers dancing to my tunes. They were waiting for me to dissect them into trends and patterns, make some sense out of them.

It worked. And i knew, call centre taught me the most wonderful thing in this world. If you want to stretch your mind's horizon, flex your muscles and do a simple workout. Smile...and the world Smiles back at you.

One Night at a Call Centre.....NAH!!

I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog again. The one about Books has been rather neglected...but then...its for one purpose hence I decided that I needed another place to start talking.

And then I was wondering what is it that I want to share? Is it my life today? My past or what?

An inspiration stuck me like a bolt of lightning...my life and times in a Call Centre. I started seeing life from a different perspective..literally.
I had seen the world in the light of the day, seen life washed with bright sunlight. And then I saw it all drenched in a soft pale glow of the moon and I changed.

A twist in the road landed me on the doorsteps of Daksh eServices. 4th October 2002...what a day. All nervous...hardly 20 years old and a totally pampered spoilt brat. However there was a very different Kanika. This Kanika was totally low on confidence.

My first round was a quid pro quo. Then the second round. There, I was to be surprised. After the round, the woman said out my name and asked the rest of the 20 people to leave!!!!

Wow...what a trip. Anyhow, i got the job and joined on 7th Oct. 2002. My trip to office was as confusing as the world i was entering. What did i know about Call centres? Anyhow, I was there, all scared and lost. a part of me was dead. This was not what i had wanted out of life...yet there i was. Whether I liked it or not, I was working there. The first day was 9 to 5. Then, 3:30 in the morning!

But that day...or rather that morning i saw a pale moon, looking down at me with a soft glow and acknowledging me as a new entry into the midst of a family called the Call Centre Industry...

This blog will compare my life...and talk about all my journey from that very day...