Visit Gurgaon, Noida (near Delhi) or Bangalore, Mumbai, India's call center hubs after midnight, and you will find long into the night the bars, pubs, discos pulsate with call center workers, young, usually single, unwinding after long, nerve-wracking shifts dealing with fractious British and American customers.
It’s 1:00am in Gurgaon and the mercury has started to drop. While migrant labourers working at a glass building get tipsy with desi liquor, BPO executives queue up at the back of a makeshift hut for Jack Daniels, MasterStroke , VAT 69, Johnnie Walker, Seagrams and Teacher’s just outside DLF Phase-II Cyber City in Gurgaon. In a hoarding on top of one such vend outside WNS, Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan exhorts BPO employees to “Play their MasterStroke!”.
The local vends selling the quarter pint for just Rs 30 also boast of an equal crowd, though at the back of the shop. The official downing of shutters of liquor vends happens at midnight. The unofficial one, never happens. Nearby the Convergys tower is another liquor shop. The shutter is down, but it opens slightly as you shout from outside. A rustic voice asks which brand you want.Link
Employers are trying to compensate for the monotonous nature of the work by implementing an casual, American-style college campus atmosphere. Après-shift drinking and partying is common.
Is there an end to it? What is police doing in the area? These vulnerable youths may land up in some troubles as well. It's impossible to believe that police have no clue about these 24*7 illegally open liquor shops.
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