Sunday, December 16, 2012

A candid insight into top corporate executive's professional lives!

Because Truth can only be
told through fiction

Name of the Book: IF God was a Banker

Author: Ravi Subramanian

No of pages: 260

Price of the Book:  Rs 250/-

Publishing Company:  Rupa Publications Pvt Ltd

Rating:  3.5/5

The book is a debut novel by Ravi Subramanian, an alumnus of IIM – B, a top notch business school in India and is about two freshly hired graduates from top notch institutes of India hired by the New York International Bank (NYB) and how they chalk out their career paths based on their different morals.  Sundeep  Srivastava is an arrogant IIM A graduate, for who ends justifies the means on the other hand Swaminathan, a principle based IIM – B graduate who is high on ethics morals and values. How they work out their paths riding on their own different principles forms the crux of the book. 

The Author, Ravi Subramanian is an alumnus of IIM-B and has chalked out his own growth in two decades of his life by working up the ladder in foreign banks established in India. No doubt,   this experience has worked as an added advantage and helped him in providing the history and rise of the banking sector.  

The characters and the plot are well etched. The story moves at a fast pace as the protagonists and the supporting characters move through the decades of their corporate career and personal life through the trials and tribulations faced due to their own principles.  It is however slow and dragging when the author gives candid view of corporate politics, sexual harassment, glass ceiling – which the corporate executives especially women go through in their journey in the corporate.   The supporting characters viz. the wives of the leading protagonists – Natasha, a smart secretary who is later shown as Sundeep wife, Kalpana, a recruit from a top notch institute who hitches up with Swami. Aditya, the head of the God father of two protagonists and the then Head of retail banking in NYB, Sunil – Aditya’s immediate successor who gets Sundeep connected to Ram Naresh – A corrupt, smart Guajarati vendor of the NYB bank are all well placed in the plot and in their own way play a key role in shaping up the lives of the leading protagonists.     

The Verdict is that the author, Mr Subramanian has made a good attempt to reveal the corporate insights to an outsider. However, working professionals who land up reading the book as a spare time hobby might not come across anything new but the working of the banking sector. In all, a good, well etched debut novel with a message shouting out loud and clear – “Stay put on your morals, you will be guided through your success.”