Banking's the most exciting industry to be in, says author Ravi Subramanian

Success Quotient is a weekly feature that appears every Friday on Firstpost, which looks at the pains and joys en route to success for a head honcho - whether a CEO, MD or an entrepreneur. The column looks at the ideas that helped launch a company, its highs and lows. Ravi Subramanian is, besides being the Executive Director of Sriram City Union Finance, a celebrated author of thrillers that have most often than not focused on banks. An author of seven bestsellers, Subramanian’s eight book will be out in September this year. He talks to Firstpost of his life as an author and how being a successful author can be a full-time profession in India. Excerpts from the conversation [caption id=“attachment_2281510” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image: Ravi Subramanian’s blog[/caption] Tell us about your journey as an author. When did you discover you could write and write a full length novel at that? It has been a roller-coaster for sure. Not until I turned 35 did I realise that I could write. Apart from penning the odd short story, or the rare poem, which many teenagers write, most of my writing had been restricted to business projections, corporate presentations, appraisal emails etc. I was a boring banker, until one day I decided to write a story. I had always wanted to write though, but neither had the confidence nor the time to write one. It was in early 2006, that my wife, who at that time was with Citibank, went away for a one month training program. I had a six-year-old daughter. She made sure that I was tied to home after work. How long can one watch TV? So I started writing. And the story took off in a fascinating manner and gripped me thoroughly that I rested only after I finished the book, If God was a Banker. I was around 36 then. Who did you share your secret with first – that you could write and what was the reaction? My wife. She was aware that I wanted to write. So it was not a shock for her. She was fine with the idea of me writing books. The only condition she had was that I should not quit my job to write. I was fine with that condition. And my first book happened. Your books have had banks as the milieu. My books are about banks because I am a lazy writer. When I write about banks, I don’t need to do much research. It comes naturally to me. And given my background in this space, my life revolves around banking. Hence I also get to hear a lot about what goes on in this space. I think there is no field which lends itself to thrillers as banking does. What do you need to write a good thriller - Money, crime, investigation, frauds, people, relationships, sleaze, deceit… banking has all of them and more. It offers the perfect setting for writing a thriller. You have held important positions and jobs. How do you find the time to pen thrillers with its edge-of-the-seat stories to growing business in your role as a banker? When you have a passion, you always find time for it. You organise your day better so that you are able to balance a vocation and avocation. I start my day early. And hence finish early too. It gives me ample time after getting back home to spend with my family and pursue my passion. Yes, it does take a toll on socialising and watching TV. But I am fine with all this as long as giving all this means writing a good book. Is being a writer a paying profession in India? Are you ever tempted to being a writer only? When If God was a Banker came out in 2007, it was priced Rs 195. Today, all my books are priced around Rs 300. I have been fighting with my publishers to take the price up. That’s because I feel that books are undervalued (and not under-priced) in India. The day we value books, we will be willing to pay a price for them. Books drive the culture of a generation. That’s the impact it has on society. And they need to be valued. Only then will everyone in the books ecosystem make a good living off books - author, retailer and publisher - all included. I would never want to give up my corporate job and become a full-time author. I write for fun. The fact that I make enough from writing - enough to live a comfortable life on my writing income is a bonus. The day I quit my job and become a full-time writer, it will become just another job for me. The fun will go out of my life. So till the day it is physically possible, I will do both parallelly. The day I feel that I am ignoring one for the other, I will take a call that day. And that call can go either way. Which amongst your books has had a fantastic print run and also sold the maximum? Print runs these days don’t make much sense because they are entirely market-driven. A book with a higher pre-order goes in for a higher print run while that with a lower pre-order goes in for a lower print run. In days gone by, it used to take weeks for a book to be printed and put back in the market. Hence print runs were very critical. These days a typical re-order to delivery time frame is four days. Hence nobody really piles up on inventory. That said, my first book, which is my most successful book, by virtue of the fact that it has been around for eight years now, had a print run of 2,000 copies. My books these days have print runs of 75,000-10,0000 copies. The banking industry shows up quite shady and its undercurrents are too strong in your novels. What, in your opinion, makes it possible to break into its rigid systems, several layers of security, etc.? If you look at crime, the world over, you will be able to identify two common threads running across - Greed and Lust. Greed for money. And lust for sex, power and fame. Banking is an indispensible fixture when it comes to money and power. That’s why I guess people figure out a way to break rules, compromise systems and kill security procedure. Also, people have this idiotic thought that they will never get caught. It is also a fact that most of our banking systems today rely on ‘adherence in spirit’ and not spirited adherence. This has a role to play too. What is the message through your books on the world of banks, finance? No message at all. I intend taking readers on a roller-coaster ride. An adrenalin packed journey through this world. If you insist that I list out a message, then the only message I try giving out is that banking is far from being a boring routine, a career option that most people these days think it is. It is by far the most exciting industry one can work in.