Sulaiman Ahmad

Sulaiman Ahmad recently retired as a banking executive in a senior management position at an international bank.

Born in 1945, he started his career as a bank official at The State Bank of India in the year 1969, after a brief stint as a lecturer. He was operating at the level of General Manager at SBI, when he moved to Al Rajhi Bank, the biggest bank of Saudi Arabia and the largest Islamic bank in the world.

With four decades of experience in banking, both in India and overseas, he has covered the entire gamut of the banking universe, working in varied areas like branch banking & branch management, credit appraisal, small scale industries & small business financing, corporate banking, innovative banking, public relations and human resources/cadre management. Furthermore, he has at different points of time, held charge of international banking, limit administration of international banks & multinational corporate groups, structured trade, compliance issues as per central bank's regulations, and management of international legal cases and Special Purpose Companies. He also held the position of a Director on the Board of all the eleven European SPCs of Al Rajhi Bank.

Through his experiences in small-scale financing and innovative banking, he has developed an academic interest in theories and practices of microfinance. Some of this knowledge, he was able to test on the field. Similarly, his work with Al Rajhi also gave him a unique opportunity to understand and develop an insight into Islamic banking. He thinks this area is underexplored and would be happy if he gets an opportunity to probe it further to appreciate its essence.

In addition to his professional life, he has always had a keen interest in language, letters and people. He received a Master’s degree in English literature and a classical education in Urdu-Persian. Moreover, coming from a family background seeped in the tradition of Urdu literature and poetry, he could acquire an understanding of these literary traditions. Poetry and Literature have been important components of his life; he has been a very private poet reciting only in very private gatherings. However, upon persuasion of friends and family, it has recently been compiled with the idea of getting them published.

He has recently also attempted an adaptation of ‘Tilism-e-Hoshruba’ – a classic work of fiction in Urdu which draws on Indo-Arab-Iranian cultural heritage.

This adaptation is aimed at young readers but should also be of interest to adults, who would like to become familiar with world of Urdu epics and the traditional forms of storytelling. I believe this is a world more complex and multilayered, and certainly with richer oral traditions than some of the popular epics from the west. The work has been published by Hachette, India. Reading on international relations and being abreast with developments in this area has been my other keen interest. That includes my extensive readings on various versions of the tragic culmination of the story of the partition of India. 

About the book :-

‘AND THE TRICKSTERS OF THE WORLD WILL CALL HIM THEIR KING’ There’s never a dull moment with Amar Aiyaar: master of mischief, perpetrator of pranks, con artist with a conscience, trickster beyond compare. As the loyal companion of Ameer Hamza, the illustrious warrior from Arabia, Amar bravely, and brazenly, defeats every trap and overcomes every challenge, standing up to king, sorcerer and commoner alike. Right from childhood it’s clear that Amar, the son of a camel driver, is born to humble even emperors with his audacity and sharp wit. As Hamza’s army is magicked away into prison in Tilism-e-Hoshruba, the land of sorcery that stuns the senses, it falls upon Amar to rescue them. Using his cunning and his blessed bag of tricks, Amar Aiyaar blazes his way through the most extraordinary adventures with aplomb. Of course, he never ignores a chance to add to his fortunes, with a greedy eye on every purse of gold. At once roguish and honourable, superhero and villain, Amar Aiyaar is one of the most colourful characters in traditional storytelling in India. In the age-old great dastan of Tilism-e-Hoshruba, his is one of the most exciting and unforgettable stories of all time.