Little Black Book

The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian is a story about bank fraud, people mysteriously dying and somebody piecing together the puzzle, connecting the dots and unveiling the big picture. The Bankster took me by surprise. Given my despicable knowledge and attitude towards banks and its inner machinations, the book threaded me along gently and carefully like a surgeon pulling along a newborn by umbilical cord. So, the story starts off with the brief thing about blood diamonds before quickly jumping into the office politics and double crossing of Greater Boston something Bank. It is nicknamed as a more easy to remember GB2. The story progresses with a galloping pace like gossip spreading through unofficial communication channels. And you are soon beginning to develop the feeling that something is not being done right. In the meantime, you are also told this story of a boy who finds his father wrongly arrested for suspected ivory smuggling. And this father, Krishna Menon, is later engag...

"What happens if the faction of Indians who do not believe in democracy (naxals) join hands with our neighbors who don't want democracy in India?" This in a sentence is the basic premise of the Red Jihad. "Interesting" and "intriguing" are two words which immediately pop in your consciousness like bubble wrap.  And Sami Ahmad does an almost decent job at executing the premise. It is very evident that Sami has spent a LOT of time researching things and all the time and effort comes through in the text when you are reading about the detailed weaponry which the characters use. And I say this because it is no mean feat for anybody to go through scores of online and offline resources to get your facts right. And this is where the good bit stops. Red Jihad opens up with a young boy sneaking out of the house to play cricket, only to have his cricket pitch bombed by the Americans. The book then quickly and rapidly presents a story which is unnerv...