31 - Upendra Namburi

 Title : 31 

 Author : Upendra Namburi 

 ISBN : 978-93-81626-75-7

 Publisher : Westland Books

 Genre : Fiction (Thriller)

 Pages : 372

I received a courier this afternoon when I was reading some other book. The courier had this red coloured book with an interesting cover. A corporate thriller. 31 is an intriguing name for it. So, I decided to leave the other book in midway and start off with this one and I have just finished it a few minutes back. 

31 by Upendra Namburi is a crisp take on the corporate world, banking sector to be more specific. It is about how life of Ravi Shashtry, the protagonist of the book, changes in a month which is considered as the most crucial month for any insitution, March. Yes, if your IQ is considerably okay, then you might relate the title of the book with the month. 

The book had me gripped from its beginning. Right from the appreciation e-mail that Ravi Shashtry gets on the 1st of March then to how things go haywire when some trader in Brazil dupes Imperial Bank's 14 billion dollars in a single shot. The Brazil operations had to shut down and there was some other chaos brewing up in the US. The resultant of this entire mess was another chaos that could be seen across all the offices of Imperial Bank in India. There were too many e-mails, phone calls, off the record conversations among colleagues, rivals, top notch corporate honchos and what not, that I promise would keep you engaged throughout. Also, I should mention the structure of the book plays a huge role in the plot. It is nerve wrecking. You would know when you will read it. 

Also, things go wrong on personal front too for Ravi, as his wife Savitha also faces some similar situations in her office. Infidelity creeps in along with a lot of things which put Ravi into mental dilemma. Office politics has been very well used in the plot and there are too many twists and turns in the story. The narration would definitely grip you and would ensure that you dont put down this book before you finish it. At least, it worked for me this way. There was too much of corporate jargon but one must not complain about it, it had to be there. Pick this book up if you are into fast paced thrillers, where there is a lot of bitching, betrayal, spontaneous decisions and actions. I promise you, you won't be disappointed. 

(Review asked by Westland Books)