Sunday, October 19, 2014

If God Was A Banker - Ravi Subramanian

AP gave me all these books with his comments. I am glad I read 'God Is a Gamer' first. Might have gone into it with a prejudiced eye if I had read Ravi's first novel (this one) before that.

'If God Was a Banker' is a first novel and it shows. Its all telling and little showing. So its reads like a report - everything is there organically told, all justifications in place, all reasons explained, some opinions thrust on the reader. A little too much care taken to tell the reader that its all been thought out, which compromises the action. I'd excuse that though - first novels are about such stuff. But having said that, Ravi's latest is far superior in its tone, treatment and even pace.

In short, 'If God Was a Banker' is a story of two young IIM graduates who make it into a new MNC bank. They, Swami, the conservative Tam Bram (explained what, where, how and why) and Sundeep Shrivastava (risk taking, priapic chap), report to Aditya Rao, their boss. Instantly the boss and everyone else is impressed by these two. They get to start some impressive sounding divisions. As they grow Sundeep is making some impressive conquests on the side like getting caught making out in the loo with his boss's secretary, while Swami marries another stunning looking colleague of theirs. Meanwhile Aditya quits. The two young bankers lose their conscience.

Sundeep goes from bad to worse once he meets a new  horny boss who puts him in touch with a pimp-vendor. The pimp-vendor has everyone in the bank by their you-know-whats thanks to some hot receptionists who know their business and Sundeep is soon riding high, rising over Swami, conquering all the women he fancies, married and unmarried. Swami is making progress, slowly and steadily but he is left behind. Will the bad boy Sundeep get caught? Is God watching? But then we find in the end that God is also a banker who rescues Sundeep and all is not lost.

Hey, these three characters make a comeback in 'If God Was a Gamer' did they not? Are they around in Ravi's other novels too? I don't know, is the honest answer I can give because I did not read his other novels. Why Ravi put in everything into this book including threesomes, to sex on the beach to risque private dances to stuff like that but did not put any drugs is what I did not understand. Why he also chose to call Thums Up as Thumbs Up is something else I could not get. Also why he chose to head the audit team as Ravi Subramanian in the book I did not get. Thankfully he does not play a small role like that in the other book.

But too much telling happens to make it interesting enough. Action drags. We flash past superficially. Any girl who reads this book might not want to join MNC banks. They appear to be full of sex starved bosses.

No comments: