Regular Sepia Mutiny commentor Santhosh Daniel points us at the decidedly less than flattering special report at the Seattle Times documenting the rise and fall of Infospace & it’s Rock Star CEO – Naveen Jain –

In spring 1999, Jain and his wife went on a house-shopping cruise around Lake Washington, docking at several multimillion-dollar mansions for sale. One home, owned by saxophonist Kenny G, had, among other touches, an automatic toilet-paper dispenser. The Jains preferred something different and latched onto a 1.3-acre Medina estate called Diamanti — Greek for diamond — buying it for $13 million. The mansion boasted 16,500 square feet of space and a two-story garage. The garage shared a glass wall with the house so the owner could display an auto collection.

If the stuff in the story is even half true, Naveen deserves lock up time that would make Martha Stewart’s 5 months seem like a quaint vacation. Continue reading →

McMansions in Bangalore powered by the Indian tech boom may now be topping the $200K mark. That’s ~$600K, adjusted for buying power. According to a woman from Portland now working in Bangalore:

… we went to visit two of my colleague’s new homes that are being built… I was shocked to see the model of the contemporary home; it looked like it came straight out of San Diego, Rancho Cucamonga area. It resembled a typical Southern California cookie cutter home. I was amazed to see that here. Those homes cost [Rs.] 1 crore… I cannot wait to see this place 10 year from now.

Bangalore is aping SoCal now? I’ve got some new tunes in my woofers. Bangalifornia… knows how to party. Just hit the east side of the IIT, on a mission tryin’ to find Mr. Varun-ji. Regulators! Stand down.

The NYT had more last year:

Snigdha Dhar sat in the echoing emptiness of her new home, her husband off at work, her 7-year-old son prattling on about Pizza Hut. The weather outside was California balmy. Children rode bicycles on wide smooth streets. Construction workers toiled on more villas like hers – white paint, red roofs, green lawns – and the community center’s three pools…

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DJ’s in Philadelphia are not alone in lobbing verbal assaults at Indian call center agents. Industry executives and analysts say abusive hate calls are commonplace, and a primary cause of workplace stress. The Washington Post reports:

Rohail Manzoor thought he had what it took to work in a telephone call center. All he had to do was pick up the phone and answer queries from American customers about their long-distance bills. He was armed with lessons on how to speak English like the Americans — adjust the r’s, say “zee” instead of “zed,” “mail” instead of “post.”

He even called himself “Jim,” and figured he would pretend to be an American customer service agent.

But nothing prepared him for the shower of curses that came his way when he picked up the phone one night on the job.

“‘You Indians suck!’ an American screamed on the phone,” recalled a soft-spoken Manzoor, 25. “He was using a lot of four-letter words, too. He called me names left, right and center.”

As a result, some call centers now offer classes on stress-management, meditation, breathing, yoga, and even how to be more American:

Industry watchers say some call centers have giant TV screens showing the weather in different U.S. cities, the scores from latest New York Knicks game or news about the latest play on Broadway. The agents use the information on the screen to make small talk with the caller and mask their location in India.

The training given to the call center aspirants not only involves diction, but also a crash course in American culture. Maneesh Ahooja, a voice and accent trainer for call center employees in Bombay, often makes them watch popular TV shows such as “Friends” and “Dharma and Greg.”

Obviously, part of the problem is with the training itself. After all, when was “Dharma and Greg” ever considered popular? And does anyone really ask about the score of the Knicks game? These days, isn’t it safe to assume that they’re losing? Of course, most of the problem, say executives, finds its source in American anger over outsourcing, and Jason Alexander.

The Washington Post: India call centers suffer storm of 4-letter words (Free registration required)

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