From Shawn to Shibaji

The smell of new furniture, spic and span work stations, big colorful display boards, the brand name of a multinational company and above all the big money! These were what my sensory organs were sending to my brain as I walked inside the office of one of a startup BPO 7 years back.

As I anxiously waited for my interviews (I had 4 rounds), dreaming about the big world of a multinational company, the exposure, my eyes wandered across the workstations. Lines of desktops, fancy chairs, nice key boards but wait a minute, there is something else, on top of each and every monitor. I zoomed in on one of those hard paper based, hand written placards and read out to myself, “Chris” and then I wandered further, “Amanda…Nancy…Brad”.

“What’s that?” I asked one of the candidates who was waiting along with me.
“Oh! That’s your pseudo name, you have to change your name when you take calls because the westerners don’t understand our names well”, said the guy.

My name has been the most prized possession I ever had in my life, other than the certificates I won but they all had MY NAME written on them. That’s what I have been known for so many years!
“How can they expect me to change my name to some Brad, Alfred etc?” I protested internally!

As I was completing my post graduation in Public Relation I had plans to go into advertising. To manage my studies I worked as a student volunteer in an NGO, spreading awareness about our environment to the masses. My team would go to different schools and colleges. We would rule in the DTC buses as we moved around Delhi to do street plays at common public places like Cannaught place, India gate, PVR. I used to earn around 2000 – 2500 per month. Plus I had couple of tuitions so my monthly earning would be around 4 k and that was big money!!! I was rich with 4 k in my hand. I still remember the 25 p per glass of water, the sweltering summer heat (and cold) of Delhi! The Rs. 12/- lunch at the road side vendor, it was still fun!

“Shibaji”, came a loud voice across the waiting room and everyone looked at each other, trying to figure out who that lucky guy was, who has made it to the next round. I raised my hand.
“Please follow me”, said the sharp, well dressed, expression less lady. She was wearing a good perfume, must be expensive. I ofcourse didn’t know the brand.
“You have cleared all your rounds, the next round will be HR”, she said. With a full smile on my face, I was overjoyed as if I have made it through the Olympics qualifiers.

“I have to change my name”, echoed in my mind.

“So how much salary do you expect?” asked the HR manager.
“Hmmm…” I put up a stupid smile, “I haven’t worked in an organization like this before. I am sure you will offer me the best I deserve”. I blabbered something like that to her.

“Ok wait here”.

Again the long wait, the air condition, the trendy cafeteria but the hard paper placard, “Chris, Amanda…”.

“Congratulations!” exclaimed the HR lady as she handed over the offer letter to me, “Your CTC is 72,000 per annum, you will get pick up and drop to and from office, get coupons to spend in the cafeteria, insurance and other monetary benefits.

“Oh yes gold medal!”

Thus the journey started with the training and came the moment when we had to choose our pseudo names. My otherwise creative mind was so rebellious that it wasn’t throwing me any idea of a “good name”, my name is the best! Well it took a girl in my team to finally hand over an identity which I will follow for a long time. I didn’t rebel hard, she was too pretty.

“Six months and that’s it, no more than that of this”, was the thought.

“Thank you for calling customer care, this is Shawn, how may I assist you?” was what I started off my career in the BPO world. Initially it was either the meltdown of the rebellion or the anesthesia of the comfort I gathered. I am yet to figure out but the rebel would become less noisy day by day. Shawn was just like an unreserved passenger forcing himself in a reserved compartment asking me to adjust on my reserved seat on the assurance of traveling just to the next station. You would protest initially and then perhaps end up sharing your lunch.

Well, Shawn did get off the train after few years and Shibaji did share his lunch with him. It’s been almost 7 years in the same company for me and as the BPO world in India celebrates a decade of success, the memories are sweet. Thousands like me graduated to different roles. We became the face of the nation to the Europes and the Americas of the world. We were/are the young Indians making a mark in the business for a plentiful of fortune 500 companies. I have been to US thrice and lived for about 1.5 years cumulative and over the years I have seen the admiration for the Indian talent. It was the IT world where we reached the pinnacle and now it is the core business where we are making an impact. I am known by Shibaji or Shiva in the west and the idea of a pseudo name is alien.

As the industry graduated from transactional based work to high end analytics to business consultancy, it created assets worth millions for India and I regained my frozen asset, my name, Shibaji Das, an Indian and that’s how I am known to the world.

24-Dec-2007