'God is a Gamer' ?

20:32
God is a Gamer, at a glance
In an explosion which shakes US, a diplomat dies. FBI begins the investigation, but it leads them nowhere. 
At the same time in India, Aditya an ex-banker, who is running his own BPO (‘eTIOS’) has incubated an online gaming company named ‘indiscape’. Reunion with his long lost son Varun, who is cold intelligent brings huge gains to the gaming company.
Phishing scam is disturbing the reputation of a well reputed bank in which Aditya worked for ages and at the same time, a well planned ATM heist operation again gives a blow to the Bank authorities.
Mystery takes us deep when Chairman of Indian wing of the bank dies falling down from rooftop of a skyscraper. This banker’s relation with the central finance minister stirs up a lot of rumors and for a while, it serves enough content for all news papers and channels.
All these plots comprising the stories of Bankers, Gamers, Politicians, Investigating Officers, Diplomats, Drug dealers and Terrorists are interwoven.
A world where the virtual money is the root of all the illegal activities, “nothing is as it seems”.

Ravi Subramanian

‘God is a Gamer’ is the seventh book written by the IIM alumnus banker Ravi Subramanian. What Forbes mentioned about him defines him in one sentence. “Banker by day, Writer by night”!

As expected, this thriller also has non-linear narration. Well that is not a surprise, right ?
Wait. Before explaining my viewpoints on the book, I must confess that I haven’t read any of Ravi’s previous books. It is because, I have heard that Ravi’s plots are based in the cocoon in which he is working for ages. He was a banker for ages and now he is leading some financial institutions. I was not interested in financial terms either.
So I was thinking I will never ever like reading a thriller about financial crime. But this book proved me wrong.
(I have decided to collect and read his 5 previous fictions as soon as possible.)

Are you also worried that you won’t like a thriller about virtual coins? The story was quiet fascinating for me, who knew nothing about Bit coins till reading the book! Somebody who is from banking backgrounds, (who know everything about the virtual coins) will also enjoy it!! The detailing is just in right proportions. That’s the sign of good editing, right?

At first, you will feel that he is forcefully introducing a lot of characters and sub-plots, but everything has got a reason. Ravi has spent a lot time structuring the 3 acts. He must have started with the act 3 and planned past sequences from that incident. Anyway, the novel is way better than other Indian authored English books.

If you think deep, you will realize that some sub-plots were weak. But that doesn’t matter. Right from the Prologue the book will make you glued to it. 

The narration gradually attained pace and it is too gripping till the two-thirds of book. Then the graph again falls down in progression. When you are reading the last 2 chapters, you might even think that this book wasted your time. Well I felt so. And then, Bang!!
The epilogue changed my mind again. It is full of twists and twirls.

Once I finished reading the novel, I realized that the details given on the back cover is true to the core.
“God is a Gamer is a world where money means nothing, martyrs are villains, predators are prey, assassination is taught by ancient Greeks, and nothing is as it seems”.

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180 days in Mumbai (2)

21:20
Ohkay. This time, I will share about my explorations on my way chasing my dreams.
As I have mentioned before, for the first 1 week I was literally wasting my time staring into a Mac screen. Junior Editor was busy with his works and I was staring at the screen as if I was watching some German movie without subtitles.
(Evidently the most basic quality to be an editor is patience, which I lack the most!)
With God’s grace, online director of a show recommended me and I joined as an intern under the Creative Director of a TV show. Television industry is quite different from Movie industry. Only the camera is the common factor.
(Antartica is also deserted, but it’s distinct from Sahara desert right!?)
But somehow the small team and super cool leads changed my mind set. In short, I decided to stick on to the TV industry for a while. So that I can grab a back up job.
(“What if God's defying my wish to be a filmmaker?”)
Days which followed this are the most exiting days of my life till date. I got introduced to so many new characters, who always dream to be behind and in front of movie camera, but who are forced by the system(family and society) to stick on with the TV industry instead.
(Yes, for a consistent income.)
The first TV show was a transition period for me. They just gave me a chance to be with the team, to see whether I have got something to save the day. Even I was unsure about what I was doing! But somehow, everything went well. Excitement level was at new heights during each rehearsal and shooting days.
( I never did anything wrong but I wish I could go back and learn more to perfect my deeds. )
Just when "What next?" popped in my mind, same production firm gave me another opportunity. A well known reality show's sequel. I was asked to be a part of the casting team. Unfortunately the first few days with this new team was suffocation for all of us, but eventually we all merged in. Most of my colleague interns were Masters in mass communication, while I was not even a graduate. Nobody asked my educational qualification anywhere, that was quite a surprise for me. Everybody thought I'm a qualified engineer and I quit my engineering job to be in media industry.
(I never wasted time correcting most of them. Sorry, I don't know why!)
After a few days, when they felt that I'm trustworthy and I can manage something better they asked me to do the long silent casting works for the reality show.
(This was some turning point.)
I was supposed to conduct auditions on my own for some 30 upcoming actors per day for the show and they wanted me to shoot the whole process in a handy cam. I was not even confidant enough to speak in Hindi and they wanted me to audition Hindi actors. Can you believe it? But I managed to do my work well. I enjoyed the whole process in deed, because I was the King inside audition hall and I used the opportunity to learn more about casting. I knew nothing. 

The progress was un-freaking believable, I could give situations to actors and make them act likewise, give them tips (You must be laughing your ass up, right?), encourage them and shoot the whole process. I repeat to most of them who understood only Hindi (or Marathi), I was communicating in English.
(They somehow understood my ‘fucked-up’ English and I understood Hindi in return !)
And the best part of the story is that most of the team leaders loved my work, most of them praised me!
(Thank God!)
For almost One and half months, I was a King. Then again life flipped 180 degree. After the silent casting process, I was asked to join the Acts team. Trust me the work is boring, or at least for me it was boring. Even after finishing the days work, we were not allowed to leave office. Do you know why? Intermediate leads were scared that super seniors might entrust some urgent works.
(They knew nothing about the show, they just do what seniors ask them to do.)
I disliked every bit of useless researching works. Why? Because, the Acts team was led by a pack of women who had no clue on the bigger picture.


( "Delusional, self-obsessed bitches", that's how one of my colleague yelled at when she quit her job.)
I was too immersed in delusional work of media and I never realized that workload was hectic. Or may be I never had time to think how tedious are the works. Sleepless nights became a common phenomenon gradually.
 After 6 months of non-stop works, I quit and became jobless again.

Quitter
It is not my middle name, even though I haven’t passed all Electronics and Communication papers.

But if what you are doing is not beneficial for you, then think about it from some other point of you. If the answer is same, then quitting is the best option. That is my policy.

Merits
·        Small productive crew is way better than a team comprising of numerous idiots.
·        No team will be productive, if it's led by pride women!

Advises
·        There is no need to have a Godfather to move on in the industry. Having a Godfather might make everything complex.
·        Being shy to start relations won't get you anywhere in writing. You have to experience and learn a bit more to create characters.
·        If you don't know something, then take risk and disguise that you are an expert in it. Trust me, you will eventually learn it.

What am I doing now ?
Get ready to laugh your ass up again.

I’m writing a crime drama (feature length) screenplay. This is just an experiment to see whether I can write. Zero percent winning chance, but I’m just trying my luck. It might take years, but I will do my best to finish this.
After all, every writer’s first ‘first drafts’ were nonsense. But later they all became what they are now.

Regards,
Lone Warrior.

" Miles and miles to go before I sleep...."
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