Shalom Namaste is a light political thriller with a high entertainment quotient. It is a good novel because of its readability factor. This is my second book from the author, previously I had read ‘Those Were the Days’ – that too had a tinge of nationalism with a lot of memories of the author growing in India of 60s and 70s and much more.
Broadly putting, this novel is about bringing back 5 people from countries like the UK, the USA, UAE, Singapore, and Pakistan. Who are they people? Most of them are economic offenders…except one…he is a sort of terrorist. The author showed clearly that who are going to be in the list by narrating their story in the first place. Apart from that, there are a lot of political meetings, inclusive of PM. There are over 50 people who have either taken huge loans from banks or did something grave and to avoid the persecution, they have left the country overnight illegally.
The current government is accountable to the people of country; also it wants to leave a hard lesson for fugitives. Thus, PMO and its allied team prepare a list of 50 fugitives but zeroed down on final 5. They are from real-estate, terrorism, diamond and gold business, and one corrupt media person. I don’t want to take the name of each offender. It may spoil the fun. The book is not a lengthy read, just 187 pages. I read it quite fast because of no complications and straight story pattern.
The lead characters are NSA Vasu and CSS Menon. They join hands with Israel’s Mossad to bring back these fugitives without hurting the political sentiments of their host countries. The novel is divided into three parts – personal stories, politics, and grabbing the fugitives. There is action in the story but not of that Hollywood type. I really loved how they captured that terrorist from Pakistan and Meera from the UK.
The author also did brilliant coverage for Mossad and Moshe by inculcating short stories of their bravery such as Entebble story of Uganda of Idi Amin and Eichmann story of a Nazi prosecutor. The novel doesn’t stop at any juncture. I will not say it as a pure political thriller; it is mix of general genre. This time, the author has penned down the story in a very credible and lucid way. Such a big and intense story narrated in simple words. Wow! That is something remarkably done by N.S. Ravi.
You can buy your copy from Amazon/Kindle.
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