"The incredible banker" by Ravi Subramanian. The book is published by Rupa in 2011 and is 308 pages long. This is his 4th book.
Deepak and Karan are two mid level managers in Greater Boston Global Bank (GB2) in Mumbai. Karan has always performed better. When Deepak is moved to head audit and compliance, he takes his revenge by finding inexistent deficiencies in Karan's department with the help of Savitha, a young beautiful widow in Karan's team and other enemies of Karan. Karan quits the bank. Later Deepak become head of credit cards division. He is not able to achieve his monthly targets for two consecutive months and tipped by his new friend, referee, in attempt to meet impossible targets and be always ahead of competition makes a block deal with a company called Symbiotic technologies.
Later Deepak is arrested after referee is killed in a naxalite encounter. Karan who has now joined media makes biggest exposé of the year.
What is the exposé? Is Deepak involved or is he framed? Is this Karan's chance to get even? How do naxalites come into picture? What role does CBI play? Who is the mastermind behind it?
The central theme of the story is cut throat competition in banking industry leading to procedural lapses and frauds with the backdrop of naxalite movement.
The story is a bit slow in first half but picks up speed as it goes. Fictitious GB2 is Ravi's brainchild and appears in his subsequent books. Some of the characters like Karan & Kavya also appear in subsequent books. I could draw parallels between this book and Ravi's other book 'The Bankster' as far as the revelation of traitor and mastermind is concerned. I think author should have given better explanation about Karan's exit and why his management did not support him.
Ravi is a good story teller. The internal politics and rivalry in the banking industry. Misuse of position and power. Internal working of banking industry. Targets. Cut throat competition. Ravi paints a canvas of all this meticulously. Naxalite movement and how the banking system is milked by terror organizations is shown in great detail.
Ravi is called John Grisham of banking and he deserves it.
A very good book. Recommend reading.
I bought the book at Mumbai airport and started reading in the flight on my way back to Kolkata last evening. It was difficult to follow in the beginning since each new chapter seemed to start with a different storyline in a different context and time; Sometimes going back in time and sometimes going forward in time without a chronology. But gradually it all started to make sense and I could not help but finish reading all 300 pages to get to the end. A good tale set in the backdrop of high pressure corporate life in Banking; meeting sales targets; government regulations; professional rivalry; office politics; media and financing of terrorism by Maoists by money laundering. Overall it is a good value for the price!
ReplyDelete