Hindi by Default: A Growing Arrogance in Customer Calls

Hey all,

It’s been years since many of us have been receiving calls from banks and other institutions—mostly related to personal loans. In most of these calls, the executives start speaking in Hindi without even asking which language I’m comfortable with.

Even when I continue the conversation in English for some time, there’s no effort or courtesy to ask or switch to English unless I explicitly request it. And once I do ask them to speak in English, I can clearly see the struggle—which I agree should not be judged.

That said, the least they can do is ask for the customer’s preferred language before starting the conversation.

For context, yes, I’m South Indian. I speak Tulu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, and can communicate a bit in Tamil as well.

What concerns me is the growing arrogance around this assumption and how society seems to be quietly adapting to it.