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This book by Brinda S Narayan undoubtedly deserves a spot on the list of best thriller novels by Indian authors. It follows Vedika and her family, who move to a high-end gated society. She starts noticing something is off with her 5-year-old son. Before she can take him to a doctor, he dies in an accident. Vedika realizes that it might not have been an accident and as she investigates his death, she is faced with secrets from her past.

The story has all the elements needed to make it terrifyingly good. The non-linear narration that goes back and forth in between timelines, paints a vivid picture in your head. It leaves you craving for more. This clear-cut narrative is also why this could be made into a feature film that would surely have the audience on the edge of their seats.

In this lively and deeply telling collection, the author transports us into an Alice in Wonderland Bangalore call centre training session in which students learn broad – “a” American English, imagine American cities and don take-home American names. They create an offshore piece of America. Bangalore calling is more than a book; it is a powerful wake-up call to look sharp at the cultural core of global capitalism.

Entertaining and humane, Bangalore Calling is very much a book of our times. It is both a moving introduction to the strange world of the Bangalore call centre, and a reminder of the human and cultural costs of globalization.

The call centre industry has been in India for more than a decade, but it has taken us this long to fathom a decent book out of the experience. Brinda S. Narayan has done just that with an interlinked short story collection called Bangalore Calling. This is a book about how the new industry, born out of a need for the Western world to cut costs and offshore work to India, has externally affected the Indian landscape and internally affected the psyche of the Indian people.