Twenty- five Seven

Well begun is half done

November 3, 2012

I always feel that something that doesn’t start well never really turns out well. A case in point being the Communications team in a charity that I am working with.

I volunteer for a wonderful charity that provides accommodation for poor children undergoing cancer treatment in Mumbai. These little tykes are children of farmers in the hinterland who have been brought to the big bad city by parents who are more often than not, young adults themselves, who soon find themselves out of welcome with their relatives and with no option but to stay on the streets. This is where our Charity steps in – providing them with a safe, hygienic and above all FREE place to stay.

Starting out small but organised from the very beginning, the jobs were distributed among the volunteers and teams were formed to ensure efficient working. Every team works well and seems well established. But unfortunately the Communcations team that I work with never set off to a good start. Right from the beginning we had problems settling down . Of course we do function because we always find solutions but it seems that our solutions are only temporary and our task becomes that much more difficult.

Which brings me back to my original theory that solid foundations make for enduring institutions . If you’ve had a shaky start, expect to have a stormy sea for the rest of your journey ahead.

p.s. This picture is obviously taken off the net!
When Bankers turn Gangsters

November 1, 2012
What happens when you combine the words banker and gangster? You get the word BANKSTER which is
the title of Ravi Subramanian‘s latest book. I was lucky enough to get an author signed
copy of this simply heart stopping thriller sent to me by BLOGADDA.

Go past the stylish cover of a dangerous looking man looking
squarely at you through his dark glasses with the glimmering city lights in the
back ground and a jet in the sky and begin a page turner thriller set in the
back drop of Mumbai’s multinational banking world. The story starts in far
away Angola where Joseph Braganza an undercover CIA agent brokers a deal and
returns home with a cache of uncut diamonds. On another continent in Mumbai, Greater Boston Global Bank or GB2 as it is referred to in the book
begins yet another regular day with Vikram Bahl, Head of Retail Banking and
Tanuja, Head of HR discussing the general goings on in the organisation. And
even further away down south Krishna Menon of Devikulam is getting ready to
stage a demonstration against the Nuclear power plant that was going to be constructed in his neighbourhood.

The first doubt that all is not what it seems to be in GB2 is sown
when Vikram skilfully maneuvers the transfer of Nikhil Suri to head the Bandra
Cluster. The appointment of Zinaida Gomes, the sexy young thing who typifies
the Relationship managers one comes across in Multinational banks sets several
tongues wagging and particularly upsets
Harshita Lele the star of the floor. The hit and run accidental death of
Pranesh, the cashier in the Branch is the first of the many calamities to
strike the branch which are unraveled one by one as the story progresses.

And how do Angola and Devikulum fit into the picture? Find out by
joining the dots in this fast paced action packed suspenseful story. I loved
this tale of intrigue and its completely believable characters. We are all
familiar with the Vikram Bahl’s of this world: ambitious and greedy,Tanuja the
head of HR with whom he’s having it on the side, Indrani the politically
correct self obsessed CEO , Raymond :neurotic and depressed whose personal life
is in a complete shambles, Harshita the quiet worker who loses out to the
squeaky wheel ( Zinaida) and finally Karan Punjabi a former banker turned investigative
reporter who sniffs out the dirt, joins the dots and brings the story to a
completely unexpected conclusion.

With the skill of a master weaver Ravi Subramanian crafts a
regular whodunit in language familiar to
all of us urban Indians especially the Bombaywallah.
Subramanian brings his years of experience in the banking world to the
storyboard, sharing his insider knowledge of corporate “affairs” , the shenanigans
that abound behind the glass cubicles, the manipulations of bottom lines and
targets and ultimately an expose of the larger game that we are all unaware of.
For lovers of thrillers especially corporate thrillers this is a
book which you must read and for those of you who only read one book a year THE
BANSKTER is undoubtedly the one you should choose to be it.

Ravi Subramanian’s presence on website(s) and social networks

Website: http://www.ravisubramanian.in/index.asp

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Authorravisubramanian

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SubramanianRavi

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/authorravisubramanian

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/AuthorRavi

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com . Participate now to get free books!
Argo -Unbelievably True!

November 1, 2012

It never rains but pours! Of course it was not raining in Mumbai which was thankfully dry as a bone. With hurricane winds playing havoc in the US and down south, I was glad that we were enjoying our hot Mumbai weather. These days there is just a slight nip in the air, a barely discernible difference in temperatures in the early hours of the morning well before sun up. So early in fact, that it is perhaps only the newspaper vendors and milkmen who notice that Winter is here.

After a serious drought of good movies there suddenly seemed to be a surfeit of quality cinema which is why Jo and I saw two movies in a week! Yesterday we went to see Argo which was playing at Metro as a matinee show. We had a few errands to run at Crawford Market and just about made it while the opening scenes played out on screen. We didn’t miss much and were soon caught up in the wonderful thrilling story of a dramatic rescue of six America Foreign Service personnel who had manage to escape from the American Embassy which was seized by the Iranian Revolutionaries.

Tony Mendez comes up with this simply wild idea of bringing out the fugitives as a Canadian movie crew which had gone to Iran to scout for locations! Brilliantly executed with a nail biting finish, the several tense moments were lightened by a dark humour so subtle that you could almost miss it. For a change Ben Affleck‘s impassive face stood him in good stead as the enigmatic CIA operative Tony Mendez. As for the rest, the inimitable Alan Arkin as the movie mogul , John Goodman as the makeup artist to whom this movie is dedicated and the rest of the cast are totally credible. In fact the plot was reminiscent of the old Arthur Hailey movies with a archetypical characters – the good Diplomat, the sceptic, the scaredy cat, the shady housekeeper and ultimately the success of the mission , that I actually felt it was not a true story at all but a pure figment of imagination! Having heard of so many CIA gaffes and rescue bids that went wrong, I was astonished that this covert CIA operation did really happen !

Verdict – Go see this one! And fast.

Well begun is half done

When Bankers turn Gangsters

Argo -Unbelievably True!