Book Review – GOD IS A GAMER by Ravi Subramanian

god is a gamer

On the Cover :

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CROSS GAMER, BANKER, POLITICIAN AND TERRORIST WITH VIRTUAL MONEY?

From the bestselling author of If God was a Banker comes the first ever bitcoin thriller. God is a Gamer is a world where money means nothing, martyrs are villains, predators are prey. Assassination is taught by the ancient Greeks, and nothing is as it seems.

Moving from Washington’s congress to Delhi’s finance ministry, the beaches of Goa to the Corporate boardrooms of Mumbai, this is Ravi Subramanian’s most gripping novel yet.

About the Author :

Ravi Subramanian, an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, has spent two decades working his way up the ladder of power in the amazingly exciting and adrenaline-pumping world of global banks in India. It is but natural that his stories are set against the backdrop of the financial services industry. In 2008, his debut novel, If God was a Banker, won the Golden Quill Readers’ Choice Award. He won the Economist Crossword Book Award in 2012 for The Incredible Banker and the crossword Book Award in 2013 for The Bankster. He lives in mumbai with his wife Dharini, and daughter, Anusha. 

REVIEW : 

God is a Gamer starts with an insight of how Bitcoins came into existence and gradually we discover how Bitcoins became such popular and important part of Internet underworld. From murder mysteries to scams to Robberies to Love Affairs, God is a Gamer has all the masala a good thriller should contain, yet at some point it disappointed me. The first 20 chapters kept on introducing Characters and a part of their mysteries. As story kept progressing more and more information was added. sometimes, it felt the information was not important but, in the end all the information provided fell into the right boxes.

so much was happening at a given point in different parts of world. Malvika Sehgal, chairman of a global bank was murdered in mumbai, Finance minister’s involvent was suspected in the murder, robbers were looting money through ATM’s in America, Gillian Tan, handpicked by Barrack Obama to drive American foreign policy in South Asia was assassinated. All the incidents were inter-related in some way or the other. Adrian and Tony, FBI agents had the burden to solve the mystery of assassination but instead they came across more and more mysteries until it became a big jigsaw puzzle.

I lost interest in the middle for few chapters but regained later. Good thing about thrillers is your brain keeps functioning while you are reading them, Unsolving the mystery of who the real culprit is and my brain worked overtime maybe. Like always I tried solving the mystery while reading it and was right with my conclusions. At one point it felt the story is being stretched. I certainly didn’t like the anti-climax portion. This book left me disappointed. Two wrongs cannot make one right. I detest the revenge part.

on the whole it was an average reading experience. I expected more from Ravi Subramanian.

RATINGS : 2.5/5

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

Dosa Place – Review

Recently a branch of Dosa Place opened at Necklace road. Me and my cousins planned to check it out. There are two branches already functioning at KBR park and Madhapur. As it opened recently, Menu is limited to only Dosas, Idli (only two varieties available), Donuts, kulfi, and Ice Golas.
Dosa Place serves around 100 varieties of Dosas. Price range starts from Rs.40 for a plain Dosa to Rs.170.

Dosas are served with three types of Chutneys. I liked two out of the three served. Sambhar is served with plain Dosa only. As we were ten people we tried around 15 of the Dosas on the Menu. Of all, we relished the Dosa Place Speciality – Teen Maar Dosa. Named weirdly but delicious Dosa. We did asked the waiter about the weird name, but he himself wasn’t aware about the story behind it.

Of all the 15 Dosas we tried, I liked Spring roll cheese dosa, chinese chili dosa, mexican dosa, american chopsey dosa. Pizza Dosa was very bad. Upma Pessarattu and Pav bhaaji dosa were okay. None of the Dosas were spicy, which I didn’t liked.

Donuts were okay. Order Chocolate ball only if you fantasise chocolate. Kulfi’s were regular Delhi style kulfi which are easily available throughout Necklace road. For a change, ice gola was good. It’s difficult to find a good ice gola stall in Hyderabad. After Mayur Paan shop I found this worthy.

There is ample space in and around the hotel. You can choose to sit inside or outside depending upon the climate.

Unfortunately, there are no food pics. We were really hungry and couldn’t wait for clicking pics.

The staff is very friendly. 15 dosas, donuts and ice golas summed up to Rs.1960 only. Majority of the Dosas are below Rs.100 . I hope they start functioning during breakfast timings soon and add Italian delicacies in the menu soonish.

Working hours: 10:30 am to 10:30 pm.

Ratings : ***

P.S :  Parking is not free and not even economic. Fee for two wheeler is 20/- and four wheeler is 30/- which is much more than the normal rates.

Rains – Part 2

Please read Part 1 here

                        Part 2

Hot Tea with Yummilicious Onion rings anyone?

Daddddyyyyy!!! Screamed Aadil seeing his father at the Terrace door.

Raj winked at Rani and hurried towards the right corner of the terrace where a beautiful wooden swing with a roof stood. It was the only part of the terrace which could protect Raj from the Rains. The mad trio followed him towards the swing for a dose of Heaven.

Eating hot onion bhajiyas with steaming hot tea on a rainy evening is Heaven.

~Hi!

~Hi beautiful. Here, take these glasses.

Raj poured tea for both of them.kids started munching on onion rings while both husband-wife sipped tea starring each other.

~So, how’s the tea?

~Just the way it was the first time you made for me – Perfect.

~seems like mad trio had some good time, this evening.

~Yes, But I missed You.

~I am sure we can do something about it, no? Winked Raj while taking a step towards Rani. Holding her hand in his, a thought occurred to him.

