The First Lady Of Roli Petroleum

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The novel revolves around a small group of Indians who work for Roli Petroleum in Lagos, the biggest city of West Africa. A few of these breadwinners live with their families in Lagos while most others have left their families behind. These expatriates have been leading nondescript lives in the staff quarters of the company until one of them, Dhananjay Diwan, is promoted to the post of the Managing Director of the company. Dhananjay's power hungry wife, Savita, becomes the self-styled 'First Lady' of the company and starts to create havoc with the private lives of the employees of the company. She demands complete subservience from the employees and their wives and the Indian diaspora meekly caves in. She even browbeats a young colleague of her husband to become her lover. Savita enjoys an unchallenged run at the top until Sameer, a former close friend and trusted colleague of Dhananjay, starts questioning her authority to interfere in the company affairs. Savita tasks her husband to sack Sameer but Sameer is a tough nut to crack. He is no less Machiavellian than the First Lady and a protracted battle ensues thereupon. The novel captures the colourful and tyrannical life of Savita Diwan and her steady rise to power and her sudden fall. The book also deals with the travails in lives of young men who live in far off countries, separated from their families. It also brings to fore the fact that some young separated wives actually encourage their husbands to stay away to earn the greenbacks even if the husbands want to come back to their homeland to live with their families.

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Sudhir Sakhasatyam Bisht is the former COO and Executive Director of a multimillion dollar Telecoms infrastructure company in Lagos. Born in Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi, brought up in Moti Bagh and Lodhi Colony, Sudhir studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sec 8, RK Puram and then graduated from Hindu College, Delhi University. He completed his education by studying for his MBA at the University of Jodhpur. Many years later, Sudhir undertook a course in Journalism from YMCA, New Delhi. Sudhir has been in the corporate world for the past 24 years. He is also a prolific writer who has been contributing articles to many National Dailies and popular websites. These include the Daily Pioneer, rediff.com and saharareporters.com. He now owns his own consulting company which aims to bring Indian and African businesses closer.He can be reached at sakhasatyam@yahoo.co.in.