Wednesday, July 13, 2005

An American in New Delhi

So yesterday, I was stuck on the tech support line, trying to switch from Prodigy.Net to SBC Global. Not that big a deal, all things considered; SBC/Yahoo owns Prodigy, so it was like going from Pizza Hut to Pepsico. Anyway, I'm on the phone, humming "I Like to Move It, Move it" to myself (Madagascar = funny movie) when "Kate" comes on the line. Nice lady, "Kate," very helpful about the whole switching thing, but her accent sounded like she could have fit in nicely as the Queen of the Lemurs in the aforementioned movie.

Well, there was a limit to her field of expertise, so she very kindly transferred me to another fellow named "John" or something to that effect. He answered my question very politely, another very friendly employee at that place SBC. I hung up satisfied, my questions fulfilled, and then it hit me: he had an East Texas drawl!

Now, there are several possibilities here, and taking out Occam's shaving kit we find that most likely SBC Global just happens to employ a person of Central Asian descent at their technical support center. A more liberal interpretation would allow that, in the course of being outsourced, an American moved to New Delhi and currently answers phones there. However, not being one to pass up a good conspiracy theory, I offer the following: savvy Indian graduates are taking voice lessons in an effort to appease the prejudices of Americans who by and large prefer hearing a redneck answer their tech questions to a "furinner."

Have a nice day.

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