Love on the Line

This post is split in two sections, the first is yet another short story, the second is the reality - the true story on which it was based.

The Fiction:  Love on the Line

Hasan Patel was born and raised in Dhaka in Bengal, India.  He worked in a call centre for a British telecoms company handling account enquiries.  He was relatively lucky to have a job that was comfortable for he knew people who had far worse jobs than he. the money was crap but he made a living that was all that mattered to him.  The call centre had a practice, that no employee used their real names, instead they had to have 'Anglicised' names or names that did anything but imply they were foreign to their customers.  Hasan got to pick his name and he chose the name Peter Bridges.  He quite liked the name and quite liked the idea of Britain as a whole.  He wanted to travel to London and see the sights, yet he would probably never be able to afford it.

He handled many calls, some were happy customers making silly enquiries of little importance but occasionally they got a 'screamer' - a customer that require you turn down the volume on the headset lest you go deaf for the tirade of abuse you were about to receive.  He'd heard it all before of course and didn't take much notice.  It doesn't take long working in a call centre before you realise that the call means a lot more to the customer than it does to you.  All you care about are your key performance indicators, the number of calls you get through having satisfied the customer.

On one particular day Hasan had a call from a young woman from London, who had recently been travelling around Ireland and had been charged roaming costs to her contract.  She was livid for the charges, she didn't think Ireland was 'foreign' and didn't justify the extortionate amounts it cost to phone home while she was there - she was only to happy to let Hasan become aware of this fact, and one might have thought everyone within a five mile radius would have heard her too.  Her name was Jenny and she had a set of lungs on her that could make any Italian Opera singer quiver.  Needless to say for the first half of the call Hasan's volume control was at near-mute listening only for when she would stop to draw breath.

After some time he managed to calm her down and agreed to reduce her bill but not to write off the costs entirely.  She eventually conceded after a long drawn out tirade of yet more abuse.  When she was calm yet again she told him it wasn't his fault but didn't but didn't apologise for the abuse.  They spoke a while longer and she took a liking to his voice and asked him where he was exactly, he lied and told her he was in the UK, he didn't know if she believed him or not but either way, she asked him for his number but he refused stating company policy forbid exchanging personal details - which it did, despite this she decided she didn't want to leave it like that so she gave him her email address.  He could not write it down but it was easily remembered.

A few hours later while on lunch break he sat staring at the computer screen in contemplation, he hesitated but then gave in.  He set up an email account in the UK with his name Peter Bridges and sent her an email.  He didn't expect it to go any further.  Over the coming weeks they shared many things by email and eventually he told her the truth about where he was and how he lived.  She didn't reply for a few days but eventually he checked his email in hope one day to find a single email in his inbox, it was from her.  They continued talking, yet more weeks passed and as things came to a head she asked if he would mind if she came to Dhaka to visit him, knowing he would not be able to go to the UK to visit her.

They spent two weeks together in Dhaka, his days spent at work his nights with her and weekends together.  His feelings for her grew stronger.  She flew back to the UK and they stayed in touch, sharing emails, talking over the internet as he visit internet cafés in his spare time.  She came back to Dhaka once again to visit him and since he had let her come and go once before without sharing how he really felt he let her know his true feelings.  She was not surprised and she felt the same.  Over the next few months a lot of things passed but in the end Jenny paid for flights for Hasan to come to London, he applied for a visa and he stayed with her.  He found a job, in a call centre in the UK.  You might think that is odd but it was all he knew, he was certainly experienced and he knew exactly how to handle people.  The money was a bonus too, he was paid ten times his weekly wage in Dhaka per hour for the same work and he was in London the city he had longed to visit and most importantly he was with Jenny, the girl he loved.  They got married, he gained a wife and in the process citizenship to the UK - he would never again have to leave the girl he loved and he would never have to leave him.


The Reality:  When Sally met Duncan

If you are my friend on facebook you may have seen this story before, when it actually happened: [names are changed for anonymity of course]

A friend of mine knows a girl who shall we say is a little eccentric, but in all is a typical Norn Iron girl, up for a laugh and give anything a go.  Despite her good nature she has a mean streak too and woe betide anyone who in her eyes should be taking "liberties" or putting her in any position where she feels used for she won't be long in letting you know how she really feels and she's quick to throw a punch - yes I assure you girls can throw a punch and you certainly wouldn't want to be on the end of hers.  One day her phone bill came in, being on contract there is always the risk that it could be higher than you expect and on this occasion it was.  She was livid and as she called the company all the "robbing bastards" of the day she got on the phone to them and got put through to a call centre in Liverpool.

She was put through to a guy named Duncan and after berating the poor boy on the phone for near half an hour she finally let him speak and in his discretion he managed to get her bill cut in half.  That should have been the end of the call but it wasn't she kept talking, because she liked the sound of his voice.  So she said it was nothing personal, he said it was all the same to him he would feel the same, the phone call went on and ended with the two exchanging their numbers.  Yea you read that right she got the number of a guy in a call centre she didn't know anything about other than the fact that she liked his voice.

They text, called and over the next few months they developed a liking for each other, eventually she booked flights to Liverpool to visit him, and he did the same to visit her, a few trips back and forth and she eventually moved to Liverpool to be with him.  They are now married they live together and I think she was pregnant last time I heard, the baby would be born by now I reckon.  So yea, if you think the story of the guy and girl who met through a call centre is unbelievable, it's actually true so go figure - truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.