A window into the real world where things are hardly starry like a song.
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Blog: Inside, Looking Out
By Ushoshi Mookerjee
PHILADELPHIA: For most students, summer break swoops like an over-confident hero, taking its time to rescue victims, exposed to monstrous piles of books and papers. The liberation, then, allows balmy summer mornings and warm, saline evening breezes to seep into the scene. But tell me, how does sitting in a bland cubicle with gray upholstered dividers translate into a summer idyll?
As a junior, I was warned to tearful boredom by school teachers about the pressures of college tuition fees that my hapless parents would be subjected to. The monthly loan bills, the cost of supplies, and the money spent on transportation were all explained in detail. No less than $25,000 for state schools and $40,000 for relatively lower end private schools which constituted tuition fees alone.
As the cost of college mounts today, with student loan interests rising to 6.8 percent from July 1, 2013, I was forced to consider the part where I contributed. So, weighed down by a guilty conscience imposed upon by the school authorities, I swiftly took up a job as a telemarketer.
My family grimaced and presaged in no uncertain terms about the tribulations that the job would endow, but I was adamant. Not, particularly for the noble purposes of weathering responsibility, but for a harbored yearning for a new bike.
I was quite wary that the job would challenge my equanimity and amiability as telemarketers are not exactly revered in the same light as “royalty.” The ardent salespeople are known to create nuisances for people with the least interest in the product. Still, they are reputed to rally on with a chirpy tone especially during a peaceful afternoon siesta, enraging, perhaps, the seemingly pristine artist about the “finer points” of a certain credit card.
Although it is no well-kept secret that telemarketing is synonymous with harassment, I have to confess I was excited to work. And to my delight, there were simple joys interlaced.
For instance, I was kept on hold by a company receptionist in Sacramento. I knew that after the call exceeded its second minute, the line would hardly result in any assistance. However, the answering tone played songs from the 60’s, keeping me enchanted and on the line a little longer. The lyrics, Just the way things are / Can be reflected in a star, didn’t exactly corroborate with my surroundings, but rather unexpectedly enmeshed my little cubicle into Van Gogh’s Starry Night by a daring leap of imagination.
Telemarketing also gave me a peek into different cultures. I was able to communicate with people in countries around the world, including China, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. This awareness evoked a sense of exhilaration, excitement, and an immense desire to explore many cultures.
I recall phoning a large company in the southwestern part of Switzerland. Listening to the rich Dutch accent, I was transported into a land of emerald green pastures and icy blue lakes hemming the glorious Swiss Alps. Suddenly, the receptionist interrupted my vision, but her music-like voice made me feel I’d found my long lost friend. But ahh, the moment was short-lived for she put me on hold.
So how did you react the last time a telemarketer rang up your household? For most, irritation prevails and I have been guilty of it too. But have you ever thought what it would be like to be on the opposite line? What if your livelihood was staked on it? No matter how robotic they may sound, telemarketers are performing important jobs that target company size and profit.
As I conducted my calling routine to various companies, most responses were decent, but a few snarled like irate Rottweilers or simply hung up. Although these incidents can be classified into the drawbacks of the job, it helped me to develop armor. It provided a window into the real world where things are hardly starry like a song.
So this is how the summer proceeds: a bit of sunshine and rain. Through it all, just as the blue sky envelops the world, the phones calls link me to countless lives across the gigantic globe, each throbbing with its own story. While I ponder on the other end about lives untouched…
(Ushoshi Mookerjee is a high school junior and the managing editor of her school newspaper. For two consecutive years, she won the first prize in poetry at Young Poets of Delaware County Poetry Competition in Pennsylvania, the 2012 Carol Ann Robertson Award given by Desales University High School Poetry Festival, and the first prize at Annenberg/Philadelphia Inquirer Journalism Competition, 2013. Her hobbies include sewing clothes and biking.)
To contact the author, e-mail: editor@americanbazaaronline.com