If God Was a Banker

Ravi Subramaniam

 

Two young managers graduates, with nothing similar in family backgrounds and temperament, join New York international Bank on the same day and take entirely different routes to success.

Came across this book by chance in Jaipur when attending a talk by Jeffrey Archer where Ravi Subramaniam was the moderator. This was his debut fiction novel. The book reads like a film, but gives you an insight on the probable follies, exploits, games played within the corporate foreign banking environment in India. Sometimes they say, too much intelligence is a bad thing, it makes you do deviant things. I especially liked the character of Naresh, a uniquely Indian character. Shrewd manipulator,...more Came across this book by chance. This was the author's debut fiction novel. The book reads like a film, but gives you an insight on the probable follies, exploits, games played within the corporate foreign banking environment in India. Sometimes they say, too much intelligence is a bad thing, it makes you do deviant things. I especially liked the character of Naresh, a uniquely Indian character. Shrewd manipulator, crafty exploiter of weakness for his own self-gain. I wished that the Swami character need not have been too perfect, he too should have had some flaws besides his lack of fathering capabilities and coming from a fatherless, poor family. It was almost as if to make him too virtuous. I was pleased with the portrayal of women in this book. Several of them were morally questionable and highly tolerant of subjugation which is a realistic look at the roles many educated women play in a man's world. A useful look at the way hierarchy and promotions take place within an organization and it was interesting to see how employees are shifted to global offices as part of the complex scheme, Makes you look at foreign bankers far less favorably. I look forward to reading more of his tales.