This book has discussed the corporate life of the 1980s and the journey, henceforth. The story involves two MBA graduates, one from IIM Banglore Sundeep
and the other Tam-brahmin Swaminathan, the same batch but IIM Ahemdabad. Sandeep is an ambitious
and goal-oriented person and is ready to shine in the corporate world with his
smartness. Swami is an honest and humble person. He was born and brought up in a poor family. Both Sundeep and Swami are the toppers of their respective batch. They meet in New
York International Bank for the first time. NYB was then planning to establish retail private
banking in India. Aditya, who came back to India with NYB's idea of
expanding the credit card business for the individuals here, is their boss. Since India was
developing at a different pace, their business plan is challenged by these two
great thinkers along with their friend Kalpana. She was Sundeep’s crush in IIM
Ahemdabad and even with all the attention from him, she fell for Swaminathan.
Sundeep is ambitious and so he gets so involved in his pursuits to grow NYB's business that he fails to rationalize what is
right and what is wrong. Aditya had kept him sober but when he quits, the new
boss has severe influence over Sundeep, who is now intimated by shortcuts and later, he ends in trouble. Swami is a modest guy and keeps his friendship intact even when he catches him red-handed and tries to
help Sundeep till the end. Despite leaving NYB, Aditya plays a major role
throughout the plot.
This book discusses the struggles of being a woman in such corporate
organizations. There have been a few female heads in their overall banking structure.
Ravi has discussed the harassment women encounter, which persists even
today, and how Indian culture has kept women reserved while western culture has pushed them to be ambitious and take a stand for their own life. The author
discusses the changes they make in their work-life after getting
married and how they manage to work together with their husband in same organisation. The traps of corporate success are very well discussed. Also, being modest is always
rewarded though it might take some time, one must believe in himself.
The continuous events happening in the plot will keep you involved and therefore, you would want to
know more. You might hate a few characters in the story. The author
has narrated the story in such a way that being a reader you can digest
the happenings in the plot. And he has already explained on the front cover
that ‘sometimes the truth can only be told through fiction.’
