ROYAL T
As I sat down to give finishing touches to the draft (incidentally, the first one, though every draft is the final one until superseded) of my new book, I realized that the Tee Shirt I was wearing had the caption ROYAL across the chest. A Royal Tee, sounding the same as Royalty. Ah! Royalty, how have I been missing you? Believe me or not. I am an author. A genuine one at that and an original one. Not a copy cat, nor a translator or plagiarizer. Have been publishing also since last millennium. But the publishers have always denied paying any royalty to me. On the contrary, would you believe, I had to bear the entire cost of composing, art-work, printing, binding and what not, from my own pocket, already full of big holes for roof over the head, food, health care, children’s education etc. etc. etc. ?
One of my publishers had the guts to tell me that the Royalty has been constitutionally abolished way back in 1950, in fact earlier, by none other than our Lauh Purush Sardar Patel, and I had to agree. But that was the Royalty of a different kind. I never use WE or MAABADAULAT for personal reference. I don’t want any part of such Royalty. It reminds me of the “God Save The Queen” days which we could leave behind at a huge cost, including loosing brothers and reducing the country size. What I want is a small piece of cake that you would get by selling the immortal work of a possible Nobel Laureate. ‘But the writings (or junk?) created by new writers don’t sell’. Unfortunately for me, I will always be new as my pen-name itself is Naya, meaning new and has been so for over three decades.
One fine morning my morning tea was served in a tray having a caption “Royal Tea”. Ah! At last I got my Royal Tea. The Royalty cannot be far behind. This filled me with fresh determination to produce a bestseller. Fortunately I found a formula for making a book the Bestseller, in a reputed news paper. “Put a Girl on the Cover and No Cover on the Girl”. Accordingly I have decided to print the text “UNCOVERED GIRL” on the cover of my new book and pray for the Nobel. As they say, ask for a Cannon even if you want a pistol. If you agree, you deserve a Naya Award likely to be instituted from the Nobel proceeds.
V.C. Rai ‘Naya’
