Don't tell the governor by Ravi Subramanian

"Don't tell the governor" by Ravi Subramanian -  Emulsion of fact and fiction!

This book was published by HarperCollins India in 2018 and has 312 pages. 

A beautiful Bollywood starlet wins a reality show in UK. Panama papers are leaked naming many influential persons and firms including British company, Le Da Spire, that is in the business of printing currency for 140 countries. A van that runs off the cliff on Nepal border is found with a chaste full of cash. New government in India chooses an Indian academician working in America Aditya Kesavan for the post of Governor of RBI.

What moves will Aditya make? Will he engage in tussle with government for the autonomy of RBI?  What is the angle of Le Da Spire, cash and Ponzi scheme? 'Don't tell the Governor' what?

Author has developed a complex and intricate plot. He juggles a number of balls in the air without dropping any of them. With so many balls in the air, there is a danger that the book becomes lengthy. But author has done a good job of making it crisp by limiting the pages to around 300+. 

Author uses real events that happened in past (e.g Panama papers,  massive recapitalization of banks, 80:20 scheme for gold imports, PNB LOU fraud, hijacking of Air India flight to Kandahar, note bandi etc.) and blends them with fiction. He strings these events seamlessly into the thread of money, to create this story. If the readers are not aware of the events, they won't be able to separate fact from fiction. I too had to check back once or twice. 

For this intricate plot, characters also must be intricate.Vicky Malhotra and Mehul Modi are the businessmen who worship only money.  Pallavi Soni knows how to survive in Bollywood but has no clue of business dealings. Fixer cum lobbyist Danish Khosla works for many masters, but who is he loyal to? Finance minister Siddharth Pande wants to give directives to RBI. Prime minister is an astute politician who kills many birds with every stone. Aaditya is a genius in his field but also has a weakness for beautiful ladies. 

The real question this book asks is what should be the autonomy of RBI and it's governor? How much should government interfere? This is an iternal battle fought by RBI governors with governments. With the recent resignation of Governor of RBI, after this book was released, this issue has become even more relevant. This book addresses the issue of under reporting of NPA 's (Non performing assets) by the bank thereby giving higher profitability and rosy picture. This is a bomb waiting to explode. 

Although author has a standard disclaimer, a number of characters have an uncanny resemblance with real life characters, their names are also very similar. 

All in all a good book that blends facts with fiction to create an emulsion. 

Why did I read this book? Author. 

What I didn't like? Editing, especially sequencing. 

What did I like? Handling. Fact fiction blend.  

A must read.