I am in the middle of a beautiful island nestled in a green ocean. Sitting on the shores, I am watching the sun go down. Engulfed in the tranquillity of the atmosphere, I am enjoying every sip of my drink. The barbeque on the side smells of amazing food. As I immerse myself in the atmosphere my phone rings. Good Morning, Ma’m. I’m calling on behalf of blah blah bank and we are offering great home loans exclusively for you…..a female’s voice rambles off all that she had been taught during her training session while getting inducted at a call centre. Yes, before you go further, am back from my beautiful dream to this wild world where there is jarring music on car stereos, vehicles honking, neighbours fighting over a litter, and yes, cellphones ringing. Being a Tamil Brahmin Iyer, I am used to waking up to the smell of filter coffee and the hymns of Suprabhatham rendered by none other than the nightingale of India, M.S. Subhalakshmi. Well, things have not changed much today. The morning shlokas still remain an integral part of my life. Of course, I often begin my day either with a publicist trying to sell his or her client’s stories or to some random marketing calls like the one mentioned above only to pull me back to the real world. I pity all those call centre young boys and girls who are trained to make random calls to people only to get bantered over the phone. It is not their fault that they are calling you at the wrong time. How on earth are they supposed to know a good and a bad time? (I personally feel there is never a good time for such calls). But what is wrong with our friendly PR executives, who in many cases have been journalists themselves. No, am not a snooty journo shunning all the PR calls naming them irrational and desperate attempts to get stories for their clients. Last month, I received a mail from a PR firm selling me one of her top retail clients. She fixed up a telecom with the respective senior manager from the company for me. Everything was going smooth till I discovered that my colleague sitting right across my table has received a similar request from another executive of the same PR firm. She had a telecom fixed too with the same client. This wasn’t the end of the story. There was more to come. It surprised (or, rather shocked) both of us the next morning when we saw the same story appear in another financial newspaper. Talk about hard-selling.