What did I do to deserve such a beautiful family?  God has been too kind on this ordinary man!

He tried nearing Rani but she pushed him away, kids are around.

They finished their tea and Pakode and got back home. Kids ran towards their room to change into their pajamas. Rani sneezed on the way to her bedroom.

~Bless You!

And just when she was about to reply she sneezed again.

~Aur bheego baarish mein!

~I am fine. I’ll change and come.

Rani quickly took a shower and changed into a red Nighty. Before going to the kitchen she checked on the kids, who were already in their night clothes jumping on their respective beds.

~ Ayan, Aadil stop jumping on the beds.

~ sowiee Mummmaa.

~ It’s okay my baby. Dinner will be ready in few minutes,  okay?

~Mumma, I am not hungry. I ate well replied little Aadil

~ even I am not hungry mom.

~ sure? I don’t want you two to wake up in middle of the night hungry.

~ no mom, I am full.

~ okay, I’ll get you some milk then.

Kids drank milk and dozed off to sweet slumber. Rani prepared the remaining pakode while Raj surfed the various news channels for some decent news.

Dinner is Ready!

As soon as Raj sat in his chair, Rani lit few candles and switched off the lights of the Dinning room. Raj smiled seeing a glowing Rani. They ate silently in the dim lights of candles having eyes fixed on each other, occasionally feeding each other.

#Celebrate Blogging by BlogAdda: The Game Of Blogs!

Bhumika's World...

Team- Vijeta 🙂

“Better late than never. Once again I am late, but I want to write. I must write to cherish all memories and experience.”-I checked again- mobile silent, minimized twitter- and started writing this… 🙂

Let me shout out loud-“Blog Adda team needs more than feedback!”

What?

A tight HUG 🙂

Special DADIki Shagun ki Pappi and …

LOTs, LOTs, LOTS of LOVE from all Bloggers! 

After expressing my emotions with Hugs, Kisses and Love- Let my words express the Experience of participating in “Game of Blogs” with Blog Adda.

Being a Blog Adda member since long, All I did was placing “Blog Adda Member” label on my blog- that’s all. I had been least active, perhaps as I never knew where to participate, how to participate…

Even being a blogger since more than 5 years, I never had explored or realized power of being blogger.

View original post 1,385 more words

Small treasures.

Diwali is around the corner. Like everyone else even I have started cleaning my room. This annual diwali cleaning is no less than treasure hunt. All the stuff you discover while cleaning the home takes you back in time. Stuff which you have forgotten about, stuff which you see only while diwali cleaning, stuff which you don’t want to throw away even though it is of no use, stuff which have many memories associated with it. Stuff which you treasure.

Treasure that brings a smile on your face. Majority of times, tiniest or the cheapest of the things give you more happiness than expensive or branded things. What catched my fancy yesterday were old Birthday Greetings cards and hand written letters. I read all those letters one after one and carefully placed them in the same cabinet to be discovered next year again.

I received this on my 21st birthday.

This one on my 20th birthday. This is the biggest card I ever received.

This again on 20th birthday. That was the only birthday I celebrated whole heartedly.

I also found few of my childhood toys, toy kitchen set, toy bedroom set, and mud toys.

With good memories, I was reminded of sad ones too. Isn’t it strange, things that can put a smile on your face can also generate tears in your eyes.

Rains.

Rani was completely drenched. She loved getting drenched in rains and more so if it was unseasonal rains in summer. She hated summer but loved rains. Seeing Rani dancing,singing and enjoying Ayan and Aadil ran towards her. Ayan, Rani’s elder son was much like her sweet and cute. On other hand the younger one, Aadil had inherited his Dad’s charm.

Mummmaaaa!!!! Screamed the younger one startling Rani out of her trance. Rani smiled and hold her hands out calling her two Princes in a family hug. Even though she was always worried for their health but she never stopped Ayan and Aadil from getting drenched in rains and how could she, when she was the first one to get to the terrace as soon as she sensed rains.

They sang songs and danced merrily while half of the city was busy cribbing about the sudden downpour and the havoc created by it.

Raj somehow managed to reach home on time and was glad he was not out on the roads while it started raining. Raj didn’t liked getting drenched in rains. Ten years backs, may be he hated rains but now he couldn’t. He met Rani on a rainy night and that rainy night changed his life. He was glad he got drenched that night.

When he opened the main door,Raj found home empty and it took him no time in guessing where the mad trio would be. Raj smiled, ‘Crazy Rain Lovers’ and their lovely rain. I am an minority in this family. Dear God, was it too much of pain to make one child, Atleast one child of mine hate rain or even dislike? Huh!

He quickly changed into his night clothes and raided kitchen to find out if Rani has prepared dinner. He found sliced onions and a bowl of yellow batter on the kitchen platform. Great! Pyaaj ke pakode for dinner. Though he didn’t fancy rains, he couldn’t ever get tired of eating pakode on a rainy night. He never understood why these simple bhajiyas tasted so yummy during rains. Whatever! Lets make bhajiyas and surprise the mad trio upstairs, exclaimed the dotted husband/father.

Within 15mins he had prepared half of the bhajiyas/Pakode and tea. Switching off the stove, he quickly checked the status of rains. It was drizzling outside. Soon the mad trio will be home. I should go upstairs before they come down.

Holding a kettle in right hand and casserole in left Raj made his way to the Terrace. Standing on the Doorway a announcement was made.

Hot Tea with Yummilicious Onion rings anyone?

Read The Next Part Here