SEX LIFE OF CALL CENTRE WORKERS FASCINATES INDIA

The archbishop of Bangalore does not think the city's legions of call
centre workers are going straight to hell.

But he, like many in conservative India, is worried that the young
men and women working the phones at night may be engaging in
unsaintly bouts of sex and drug-taking.

While Westerners may vilify India's call centre workers for stealing
their jobs, conservatives at home worry the young employees -- who
mostly work overnight and earn far more than earlier generations --
are helping themselves to an alien set of Western values.

"Many have told me they have spiritual problems," said Bernard Moras,
the most senior Catholic in a city of more than half a million Christians.

"Girls will come to me saying, 'I have been friends with a boy, I
have misbehaved, I feel perturbed in heart and mind'," he delicately added.

The Indian media has helped fuel the call centres' "Sodom and
Gomorrah" reputation with stories of used condoms blocking call
centre toilet drains and drug taking during night-shifts.

It suggests this behaviour is the inevitable consequence of young
people working the night-shift to deal with customers in the West,
even if it's to discuss staid topics such as the customer's mortgage
repayment or why the printer won't print.

Call centres have been a powerful catalyst for a blossoming youth
culture in India by giving large numbers of young Indians the
financial means to live away from the disapproving glares of their
elders and to enjoy cafes, malls and bars that did not exist a generation ago.

Their paypackets of up to 20,000 rupees (234 pounds) a month are ten
times higher than the national average monthly salary.

"Call centres are now seen as red-light districts," said
anthropologist Shiv Visvanathan. "Even the name 'call centre' evokes
call girls".

But despite their increasing independence, call-centre workers say
media reports of the death of Indian conservative values in Bangalore
may have been greatly exaggerated.

HEADBANGING

An almost impenetrable barricade of parked motorbikes blocks the
entrance to Purple Haze, one of the many Bangalore bars brimming at
the weekend with outsourcing and IT industry workers.

Inside young men in grungy clothes headbang to hard rock.

Vicky, whooping along to music videos blaring overhead, is one of an
estimated 415,000 people working in call centres outsourced to India
from the West to deal with mundane issues such as utility payments
and credit card bills.

"Everything is exaggerated by the media," he said, sipping whisky.
"In India, people still have respect for Indian values."

At 26, he is by no means the only guy in the bar who believes it is
wrong to have sex before marriage -- certainly he says he held off
until his wedding a couple of months back.

Friends Rizvan Khan, 28, and Kshama, 27, agree that though their
parents are often out of sight, they are rarely out of mind.

"We do look up to our elders. They are the decision makers for us,"
said Rizvan, wearing a loose brown leather jacket.

Rizvan and Kshama, both journalism graduates, say their call centre
- -- one of India's top five -- is a place of diligent career
advancement, and hedonists would not like it.

"It's not partying all the time. I mean you're too tired after
working all night," said Kshama.

They, like Vickram, believe it is their generation that has struck
the perfect balance between the genteel values of Old India and the
looser mores common in the West.

"India is about 50 years behind," said Rizvan, who admits the tide
might be turning.

"In the U.S., kids have affairs before marrying but here it's seen as
a sin. But that's changing now," he added ruefully.

ELDERS ARE JEALOUS

Some of his peers are already further along the road to becoming
Westernised, preferring to keep their quasi-American accents and
mannerisms after their shifts have ended.

Exact numbers are hard to get, but chats with call centre workers
suggest a small minority swallow illegal Ecstasy pills and go out
raving. Smoking cannabis during cigarette breaks is fairly common
among male employees.

And, naturally, not everyone believes that abstaining from premarital
sex is sacrosanct.

Still, Pradeep Narayanan, executive director at the hangar-sized 24/7
Customer call centre, is proud of the role such companies are playing
in India's liberalisation, even if he says the local press
exaggerates worker antics.

He randomly tests his employees for drug use and has fired a few who
tested positive. But many are more straight-laced. A group of workers
even formed an in-house Christian gospel band.

"I think the people that complain are the older generation that
missed out on this," Narayanan said.