“You win some, you lose some. As long as you win more than you lose, you are doing fine…”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

Was this life worth living? He would ask this question in various forms every single day of his life, and the answer was, give it one more day. It will change…….

There is a bankster in all of us. When the lust for materialistic things grabs one by the collar, one must know one is doomed. The ethics, the principles, come in picture right here.

Sometimes when for a mere account opening, the bank asks for umpteen number of documents, verifies all the claims and makes sure the KYC is fulfiled, we as customers get upset by the bank’s slow pace.

What we fail to understand is a simple fact that this is required. To avoid scams and scandals and in the long run to make sure that our own trust is maintained. At the same time ironically the strict checks are made only when the account is a salary account or the most basic account that the bank has. For high value current and company accounts, the relationship managers avoid rigorous checks because the moolah associated tempts them more than their ethics.

The incentives, the perks, the promotions, all contribute to the end of moral and ethical responsibilities of an individual. (So easy to say, so tough to implement). At the end of it we all have a choice between an easy life and a difficult death or a difficult life and an easy death. To each his own.

Ravi Subramanian’s “The Bankster” throws light on the importance of such basic aspects of banking. Mr. Subramanian is no doubt a fast-paced story teller. It was my first book by him and I liked the way he connected three different stories and made me wonder till the end about the real culprits. Right until the middle of the book, I was clueless about the connection of the three stories and it was like I was reading three completely separate books. When it unfolded at the end, I can’t deny being shocked at the revelations. All in all, a good read.

 

Reviewed by:

Anushree Kulkarni

Added 11th May 2015