Book-Review of The Bestseller She Wrote

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Author: Ravi Subramanian

Genre: Fiction / Romance

Publisher: Westland Limited

Publication Year: 2015

Number of Pages: 391

ISBN: 978-93-85152-38-2

Price: Rs. 295

The Bestseller She Wrote, is Ravi Subramanian’s take on love, extramarital affair, betrayal, jealousy, passion, redemption.  It is being said that this is Ravi’s first book on romance, earlier he has written bestselling thrillers about banking and bankers. I can’t draw a comparison between this book and his earlier works, since I haven’t read them. But definitely, I can share my opinion about this book. It is written in a very simple language, which makes it a very easy read. While reading the book, I found that various characters are sketched in such a realistic manner. The events unfold in a very natural form. Various emotions, be it love, passion, possessiveness or anything, are very well explored and explained in the book. A film is going to be made on this. For detailed review, please read further.

About the Author: Ravi Subramanian, an alumnus of IIM Bengaluru, is a banker turned author. He has written many thrillers and has many awards to his credit. This is the first time he has deviated from his usual genre of thrillers to romance through this book. A few of his earlier works are:

• If God Was a Banker (2007) - won the Golden Quill Readers’ Choice Award)
• I Bought the Monk’s Ferrari (2008)
• Devil in Pinstrips (2010)
• The Incredible Banker  (2011) – won the Economist Crossword Book award
• The Bankster (2012) – won the Economist Crossword Book award
•  Bankerupt (2013) - won the Economist Crossword Book award
• God is a Gamer (2014)

About various Characters of the book: Through this section, let me introduce the main characters:

Aditya Kapoor: The main character of the story, who is an IIM Almunus, Bengaluru. He is also a banker as well as a celebrity author of many bestsellers.

Maya: Aditya’s wife, an IIM alumunus, an ex-banker and now working with Dhirubhai Ambani International School.

Shreya Kaushik: A student of IIM Bengaluru, a very ambitious girl, who speaks her mind.  

Sanjay Narang: Aditya’s Colleague and friend since IIM days

Diana: Aditya’s colleague and Sanjay’s love interest

Sunaina: Shreya’s friend

Tim Xavier: Aditya’s boss

The Story: It all begins, when Aditya Kapoor, an alumunus of IIM Bengaluru, reaches the campus for talking about pursuing dreams and his journey from a banker to a successful author. Aditya Kapoor is a banking professional par excellence as well as India’s number one celebrity bestselling author. During his talk he mentions that how important and critical it is to market the book and bring the product to the reader. The word ‘product’ generates a voice from one amongst the audience – ‘Product? Rubbish!’ The voice was that of Shreya Kaushik, who retorted saying that it is a book for God’s sake, not a product. Shreya’s logic was that a book is an expression of author’s creativity and one should not demean it by calling it a product. Aditya, tried hard to hold back his anger and emotions and calmly responded to Shreya with the logic that when an author puts up so much hard work writing a book, then why shall he / she leave any stones unturned to promote the same. Shreya was strongly opinionated and was not ready to buy-in Aditya’s points.

Aditya did get hassled with the discussion, but then, he continued gracefully with his talk. Later on, Sunaina, a very close friend of Shreya, does criticize her for being so blunt with Aditya Kapoor during his talk. But Shreya was sure of herself that she would be able to mend things right. Once back home to his wife Maya and Aryan, he did receive an email from Shreya who was in all praise for him after reading one of his book.

Maya and Aditya had a love marriage, who started dating each other in IIM itself. After working abroad for a few years, both of them came back to India. Maya left her banking career and started working with Dhirubhai Ambani International School as a teacher as well as handling their social initiatives.

Sanjay Narang, Head of Human Resources, is a very close friend of Aditya. Sanjay’s love interest is Diana, who is also working in the same National Bank, where Aditya and Sanjay works. Aditya never admired Diana, rather he got into conflict mode with Sanjay at times due to his dislike for Diana, although Aditya and Sanjay had decided not to bring anyone in between their friendship.

Days pass by, and Aditya goes to Bengaluru to promote his book as well as to IIM Bengaluru campus along with Sanjay as part of interviewing panel. Happens to meet Shreya again. Shreya is also hired by National Bank. Aditya gets attracted to her. In spite of loving Maya very much, the relationship between Aditya and Shreya blooms.

What happens next? What shape does the boss-subordinate relationship between Aditya and Shreya take shape? Is Shreya, who has developed strong interest in Aditya, able to talk his mind to Aditya. Shreya, who dreamt of becoming a very successful author herself, which path she chooses to become one? Could she persuade Aditya to make her a bestselling author? Is Aditya able to love two women of his life simultaneously? Does Shreya become Aditya’s muse? How Maya handles the various happenings? What role Sanjay and Diana play ? Please read the book to know the details.

Ravi Subramanian has written the whole story in very realistic tone. Many people like Anurag Kashyap, Vaishali, Nirav Sanghavi etc. does get mentioned in the book and it certainly enhances the realistic tone of the book. Besides, such stories exist in and around us, so was very much able to connect with the characters and story. Ravi has talked about the hollowness of relationships. Personal ambitions and dreams at times take over the love. Manipulations can kill any relationships. One has to be ready for the consequences of the choices made. I could feel the emotions while reading the book and that is because of the way the whole story is written. The end is also beautifully written, left me with choking throat and teary-eyed.

One thought which kept coming to me is this: towards the end, it was easy for Aditya to make a choice due to the manners in which the events unfolded. But, what if, the distinction was not very sharp, how and what could have been Aditya’s decision.

