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Organising your life via India.....American style

It's an all too familiar thing......the almost now ubiquitous call from someone in India offering something or other. Then, too, call your so-called "local" credit card company or bank and you are as likely to end up speaking with someone in Bangalore or elsewhere in India.

Now, a twist to outsourcing......Americans having their lives "organised" by someone in India - as Spiegel International reports:

"Stressed-out Americans are now having their day-to-day lives organized by assistants in Asia. From tutoring to restaurant reservations, call centers half way around the world are taking care of their every need.

When asked to describe his new life, Michael Levy goes into rhapsodies. "You become lazy," he says. "It's just wonderful."

Up until this summer, the 42-year-old led a normal middle-class life in New York, working as a lawyer for the Department of Justice. Lately, though, he's had an entire staff at his disposal, who take care of his personal life around the clock.

Take, for example, a recent situation in Las Vegas, where Levy was holding his bachelor party. Sitting at the poker table with friends, he didn't feel like discussing the room arrangements personally with the hotel reception. "Please call and tell them to put an extra bed in room 21057," he instructed his assistant by e-mail via his Blackberry. Personal secretaries also arranged bridal shop appointments for Levy's fiancée before the wedding, and organized tuxedo rental for the guests.

Levy's personal staff is deft, friendly, and helpful -- and unbeatably cheap. The entire telephone service costs a mere $29 (€20) a month -- because the service is provided by a call center located in India and operated by the New York-based company

Globalization may still be a dirty word in the United States, where it is a synonym for downsized jobs and cheap production in the Far East. But lately middle-class Americans have also been discovering the advantages of globalization for their private lives. It turns out that the outsourcing much beloved by companies can work for personal households too. And, thanks to the Internet, the possibilities are practically limitless".

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