| Disclaimer | vii |
| Preface | xv |
| Introduction | xvii |
CALL STORIES | 1 |
| Introduction to Call Stories | 3 |
| Going, Going, Gone! | 8 |
| En – ‘Gender’ed Species | 11 |
| Addicted to Rehabs | 13 |
| Dispatching the Dial Tone | 15 |
| Afterlife Insurance | 17 |
| Dawg | 19 |
| The Forex Expert | 21 |
| Cheque in | 23 |
| Ek se mera kya hoga! | 25 |
| Hanging Up | 27 |
| Into the Void of Monotony | 29 |
| Long Distance | 31 |
| The Tele-fan | 32 |
| Troubleshooting in the Dark | 35 |
| Predictive Insurance | 36 |
| The Illegal Customer | 38 |
| Misanthrope | 40 |
| Communal Termination | 42 |
| Fastidiousness Unlimited | 45 |
| Old Love | 46 |
| Microsoft’s Finest | 48 |
| Dr. Love | 49 |
| Wrong Number | 50 |
| The Christmas Gift | 52 |
| The Ghost of the Navigator’s Code | 55 |
| Meditating for the Signal | 56 |
| Kicking the Bucket | 59 |
| The Fax Story | 61 |
| Outsourcing the Police Station | 63 |
| No Pun Intended | 65 |
| The Overseas Police Complaint | 66 |
| The Loan Recovery | 68 |
| The Hinglish Call | 71 |
| Pet Trouble | 73 |
WORK STORIES | 75 |
| Introduction to Work Stories | 77 |
| A Tale of Many SMSs | 79 |
| The Fudger | 81 |
| He, She… It! | 82 |
| Assessment Skills | 85 |
| Shredding the Promotion | 87 |
| The Insider | 89 |
| The Go-in-between | 91 |
| Mile High and Dry | 94 |
| Graph Theory | 97 |
| ID Theft | 99 |
| The Beauty’s Beast | 101 |
| Protect Yourself, Use a Password | 103 |
| The Art of Politics | 106 |
| The Car Bomb | 108 |
| The Community Recruiter | 110 |
| Forwarding the Suicide Note | 112 |
| Crank Boomerang | 114 |
| Follow the Leader | 117 |
| Heartbreak Factory | 120 |
| Taming of the Shrew | 122 |
| The Neo-Raj | 125 |
| Desperado! | 129 |
| Don’t Like the Drugs but the Drugs Like Me! | 132 |
| Haath ko Aaya Muh na Laga | 134 |
| Dishwasher | 136 |
| Chori Chori Chupke Chupke | 137 |
| The Three Proposals Pact | 139 |
| The Stand-in | 142 |
| Clothes Maketh a Man | 144 |
| Fraud | 147 |
| Ignorance is Bliss | 149 |
| Manager, Conned | 152 |
| Terminator | 154 |
| Institutionalising the Scam | 156 |
| The Misfit | 159 |
| The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Telemarketers | 162 |
| What’s in a Name, After All? | 164 |
| The Sleeper | 166 |
| The Technophobe Techie | 167 |
TRAVEL STORIES | 169 |
| Introduction to Travel Stories | 171 |
| Payback | 174 |
| A Tragedy of Errors | 176 |
| Black Wednesday | 178 |
| The Cab Affair | 180 |
| Chasing the Wild Goose | 183 |
| A Tribute to Chanakya and Arthashastra : Foreign Travel,Corporate-craft and Control | 185 |
| Sleeping Beauty | 188 |
| Fast and Furious: On Demand | 192 |
| Making Out | 194 |
| Jet Leg! | 196 |
| Taxi Ride from Hell | 199 |
| The Chinese Bag | 202 |
| The Miser | 204 |
| The Outsourcing King | 206 |
| The Siege | 208 |
| Tit for Tat | 210 |
| Foreign Transport Policy | 213 |
| Foursome | 216 |
| You can Run, and also Hide | 219 |
| The Silence of the Employees | 222 |
HOME STORIES | 225 |
| Introduction to Home Stories | 227 |
| Seeing is Believing | 230 |
| Quid Pro Quo | 232 |
| Father of the Run-Away Bride | 235 |
| The BPO Smarty | 237 |
| The Bald and the Beautiful | 240 |
| Relatives’ Envy, Parents’ Pride | 242 |
| The Water Story | 244 |
| The ‘Normal’ Phone | 246 |
| Looking London, talking Tokyo | 248 |
| Living-in Peril | 250 |
| Yours Intoxicatedly | 252 |
STORIES OF WEEKEND/PARTIES | 255 |
| Introduction to Weekend/Parties | 257 |
| Partying with the Cops | 260 |
| My Hips Don’t Lie | 263 |
| Shalini’s Eleven | 265 |
| Stealing his Crush | 267 |
| The Food-napping | 269 |
| Getting Rid of Him | 273 |
| Reverse Ratings | 275 |
| Party on the House | 276 |
| The Revenge of Emily Rose | 281 |
| The Police Escort | 283 |
| Bend it Like Beckham | 285 |
| All in the Family | 287 |
| Much Ado About Nothing | 289 |
| The Bluetooth God | 291 |
| The BPO Marriage | 293 |
| The Indian-American | 295 |
| Imported Dude | 297 |
| God Save the (Land) Lord | 299 |
| Happy…and Gay! | 302 |
| Drag Queen | 304 |
SCAM STORIES | 307 |
| Introduction to Scam Stories | 309 |
| A Tale of Two Grandmothers | 314 |
| Hiccups | 316 |
| Smoker’s Anonymous | 318 |
| Love Marriage, Arranged | 320 |
| The Second Mobile Phone | 324 |
| Tripping on My Boss | 326 |
| What Goes Around Comes Around. | 329 |
| The Security Breach | 331 |
| The Devil Wears Prada | 334 |
| Subjecting my Boss to Extortion | 336 |
| Infected Desktop | 338 |
| Rupee Wise – Pound Foolish | 340 |
| Shocking Experience | 342 |
| Rendezvous with Vir Sanghvi | 347 |
| Male Periods | 349 |
| Pukefest | 351 |
| Smelly Story | 353 |
GENERAL STORIES | 355 |
| Introduction to General Stories | 357 |
| My Hundred Dollars an Hour Typist | 358 |
| Culture Shock | 359 |
| Balls | 361 |
| The Moonlighter | 362 |
| The Freelancer | 364 |
| Gang–Ho! | 366 |
| Gourmet Meets Gururaj | 368 |
| BPO Networking 101 | 371 |
| Package Deal | 374 |
| The Pursuit of Happiness | 375 |
| Acknowledgements | 377 |
| Glossary | 381 |
