Keep the Change by Nirupama Subramanian

Keep The Change by Nirupama Subramanian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The coming to corporate world of a Tam Bram girl, Damayanti, born and brought up in the confines of Amman Kovil Street in an orthodox Brahmin setup somewhere in Chennai. A typical Brahmin girl who has

She has been putting off marriage proposals brought to her by her parents. She longs to break free from the confines of the street and go romping in the world cavorting with the alpha males and lead a life like the women in The Sex in the City and other serials that she watches on the TV. She wishes to get boyfriend as described in the Mills and Boons books.

She gets her opportunity to break free when she gets an offer from an MNC bank and is asked to relocate to Mumbai. Her parents are hesitant, but they relent and let her go with enough words of caution. She comes to Mumbai and settles in a flat provided by the company in Khar. She finds a good friend in a Parsi colleague whose company she likes. They find that they have been assigned to a not so desirable project under a manager who has not made his mark in the bank. They are asked to come up with a plan to reduce the costs in the banks by streamlining the processes along with an external consultant.

Damayanti, finds the consultant not so friendly, but then after a few casual unofficial encounters with him finds him to be friendly. Her Parsi friend tends to while away his time browsing the internet rather than contribute to the project.

Damayanti is soon sent off to Goa for a induction cum training course with a bunch of other new comers to the bank. She is again cautioned by her mother to be careful while in Goa. She finds Rahul an alpha male from the bank who has come to Goa on a bike. He flirts with her and on the last day they end up at a seaside shack wining and dining. Rahul is inclined to sleep with her, but at the last minute she shrugs him off and he goes away. She is scared that Rahul will not call her after reaching Mumbai and keeps cursing herself for not giving herself to him so that she could be closer to him.

In the meantime Damayanti gets a skinny, modern, fashionista as her roommate. They do not get together with each other.

Rahul contacts her off and one and they go to a few places in Mumbai. Finally they end up in his flat. Rahul has his hands all over her when she gets a call from her mother telling her that her grandmother is ill. Damayanti uses this and leave Rahul.

In the meantime there is pressure to finish up the project that they are doing along with the external consultant. They are finally assigned a desk and when they rummage through the earlier occupant's content they find a report by a trainee for reducing costs. Her Parsi friend suggests that they use the report and pass it of as their own. Damayanti is hesitant but agrees. They end up meeting the cost saving targets thanks to the report of the trainee. Their manager promises that he will get them to present to their boss and if possible to their boss's boss.

After a few days Damayanti gets up at night for a drink of water and finds Rahul foraging her fridge in a boxer shorts. She realizes that Rahul has been sleeping with her roommate. They have an heated exchange. Her roommate comes out and argues with Rahul and drives him away. Both the roommates now sympathize with each other.

The boss's boss comes and Damayanti and her Parsi friend are asked to be ready to present their project work. They end up waiting the whole day and finally realize that their manager has already made the presentation, and neither are their confirmations recommended by their manager. Both feel cheated. The Parsi man puts in his paper and Damayanti goes off to Chennai to be with her mother and switches off her mobile to get over the double whammy of being cheated by her maybe boyfriend and of being cheated by her manager.

When she switches on her mobile she gets a call from the external consultant asking about her whereabouts. She also gets a message from the HR asking her to call back. She comes back to Mumbai prepared to give her resignation. But the HR lady tells her that she has been confirmed and that she is being considered to work with an eminent Vice President in the organization based on the recommendation of her manager. She is unable to decide so she meets up with the external consultant and on his advice decides to take up the new responsibility.

A decent read. A lot of influence of Enid Blyton and P. G. Wodehouse in the writing so makes it good reading for fans of these two authors. Looks like she will write a sequel to the book.

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