31 is a thriller on how life revolves in a multinational corporate bank in India. When I was chosen by Blog Adda to review this book, I was pleasantly surprised on how the author of 31, Upendra Namburi has made the situations a manager is in akin to reality. Secondly, it struck a chord with me as it was related to my interest – Sales.
The exact copy of the cover of the book I received (picture courtesy: thehindu.com)
It has all the ingredients as one would expect in a corporate ‘thriller’. All the managerial melancholy that takes place: from junior to manager to senior to super seniors. The protagonist, Ravi Shastry, is the guy who tries hard to upturn the tide in his favour when his company is pulling the plug and runs a tight ship to prove his mettle to his bosses even when surrounded by a credit card scam and a manipulative HR manager.
Not only is he faced with task of preventing his performers to be poached, but is also trying to secure his behind when and if he is axed.
31 paints a grim picture of Indian bosses and a foreign one as such. It depicts how the daily grind for any middle level manager is not in just indulging the luxuries of the gleaming designation but in fact to tactfully tackle boss’ antics and manipulative behavior.
Especially when its time to jump ship, bosses are out to save their own skin, nobody is nobody’s best friend.
Overall the author has highlighted how corporate life of a middle level manager can ruin his personal life – having an affair, indulging in illegal activities, getting framed, how one’s life pretty much revolves around a Blackberry, getting hooked to a social media site like Twitter which acts like the office grapevine – for good.
What caught my fancy is they manner in which the chapters are narrated. Each chapter is a day in the life of the most crucial and the toughest month for every person in Sales: March. As March spells appraisals, bonuses’ and employee reviews.
31 chapters in all the book and each depicts the event at specific time, twists and turns galore.
I would recommend this book to a lot of students and just-started-their-career and first-job-ers as it gives you a glimpse of corporate life and the taste of the real world. All in all this is an interesting book, a page turner right in the middle, all woven in a lucid language.
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