Hierarchy, power & fun

Jack is Back In Corporate Carnival
By P.G. Bhaskar.
Harper Collins. Pages 134. Rs 250

when East meets Middle-East and is juxtaposed with the West, a series of hilarious situations is bound to arise. Compound that with a jet-setting banker and you have the backdrop for a corporate comedy. Add family for good measure and you have a winner on your hands. That is exactly what P.G. Bhaskar’s book, Jack is Back in Corporate Carnival, succeeds in doing.

P.G. Bhaskar, the author of Jack is Back in Corporate Carnival, is based in Dubai. Having lived there since 1992, he has had ample opportunity to know the workings of the city and as a banker he had the added advantage of knowing his character well, who is also in the banking business. He is also the bestselling author of Jack Patel’s Dubai Dreams. His playfulness with words and apparent spontaneity with situations that his characters face; makes this a very interesting book.

The book revolves around the life of two friends, Jai or Jack Patel and Kitch who find themselves relocated to Dubai after a short hiatus. It chronicles their life with all its hilarity, absurdness and banality. Being a part of a British bank in Dubai that has a complex hierarchy and one that everyone seeks to be at top of, Jack can be seen vying for personal accounts to earn respect and a personal space in the parking. With a multi-cultural gang of friends and family, there is never a dull moment. To make things better, Jack lands quirky clients who could spice up a dull year with a single meeting.

From a soccer-obsessed builder to one who pesters him to open an account for the Somali pirates interested in investing ransom money, he has a vivid clientele that has him dancing in South Africa to Waka Waka resulting in embarrassing pictures published in newspapers. The book also has a decent dose of saccharine-sweet romantic poetry (romance can be funny too!). It is a good book to relive stress and have the happy hormones flowing. — AG

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