If God was a Banker by Ravi Subramanian

If God Was a Banker by Ravi Subramanian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book is about three yuppies who join a MNC bank one the same day after their B-School. They become close friends and joining this group the secretary of their first manager.

The first one is a brash, gregarious, north Indian who does not mind using other's ideas as his own and does not mind flirting and sleeping around with anyone. He does not mind using is position to get his female colleagues to sleep with him. And all this while he is married.

The second is a shy, humble, intellectual, south Indian, who is also high on morals. He does not mind giving up a lucrative position to be back with his mother who has struggled to bring him up.

The third is a gregarious north Indian girl who falls for the soft spoke south Indian and gets married to him.

The fourth character is the secretary of the first manager who falls for the brash guy and marries him.

On the very first day all the three of them manage to impress their manager who is embarking on launching retail banking in India on behalf of the MNC bank.

Soon the two guys have meteoric rise up the corporate ladder, one due to his intellect and the other due to his machinations and manipulations. The lady who marries the south Indian takes a break from work.

In the end the actions of the north Indian come back to hit him. All through this his friends support him unflinchingly.

The book is a light, entertaining read for a short haul flight. It is on the lines of the books of Chetan Bhagat, eminently readable with little substance.

It is surprising that the book got such a reception given the fact that a south Indian has been portrayed as a goody goody guy, while the north Indian guy has been portrayed as a brash, unscrupulous guy. While there is some element of truth in portraying a South Indian as a shy person and the North Indian as a gregarious person, when it comes to unscrupulousness it does not matter whether one is a South or a North Indian. There are equal numbers in both the geographies.

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