Greed Lust Addiction, along with the Hindi version, Lalach Vasna Lat, has been written by Ravi Dabral – an author with Indian roots who lives in Singapore and is a commodity trader by profession. His novel has been very popular among the youths as well as the persons who are working and well-settled. Though the theme of the novel by Ravi isn’t that simple and youth-friendly to an extent, yet, his novel talks about the issues that are related to common human beings in every way. We all lead our lives in a common society where things like corruption, greed, crime, politics, police and social issues matter a lot. Greed Lust Addiction deals with these issues very openly and tries to establish that we all must be vigilant when it comes to getting something better out of the society we live in.

The novel is based on the story of a journalist working with a tv channel who comes close to expose the corrupt police officers, politicians and others involved in a nexus that is hazardous for the lives of common human beings in the society. Suraj is the journalist and he is murdered (there is a twist) by the people involved in corruption who believe that Suraj might ruin their fortunes made from others’ adversaries. Now, this is the pretext and all is revealed through a diary-narrative. The diary by Suraj is read by Vijay, his younger brother. After getting the facts about Suraj, Vijay is more curious to know about the hows and whys and he teams up with Sima and sets out to meet Guru Ji who has been discussed with respect by Suraj in his diary. Now, this journey will expose many things and is the meat of the plot.

About the theme, it deals with spiritual aspects of human life and how spiritualism can help the society in improving itself and getting rid of the problems like corruption, lust, greed, envy and many others. Guruji is the character who holds the theme in the second part of the novel after the diary narrative is over. Social issues can be dealt with only by entering the social structure and that is very well depicted by Ravi Dabral in his debut novel Greed Lust Addiction. The formation of political party, Human Welfare Party and then the formal entry of the ‘improvement squad’ and heads on battle with the evil forces – it shows that the novelist did not only aim at entertaining but also throwing forward his vision of an ideal society.

I am impressed with the theme of the novel and I do believe that the plot could be a little more than what it is. Ravi’s language is a very well-played armour – it’s easy to comprehend in Hindi as well as in English. So, he will reach and appeal a mass audience with his work that directly concerns the common people.

Overall, I am rating this novel with 3.8/5 stars. I am rating it high because of a wide theme. The downside in the novel may be the plot which is a little obvious going forward. However, in the beginning, the author has maintained the curiosity very well and has spun it nicely throughout (to an extent). I will recommend this work to the readers with interest in reading uncommon fiction, thriller novels and also novels with spiritual twists and turns.

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Review by Kundan for Intellectual Reader