The BPO Story (Season One)

Story-The BPO Story

The BPO Story (Season One)

The morning Akash Mahajan left for America, his younger brother Prithvi stood outside the airport, waving to his brother till he could no longer spot him in the sea of international travellers heading to their destinations.

The year is nineteen eighty-four.

The brothers had made a pact-Akash would chase opportunity abroad while Prithvi would keep their ageing parents comfortable and the family hardware business afloat.

They were two sides of the same coin: Akash the dreamer, and Prithvi the dutiful son.

Akash and Prithvi grew up in a rented one-bedroom flat in West Delhi. They grew up watching and learning from their father's stern pragmatism and their mother's quiet creativity. Their father, Surendra Mahajan, who ran a small hardware store, had clawed his way up from poverty and demanded academic excellence and practical pursuits. In the rare moments where he expressed any kind of love, it was through high expectations from his sons rather than words of affection.

Their mother, Kiran Mahajan, who taught art part-time at a neighbourhood primary school, earned little for her efforts but treasured the connection to creativity she had nearly abandoned after marriage. The meagre salary she brought home was her way of contributing to the family's finances. But the real value was in how those few hours in the classroom kept her spirit alive. At home, she found small ways to nurture the imagination in her sons-bedtime stories whispered after their father fell asleep, secret trips to art exhibitions on Saturday afternoons, bright fabric scraps smuggled home for crafts projects. SCREENWRITERS

Though it was their father who was a strong character, it was their mother who had a lasting impact on the two brothers. They watched their mother keep her dream of being an artist alive even if life had other plans for her. She found happiness by making the best of what she had but she never completely let go of her dream. This taught them that dreams are important and you have to fight to stay connected to your dreams.

The brothers were poles apart. The younger brother, Prithvi, absorbed their father's lessons readily, finding comfort in structure and validation in achievement. He excelled in mathematics and science, dutifully joining cricket clubs and debate teams that might bolster future university applications. Akash, however, was their mother's son through and through. He would lose himself for hours sketching in hidden notebooks, collecting stray objects from the street to create elaborate imaginary worlds, and staring out windows during study time, his mind wandering to places far beyond their cramped flat.

When their father's disappointment manifested in quiet sighs or sharp reprimands, it was Prithvi who would cover for his brother, completing Akash's homework after bedtime or creating practical justifications for Akash's artistic diversions.

Story-The BPO Story

Ironically, it was Akash who secured the coveted position in Silicon Valley. Luck favours those who are in the right place at the right time. And that is what happened to Akash. It was because of Prithvi's technical brilliance that everyone had expected his to be the one to land a plush job in a big company. But when opportunity knocked on Akash's door, Prithvi stepped back graciously, immediately understanding that Akash's growth would be his growth too. After all, the hardware store could not be abandoned.

Even after completing his BA, Akash could not get a job that suited him. His BA degree was anyway a compromise his parents had reluctantly accepted after his mediocre engineering entrance exam scores.

Bored with life and everything it had to offer, Akash hears about a science competition that is being run by an American university. He picks up the flyer for Prithvi but Prithvi couldn't find the time away from his studies to focus on an extracurricular competition.

Intrigued by the opportunity, Akash's creative mind gets churning. Akash creates an innovative layout for a user manual that simplifies complex computer operations for the average person. Years of sitting next to Prithvi working on his computer science degree gave Akash an insight into how inaccessible computer science was. He would hear Prithvi talk about how computers are the future for everyone. But Akash was sceptical. If computers can only be used by someone with a technical degree, how can they become the future for all?

With this thought in mind, he designed a creative user manual with illustrations and text that was simple and easy to use. His clean illustrations and intuitive instructional flow caught the attention of an American computer manufacturer's representative visiting India on a market expansion trip. The American representative - an American Indian who takes great pride in taking Indians to America to live the American dream - recognises that while engineers focused on technical specifications, Akash's approach to making technology accessible to non-technical users could have a great impact on a growing market need as personal computers began entering homes and small businesses across America.

Prithvi had watched with a mixture of pride and bewilderment as his dreamer brother packed his bags for America. Akash was first hired as a technical documentation specialist but was quickly promoted to the product design team.

Akash is too far away to witness the changes but Prithvi sees how things are home are changing over the years. The family dynamics shift dramatically: their father, initially disappointed by Akash's rejection of engineering, now boasted to relatives about his son working for an American computer company. When their mother is sad about Akash being so far away, Prithvi explains to her that Akash carried with him both the artistic sensibility his mother had nurtured and the pragmatic work ethic his father had demanded.

In America, Akash's early years pass in a blur of fourteen-hour workdays at a mid-level telecommunications company in New Jersey. His technical knowledge and willingness to work harder than anyone else catches the attention of his superiors.