Ever wondered what If God was a Banker? One among us imagined and authored a best selling book on this. After that he bought the Monk’s Ferrari and today he has become The Incredible Banker. 🙂 Today at your Adda, we have the award winning author of four bestselling books Ravi Subramanian, a master storyteller of financial crime and winner of the Golden Quill Readers Choice Award. We speak about his books, his family, his life and much much more. Are you ready?
Q: Ravi, your new book ‘The Bankster’ is soon to be released. Share with us the synopsis of the book. What should the readers expect out of this book?
The Bankster’ my 5th book, is the first of its kind, international corporate thriller, which evolves in the backdrop of a Multinational Bank and its Indian operations.
Three different plots intertwined with the strange happenings in the life of a set of Retail Bankers in Greater Boston Global Bank bring up the initial part of the story. The uneasy calm in GB2 is shattered when a series of murders rock the façade of the compliant and conforming bank that GB2 has built up over the years. Who is to blame? Who is driving these intriguing and bone chilling murders? What is the motive behind these gruesome killings? No one has a clue.
In the racy build up to unraveling of the ‘who-done-it’ plot, stranger than fiction characters emerge, faith gets shattered and ivory towers come crashing down. Bankers build their careers on trust, or so everyone thought.. till the day the truth within GB2 gets revealed. Is the banker at GB2 fast turning into a Bankster? Or was he always one?
A story extremely relevant in modern day context where large global banks, placed on the pedestal, have been crashing to unimaginable depths from untouchable heights, one after the other and with amazing regularity – almost always on account of the same reasons – greed, ambition and lust for money and power – has the modern day banker metamorphosed himself into ‘the BANKSTER’
Q: If God Was a Banker won the Golden Quill Award for Readers Choice in the year 2008 while “The Incredible Banker” has been nominated for the Economist Crossword Book Award in the Popular Book Award Category this year. How do these awards benefit the writers apart from the recognition the book gets? How does it feel to be felicitated like this?
Book awards, in a way are a recognition of the fact that the book is good. It passes through a jury in the case of a critics award and the reader population at large in the case of a popular award. Hence an award, particularly if it is the one like the Golden Quill Award or the Economist Crossword Book Award, gives the author a fair bit of confidence. Am not too sure if awards always translate directly to sales numbers, but they definitely do enhance the reputation of the author and the book. And don’t forget – on your next book you get to say … ‘from the award winning author of …….’ Which does carry a lot of weight.
I do feel elated at being nominated for this award. Thousands of book get published every year and a few get nominated, which means that there is some meat in what one has written. Recognition of ones work is always flattering.
Q: An IIM Graduate banker turned author, you have written several thriller books on the banking sector. Do you ever wish to explore new segments?
It really surprises me as to why no one has explored the financial services world in the world of fiction. There is a gap. And the market has shown that they would love to read fiction set in this industry. Why should one give up a space that one has successfully created and occupied in the crowded industry. The only challenge is that I need to churn out fresh stuff everytime. And as we have seen in this industry there is enough and more to write about. The day I feel that I am getting repetitive or that I don’t have anything new to give the audience, I will explore new segments.
Q: What prompted you to go digital with your work for ‘The Bankster’ to reach out to your readers?
Most of my readers are in the age group of 16-45 years. And as we know this generation is the online generation. I refer to them as the WTF (WEB-Twitter – Facebook) generation. To connect with them, you need to be where they spend most of their time. Hence it was necessary to go digital with the promotion of my book. Also with social media campaigns one can effectively segment and reach out to the precise target audience in a very cost effective manner.
Hence ‘The Bankster’ campaign was launched innovatively on Facebook, where the best chapters from the book have been made into Manga-style comic strips, webvideos & games. Experience ‘The Bankster’ in action at http://bit.ly/TheBankster-RaviSubramanian
Q: A Banker by profession, you are currently working as a CEO at Shriram Group. You also write popular columns for well-known magazines and have personal weekly column in the Career and Business life page of The Economic Times. What does Ravi like to do when he is free from his professional commitments?
When I am free from my professional commitments, I write. And when I am not writing, I am either watching Rahul Dravid bat, or playing with my daughter.
I Bought The Monk’s Ferrari, is the only non-fictional book amongst all your books. A very interesting concept indeed. Can you tell us more about the ten commandments mentioned in the book?
Robin Sharma’s book, The Monk who sold his Ferrari, was a very well written book. I read it and had a disconnect with the concepts therein. I was of the view that Indians are hardwired with a drive to succeed, which was in variance with what Robin Sharma advocated. So I wrote a book, I Bought the Monk’s Ferrari”, which had an inherent message that wether to give up a Ferrari or keep it is a call which one has to make when one has already achieved a Ferrari. And I wrote a book on how to achieve a Ferrari i.e how to achieve success. Taking leaves out of the lives of successful bankers, I put together ten commandments which tell people how to achieve success.
