WITH her flowing, hot-pink Indian suit, jangling silver bangles and perky voice, the last thing you would not picture Ms Bhumika Chaturvedi, 24, to be is a thuggish, heard-it-all-before debt collector.

But lately, she has had no problems making American debtors cry.

For the last three years, Ms Chaturvedi has been a top collection agent at her call centre outside New Delhi in India. Her job? To call hundreds of Americans a day and politely ask them to pay up their debts.

As the US financial crisis plunges Americans into debt, Ms Chaturvedi's business is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Indian outsourcing, reported The Washington Post.

It is also one of the few sectors of outsourcing in India that is still aggressively hiring.

Sitting in a narrow cubicle with her headset switched on, Ms Chaturvedi listens every night to increasingly disturbing tales of woe from the other side of the globe.

Recently, she called an American woman about a US$200 (S$295) credit-card debt, only to be met with a voice choked with emotion.

The weeping woman told Ms Chaturvedi in a Southern accent: 'My mortgage payments are just too high, honey. I just can't make the payment this month.

'I'm sure y'all heard about the credit crunch and gas prices. I'm flat broke.'

To which Ms Chaturvedi calmly replied: 'Ma'am, I am here to help you. Ma'am, maybe you could make a small payment, US$100 or US$50, anything that you can.'

Few places in India absorb and imitate US culture as much as call centres. There, ambitious young Indians with fake American accents spend hours calling people in Indiana or Maine to help troubleshoot software glitches, plan vacations or sell products.

The sub-culture of call centres tends to foster a cult of America, an over-the-top fantasy in which hopes and dreams are easily accomplished by people who live in a brand-name wonderland of high-paying jobs, big houses and luxury getaways.

But collection agents at Ms Chaturvedi's call centre are starting to see the flip side of that vision: A country crippled by debt and full of people scared of losing their jobs, their houses and their cars.

'It's like people are totally drowning,' said Mr Omkar Gadgil, 24, a former college maths major who now works as a debt collector. 'There has just been years of overspending and now the crash.'

Defeat

In the past, debt-ridden customers were often annoyed by Ms Chaturvedi's calls from the open-air office at Aegis BPO Services. But now, that anger has been overcome by depression and defeat.

Grown-ups have been reduced to tears over the phone, several agents said.

Under the pseudonym Carol Miller, Ms Chaturvedi, who can deftly work around the standard line, 'the check is in the mail', is now being challenged by clients throwing out new responses like, 'how do you expect me to pay? This is the worst crisis since the Great Depression.'

Ms Chaturvedi said she has never seen it so bad.

Many of the young employees say they are shocked at just how widespread the financial ruin appears to be.

But if there is a good thing that these call centre agents have learnt from talking to many anguished Americans, it is to live within their means.

Agents with credit cards are vowing to pay their bills every month, even during the holiday shopping season when malls feature ads for flat-screen TVs and air conditioners.

Let's hope the rest of the world learns this important lesson as well.

This article was first published in The New Paper on October 19, 2008.