A little over a decade ago, India liberalized its formerly socialist economy. With the influx of foreign investment came foreign attitudes and culture. From For India’s Youth, New Money Fuels A Revolution:
Frederick Hamilton, a manager at Wipro Spectramind, India’s largest call-center company, says the father of a young female employee recently came to him with suspicions that she was secretly dating someone at the office. “He said, ‘Her values have changed, and I blame it on this business,’ ” recalls Mr. Hamilton. “Parents think they’ve brought up their children well, with conservative values — and a year later they come back hip.”Nikesh Soares, who worked at Wipro last year, was a “little gentleman” before he got into the call-center business a little over three years ago, according to his mother, Alisha. He wore button-down shirts and refused to wear sandals, even in Bombay’s sultry weather. He wouldn’t watch Hollywood movies because of all the “sex and smooching,” he says. He knew exactly the kind of woman he was going to marry: demure and old-fashioned.
Today, the 29-year-old Mr. Soares says, “The only thing that hasn’t changed is my haircut.”
His outlook began to change when he joined eFunds, a Bombay call center, in 2000. Each night, he answered calls from Americans responding to infomercials, selling them tummy crunchers, diet pills, miniature rotisseries and orthopedic insoles. The $220-a-month salary — more than double his wages at previous jobs — was a revelation, as was the company of fun-loving colleagues his own age.
Telling his mother he had to work late, he and his friends headed for all-night bars and drank until dawn before stumbling home for a few hours’ sleep. “Girls do it also,” he says. “They say they’re working when they’re actually out with their boyfriends.”
Mr. Soares married one of those girls, Sophia D’Souza, who sat in the next cubicle and didn’t hesitate to strike up a conversation. With an independent streak and a preference for jeans, she is neither demure nor old-fashioned. “My friends all say, ‘Nikesh, what happened? We thought you wanted someone traditional,’ ” he laughs.
In a culture where women rarely wear shorts or skirts above the knee, the work itself was an eye-opener. Mr. Soares and his future wife found themselves fielding calls from people who wanted to buy “Girls Gone Wild,” a hit video featuring scantily clad or topless young women frolicking on vacation. One night, a father called from the U.S. to buy the video as a birthday present for his college-age son, something Mr. Soares could never imagine an Indian parent doing.
Outside the office, it was a different world. When Mr. Soares picked up his wife on his motorbike at the end of the shift, sometimes the police stopped them and asked what they were doing out so late.