In Printed Letters

I had gone to this gathering of high society people on an invitation – no idea why I was invited there – maybe people still have faith on youth and get inspired when they see fresh blood. Well, that’s about it, cause am sure, I had not contributed much to the meeting. Anyways, one way I gained from the meeting was that I got to know that two of my articles have come out in a published book. Feels good J. The two articles are titled – (1) South-East Asia in India’s Look East Policy – Emerging Trends and (2) India-Malaysia Relations – the Road Ahead. With regards to the second article I am indebted to this great lady from Malaysia – Puan Janaky Athi Nahappan. She had given me a great overview of her country and had triggered my interest in Malaysia. She is a celebrity there and her contribution to the formation of the Malaysian Republic is colossal. I was honoured to be in touch with her on her visit to Kolkata, a few years back.

Till today evening, I had no idea that the two articles had actually been published in a book of compilations and a when a professor who had the book showed it to me, I was overjoyed. I opened the book, checked the contents and there was my name printed in bold letters :). Well, even though I must admit that such articles are not my forte, I tried my hand in writing them and feels quite nice actually to see your name in printed letters. Imagine the situation - an entire team of people- wasted precious paper, ink, time, money and man-power to publish the shit I wrote and then, theoretically some poor souls wasted their parents' hard earned money to actually read what I wrote. It's like - I have sent an entire team of people on a wild goose chase, by spending a few hours writing these few pages of stuff - the very thought is quite heady - I must say....

However, my joy was short-lived, when on checking my details at the end of the articles; I realized that the biggest mistake which has been committed by the publishing house is that - they have missed a dot between my name and surname while declaring my email id. “The author can be reached at (a wrong email id)” Sob Sob. Now no one can actually mail me and let me know how they feel about the articles.

On second thoughts, maybe, just maybe, the publishing house did the mistake deliberately – Probably they thought that the articles are so trashy, that the only e-mails the guy is going to receive would be hate mails (or maybe e-shoes – now that throwing shoes is a big fashion- maybe in a few years time, it may replace bowling as middle-aged people’s favourite pass-time). So, in order to save me the blushes, the ever-sympathetic publishing house subtly removed the dot from my email id. Now some poor guy with no fault of his will be receiving hate mails because of me. I’m Loving it.