The Unadorned

My literary blog to keep track of my creative moods with poems n short stories, book reviews n humorous prose, travelogues n photography, reflections n translations, both in English n Hindi.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

The Invisible Guarantor

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It would sound funny and so I'm eager to share it.

Today I received a surprise phone-call from a book-seller of Port Blair. He introduced his talk with a sudden regret that he was delayed in sending the amount that was due to me as the sale-proceeds of my book "The Remix of Orchid". The amount is not verily great, say a little over a thousand bucks, and that is why I had had no great worry while sending my books for sale with little or no guarantee. What surprised me was that the consignment was shipped to him some three years ago and he remembered only today to say "Sorry" for not remitting the money! Okay, it doesn't matter--don't they say it, better late than never. Otherwise, it is not a single case; there are book-sellers from Mumbai, Jaipur, Thiruvanthapuram, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Delhi, Jodhpur, Indore, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Shimla who have not yet paid my due, but they have not felt the need of saying "Sorry" to me. I've even reminded them and received no response so far. What could be the reason that inspired my lovely little bookseller from the mid-sea city called Port Blair to make amends for his commercial silence?

I was reminded of a joke that I read some years ago: A dentist doesn't have to remind his patients to pay the bill outstanding against them; he just waits for the onset of another bout of toothache in them!

So, the reason why this particular bookseller is suddenly reminded of my due is that some orders are in the offing. He needs more copies to sell. It's okay if that is how the matter has developed.

And here's another fact for me to take note of. Good books, not the block-buster ones, gain in popularity in time. Should I start dreaming that "The Remix of Orchid" is due for its second edition?
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By
A. N. Nanda
08-06-2019

Muzaffarpur

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