Bestseller she wrote by Ravi Subramanian

"Bestseller she wrote" by Ravi Subramanian. This book is published by Westland in Oct 2015 and has 372 pages. This is author's 8th book.

Aditya Kapoor, an alumnus of IIM Bangalore (IIMB), is a banker and a very successful fiction author with four bestsellers to his credit. Shreya, a final year student of IIMB, first challenges and then is impressed by Aditya. Her ambition is to write a best seller. She joins Aditya's bank as GT.

Can she meet Aditya? Will she patch up? Would he take her as his protégé? Is she a good writer? Will she write a best seller? What would be the cost?

Characterization, in this book, is good. Shreya is portrayed as a brilliant girl who would do anything to get what she wants including flirting, sex, threats, opportunism, blackmail etc. Aaditya is a big shot author who drools after Shreya. He is also a very successful banker. He loves his wife and son and becomes helpless against Shreya's machinations. But he is honest. Maya is torn between her hate of Aaditya for adultery and her love for a lot of other things. Characters of Sanjay, Diana and Sunaina are play the supporting cast.

Ravi is known for his banking thrillers. He has started to distance himself from 'banking' from his book 'Bankrrupt'. Although he has not been able to severe the banking connection completely in this book, this book confirms Ravi's departure from banking thrillers. Aaditya could have been working in any office instead of a bank and it would have made no difference to the story.

On this book he has used the world of fiction writing and book publishing as the theme and he has made good use of it. Author introduces us to this new world and tricks used by different players in the trade.

The story is good. It sashays between love story, adultery, family drama to suspense. The story slows down in the second part of second half but picks up in the climax and ends on a high note.

Ravi has delivered another best seller. Five of his books have won awards. He proves his skills once again.

A good book. Recommend reading.

I bought the Monks Ferrari by Ravi Subramanian

"I bought the Monks Ferrari" by Ravi Subramanian. This book is published by Rupa & Co in Mar 2007 and has 174 pages.

Ravi is known for his fictions. However this book falls in non fiction genre. It's a motivational cum management cum self help book. The title has obvious reference to Robin Sharma's 'The Monk who sold his Ferrari'. Going by name this book should be a sequel to Robin's, but in reality it could be a prequel.

In this book Ferrari is a symbol of all that is best, all that is desired and all that everyone doesn't get. In first section he tells his story where he longed for a Ferrari. In the second section he lays down ten commandments to achieve the goal. In the final section he explains what is a Ferrari. The book ends with two poems and a final anecdote from his life.

A few quotes of Ravi, that I liked are:
In order to give up something you first need to possess it.
This book is about achieving success at your own terms.
Aim for the stars and reach them.
The Ferrari is a dream... a desire.... a passion.
Work-life balance is nothing more than just an idle topic for café gossip.
The Ferrari can be yours only if you are absolutely unwilling to compromise on integrity and ethics.
Work expands itself to completely fill in the available time.

His ten commandments are:
To acquire a Ferrari you need to aspire.
A positive frame of mind will surely get you closer to your Ferrari.
Be the winner, not the wimp.
Set and follow the highest standard of integrity in your personal and professional life.
Value your own time and that of others.
Earning the Ferrari is all about constantly upgrading yourself, improving your skill sets and equipping yourself for the future.
If you are in the company of successful people their success will rub off on you.
Share your success with others.
Remain fighting fit and be in perfect shape.
Target your audience and announce your achievements.

Ravi has written this book with small incidents in his personal life and anecdotes from the lives of other successful people (Naina Lal Kidwai, Jayakumar, Raj Khosla, Tony Singh, Graham Thorpe etc..) Since he comes from banking industry, most of these personalities, though not all, are from banking.

He has also used a couple of fables to make his point. The book is also laced with quotations from various known and unknown personalities. These things make the book more like a dialogue than a sermon and thus more readable.

Ravi is especially severe on the concept of work life balance. He says if you are thinking of work life balance, you will never own a Ferrari.

As for the ten commandments, although all of them are important, they could well have been seven or eight. Did he expand them to make 'Ten commandments'? Just for the sound of it?

It was after a while that I read this genre and enjoyed it. The book is not lengthy and that makes it crisp.

Good book. Recommend reading.

God is a gamer by Ravi Subramanian

"God is a gamer" by Ravi Subramanian. This book is published by Penguin in 2014 and has 310 pages. This is Ravi's sixth book.

Many stories run in parallel. An influential US senator is assassinated. Credit cards of New York bank are compromised. BPO processing the outsourcing of card transactions is hacked. An internet website selling narcotics is investigated, but no one knows where it is operated from. Bitcoins is used as currency. President of New York bank India operations commits suicide. FBI and CBI start investigations. An online game goes viral on Facebook.

Are these seemingly unrelated incidents actually related? What is the Bitcoin angle? How is the bank involved? Why is US President interested?

Ravi is a master of banking thrillers. Here he has woven a thriller around Bitcoins with banking as background. Since Bitcoins is a virtual and unregulated currency, it's use for  illegal transactions is used as the central theme. Author has a knack of story telling.

Peculiarity of this book is that author has used the persons and companies in real life in this book. Obama, Facebook, Bitcoins, Sony etc appear in the story. Instead of his favorite Great Boston bank, it's the New York bank this time in the book.

Since too many stories run in parallel, readers have to be attentive. Names and incidents have to be remembered till they converge. But readers do it naturally as the story arrests them. Readers are on the edge of the chair as mystery unravels.

However there are some loose ends which are not closed properly. Example: Why was Swami killed and who killed him? Why was cataract of Sarawate introduced at all? How can Satoshi not share profits with other founders? Who killed the hooker? Why Cotton Trail 2.0 was promoted anonymously?

Ravi has tried to maintain the suspense till the end and has introduced a shocking twist at the end, but I was able to guess the culprit. Special mention should also go to good cover design.

An excellent book. A must read.

The incredible banker by Ravi Subramanian

"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.

Bankerupt by Ravi Subramanian

"Bankerupt" latest novel by Ravi Subramanian .

The story starts with the marriage of Aditya (a banker, who works in The Greater Boston Global Bank-Mumbai) and Chirisha (an academician at MIT and daughter of an industrialist with interest in Emu farming).  Two stories run in parallel. As is Ravi's speciality 1st story revolves around money laundering and bank in Mumbai and Coimbatore. 2nd story happens in campus of MIT, Boston. This story is a combination of academic ambitions, doctored research and gun control.

Ravi has explained how black money is laundered, how unscrupulous bankers manage the money and share market in detail. Fictitious bank GB2 makes a comeback however none of the characters from previous book appear in this book. He has also tackled the subject of gun rights Vs gun control very well. His narration of the story in Boston is at par with western writers. He has gone in great technical details to explain the solving of mystery. Death of one central character has brought important twist to the tale.

Again full marks to Ravi for apt title for the book. Title suggests the corrupt banker (note the spelling, Bankerupt not Bankrupt) who is the protagonist.

However during the course of novel the story in India drops out and story in Boston becomes the main story and remains so till the end. In one or two instances I felt that Ravi has covered some important aspects in very few words where they deserved more.

A good book. Recommend reading.