Q: What inspires you to keep write such amazing books? What role does your wife and daughter play in making you an accomplished author? Does your wife act as a critic for your work?
No author can become a successful author if the family does not back him. My wife Dharini and daughter Anusha have displayed exemplary levels of patience in dealing with my whims while I have been writing and pressed for time while promoting my books. I wouldn’t have been able to reach this level without them. (I hope they read this).
My wife reads all my manuscripts in the formative stages and gives me honest feedback…in a way you can call her one of my biggest critics. Infact most of the people you give the manuscript to, give you sugar coated feedback. Family is probably the only place you can look to for honest feedback – both good and bad.
Q: Banker or Writer: Which one would you love to be known as?
I am already known as a banker – a fallout of two decades in the industry. Being loved as an author would not be a bad one to aim for now.
It would be great if you share with us few tips and motivational insights for aspiring writers.
Most aspiring authors give up on their writing dreams because they don’t know where to begin. Also they are hesitant starting before they have their grip on the entire story. My only advise to them is that once you have a concept, write the first few pages. These first ten pages will help you crystallize your thoughts for the next ten and there on. Don’t wait till you have the entire story floating in front of you. That will never happen.
Also one must be tough mentally. Tough enough to take negative feedback. Some people will like your book, some will not. The ones who like it, will close the book after reading, smile at it, place it on their bookshelf and pick up the next one to read. The ones who don’t like it, will open their laptops and write nasty reviews. The former is less likely to do so. Hence if you get more negative feedback, don’t fret. Take it in your stride, work on improving yourself and move on to your next book. I personally take negative feedback very seriously.
Q: Share with us your take on the current scenario of Indian literature and book publishing industry. What changes do you predict in the next two years since digitalisation has come into the forefront?
Indian writing has definitely evolved over the last decade. More so in the last five years. In the days when If God was a Banker was launched, Crossword would struggle to fill up a rack with Indian Authors. These days they struggle to find space. Most of the stores have three or four racks filled up with Indian authors. The landscape of a book store has changed because of Indian Authors. Also most book retailers are willing to stock new writers and thus give them a pedestal to sell their products from.
The only word of caution I want to sound here is that before we celebrate the creative resurgence of Indian writing, we need to realize that most Indian authors write from their experiences – college, IIM’s / IIT, romance etc. And experiences give you fodder for at best a couple of books. Beyond that you need to really leverage on your creative instincts. How many of these young first time authors go on to write more books and establish themselves in this field is still to be seen. The day these writers go on to write their second third and fourth book, and give vent to their creative instincts is when I would say that the creative resurgence of Indian literature has happened.
Q: Digitisation is going to change the way a reader reads and a publisher operates. It will lead to disintermediation and over a period of time publishers and authors will reach out to readers directly.
A career banker and financial services professional, you have worked with various multinational banks for over 18 years and authored five books. How do you manage your time between your family, work and books? Do you see yourself turning into a full-time author soon?
I will never turn into a full time author ever. For me, my work is the bread and butter : Writing is the Jam. I enjoy my writing today because I don’t depend on it commercially. The day I depend on writing for sustenance, it will become a chore – and that will kill the fun and the creativity. I don’t want to get to that state. Hopefully then I will be able to enjoy my job and my writing and also have time for both.
The expectations of your ever growing fan following goes higher and higher with the release of a every new book. As a writer, how do you satisfy these expectations?
It does weigh on ones mind. The pressure of expectations is a difficult one to bear. I had less pressure on me as a debut author five years back, than I feel just before the release of THE BANKSTER. The only way you can deal with it is that you put in your best, take cognizance of the fact that there are readers out there paying hard earned money to buy your book and read, and you need to do justice to them. This integrity in ones approach is the only way you can work towards meeting the readers expectation.
Q: What are your favourite genres? Can you share one of your favorites from each genre?
I like to read Thrillers – a fact that reflects in my writing. I try and avoid preachy self help books. I loved John Grishams earlier novels like The Firm, Pelican Brief and The Client. All of Archers books are my favourites. And there are no prizes for guessing that these two are my favourite authors.
Q: Who is your favourite Indian author?
My generation grew up on Swamy and his friends and Malgudi days. R K Narayan is my favourite. In fact the protagonist in my debut novel, If God was a Banker, was named Swami – after the protagonist of R K Narayan’s novels. What I adore about R K Narayanan is his simplicity and how he made a stunning success out of a nondescript subject. Despite not having Facebook or twitter to help him, he has more fans than the biggest of Indian writers these days.
Thank you Ravi for this wonderful interview. Friends, we have Ravi’s latest book ‘The Bankster‘ up for review at your Adda. Grab your copy now!