Letter to Ravi Subramanium, author -If God was a Banker

I just read the book "If God was a Banker" on Sunday. It was one of the few 250 page + books that I completed in one day. Today, I visited Ravi Subramaniums website, and posted him a message. Surprisingly, I got response from him today itself. Below is the letter I wrote to him, and under that is his reply.

Hi Ravi,

I just finished reading your book 'If God was a Banker' yesterday, and couldn't put it down till I finished the whole thing. Congratulations to you on a well written book. I picked up the book in the morning and was through by the end of the day. You have managed to weave a very interesting story and one refreshingly different. Since the previous books I read were "The Calcutta Chromosome" & "A thousand splendid Suns", I initially felt that the book had no writing style, and was too plain Jane. That was a bit difficult to adjust to at first. But once I was into the book, I got used to the style. And the story made up for that area that it lacked in.

In addition, I wished that the cover design for the book would have been better. The cover design was far by the worst I had seen yet. There is a great improvement in the cover design of your new book. I feel an attractive cover design can attract potential readers.

Regarding the plot, there are a couple of points that already have been mentioned in your blog. For eg. Sundeep did not force any woman into an illicit relationship. Nor did he indulge in any kind of sexual harassment. Thus he should not have been held responsible for those acts (though they were morally wrong) as the female partner was equally at fault here. She choose to sacrifice character for material gains.

Also I didn't understand why Aditya helped Swami in establishment of BOCA in the BPO business. It would be obvious that BOCA would be a competitor of Adityas enterprise. You have mentioned that Aditya helped Swami generate business by using senior contacts at NYB etc. It was like aditya is taking a pie out of his own share and giving it to Swami. Would anyone really do that. You also mentioned that BOCA comes out as on of the top BPO firms. And then at the end of the book, even adityas firm comes out as one of the top. I found it slightly hard to digest how aditya could bring both his and Swamis firm to the top, when they were competing entities.

Just small areas that I found not clicking. But that doesn't take away any credit from the storyline or from the book. Good job on your first novel! Looking forward to reading your next one. And all the best for your third one!

Cheers,
Alistair

Following is the response that I received from him. It only shows on his timeliness, and how he values his fans. Hats off to him. He just won a fan for life.

Hi Alistair

Thanks for writing in with your thoughts. I am really glad that you liked the book. Yes you indeed have raised some valid thoughts. Do read my next one and write in with your thoughts.

My third book, Devil in Pinstripes should be hitting the stands in Q2 2009.

cheers

Ravi

I will soon be putting up a review on this. But if you plan to visit a bookstore before that, don't forget to catch your copy of "If God was a Banker".