Ravi Subramanian’s “The Bestseller She Wrote” is a very realistic take on ‘Love, Betrayal and Redemption’. It conveys a great message that our every choice has its own consequences which cannot be dodged. A great book, close to reality, which is written in a simplified manner. You would get glued to once you start reading the book. Happy Reading!!!

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

I am reviewing 'The Bestseller She Wrote' by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books.

Book-Review of Ramayana : The Game of Life – Shattered Dreams

Author: Shubha Vilas     

Genre: Mythology

Publisher: Jaico Books

Publication Year: 2015

Number of Pages: 387

Price: Rs. 350

About the Author - Shubha Vilas: He is a spiritual seeker and a motivational speaker, holds a degree in engineering and law with specialization in Patent Law. His leadership seminars are popular with top-level management in corporate houses. He also helps individuals deal with modern-life situations by applying the teachings of the Bhagwad Gita, Ramayana and other dharmic traditions. (Courtesy: Amazon.in)

Ramayana: The Game of Life – Shattered dreams, by Shubha Vilas is a sequel to his previous work – Ramayana: The Game of Life – Rise of Sun Prince. I can’t draw the comparison with his ‘Rise of Sun Prince’, since I have not read that, but I found this book to be unique in its own way. Ramayana is an age-old epic and we are no strangers to the story. Although mythological tales have been reiterated many times, this book links the stories very deeply with the philosophies of life. As the title of the book says, indeed it talks about ‘Game of Life’. A very interesting read which explores the epic’s various dimensions, basically revolves around the incidents leading to Rama’s exile, Lakhsmana / Sita deciding to join Rama, Dashratha’s death and Bharata’s humility and his persuading Rama to come back.

I must admit that it was quite challenging to finish reading it within a span of seven days, since it needed an in-depth reading. I felt like going back and re-reading it again. I also wanted to just sit back and ponder upon the beautiful concepts / philosophies of life mentioned in the footnotes. I wanted to look within myself and focus on my insights as a reader. Simple yet powerful leadership sutras are also mentioned in the footnotes. Rather, almost every paragraph of the book talks about a concept. Various chapters are titled in a very interesting manner which raises curiosity to understand how the chapter justifies the titles. An excellent effort to revisit the epic with an in-depth analysis.

Shubha begins the book with Dasaratha’s running breathlessly. Between his delusions and his consciousness, Dasaratha realizes that he is in fact fighting two monsters – the monster within and the monster outside. Which of the two monsters was Dasaratha fleeing from? Dasaratha desperately wants to change his and Ayodhya’s ordained destiny. Dasaratha’s moonbeam is none other than Rama.      

We all are aware of the main plot of Ramayana, but what makes the narration beautiful is the sub plots and stories of characters apart from Rama and Sita weaved with the larger context. It is also interesting to understand, how Nemi became Dasaratha and how Dasagriva (Ravana) was born with the attributes of both races – Rakshasas (asuras) as well as that of Brahmanas.

Apart from Rama and Sita’s stories, other stories and characters are also discussed in detail, be it Dasagriva’s rivalry with his half-brother Kubera, the flying tyrant – Pushpak Vimana, the invincible father-son duo Ravana-Meghananda, Ravana’s journey to become Trilokeshwar, Manthara corrupting Kaikeyi’s mind (detailed version), Rama meeting Trijata, the boatman Guha, Charioteer Sumantra’s bidding adieu to Rama, the Hope March. Anasuya’s covert prediction of future to Sita  etc. The book explores various relationships and its intricacies beautifully.

Shubha discusses life’s philosophies so minutely. Some of them which I found so useful are:

• Six inner enemies
• Why do people who love each other suddenly realize that they have nothing in common?
• How does one handle reversals in life?
• Can negative emotions be tools to display positive love?
• Confronting blame and praise
• The five tips on management, a good leader should adhere to

The insights which I gathered from the footnotes are many, but I want to make a special mention of a few of them, which enticed me, and made me fall in love with this book:

• Life is a combination of hope and despair, the one that dominates you carves your personality.
• The easiest way to forget your limitations is to shift the focus from self-absorption to active-facilitation.
• Every protector needs protection. Being constantly reminded of such a need keeps the protector humble.
• The danger of anger is that it suddenly makes one a stranger to others.
• The pain is supremely acute when an unavoidable and uncontrollable obstacle terminates an expectation that was very close to being met.
• The highest manifestation of gracefulness is gratefulness.
• The easiest way to evade truths was to shrug them off as fantasies spun by fertile minds, rather fearful minds.
• Expressions of love may be illogical, but expressions of expectations should be logical.

What could have been avoided or improved? I felt, at certain instances, concepts are connected just for the sake of it. Also, at one point, when Sita calls Rama by his name, the footnote says: Sita was so hurt that she addressed Rama by His own name. In traditional societies, women did not directly call their husbands by their names. That Sita was hurt was evident from that one utterance. She realized her mistake immediately and ensured that she never repeated it again. Didn't this footnote reflect male chauvinism or non-acceptance of diversity? Too much description at times slows down the pace.

Yes, the story of Ramayana is not new. Various philosophies discussed are also not new. But yes, what makes this book a must-read is the simplicity with which the plot has been presented and related with the Game of Life. It turns out to be self-help book, a wonderful merger of spirituality with way of life. The learnings can be easily comprehended and applied by anyone, be it of any age, gender or walks of life. The book is packaged with an attractive cover-page and easily readable fonts (with appropriate font size) in inner pages.

Picking up from Author’s Note, it begins with a bewildering dilemma and ends with a riddle.

Ramayana: The Game of Life – Shattered Dreams is a Value-based book which would definitely entice you. Happy reading!!!

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

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