Ideally, Anita Raghavan’s The Billionaire’s Apprentice can be reviewed in the one word question that Anil Kumar’s son asked his father once he heard about the latter’s crime: “Why?”

In that question lies the summary of the book.

Precisely the response that you as a reader will have after reading this riveting story of grit and greatness that was finally seduced and brought to the ground by greed.

Rajat Gupta began with very little. He lost his parents. But never for a moment did he lose his way.

He brought up his siblings single-handedly. Saw himself through school and college and them through their early lives.

After college at IIT, he took the plane to America to carve out a career and life for himself. Which he did with impeccable talent and tenacity.

He rose to become the Managing Director of McKinsey worldwide. Well before Indians had even dreamt of corner offices in the most hallowed corporate corners.

In his role, Gupta walked with kings. Measured steps with the mighty. Rubbed shoulders with the rich.

When he retired, he had the world at his feet. It was a majestic career in which he had amassed millions in money. Yet even more in respect.

Any sane man would have walked into the sunset in his sprawling estate in charming Connecticut.

Not Gupta. Sadly.

I have a theory about the rich and the powerful.

They are what Josephine Hart called “damaged people: they know they can survive”.

Sometimes behind the cloaks of their cash. And sometimes behind the curtain of the power they have.

They believe that they can get by.

Gupta believed that he could get by.

That’s where Raj Rajaratnam, comes into the story.

A hedge-fund hustler who was quick to convert opportunities.

One of which was Gupta and other his lackey at McKinsey, a furiously fractured and flawed Anil Kumar who ultimately betrayed not just the trust of his conscience and clients – but even his mentor, Gupta.

The book pieces together the disintegration of Gupta.

From a keeper of secrets to a trader of tips.

With every page you read you see Gupta’s dignity trickling down his forehead like sickening sweat.

For me, the book was not just an account of what happened to and with Gupta.

Gupta is just the mirror to the malaise.

The malaise is larger.

This is, in the ultimate analysis, the story of how poor the rich can be.

And therein lies the sadness of the story.

Rajat Gupta spent a lifetime providing answers to his clients. He will now spend the rest of his life amidst a flood of both questions and being questionable.

He has not been jailed.

But to live in the prison of your ruined reputation is a sentence far more unforgiving.

A brilliant book. Masterfully written.