My first book reading and interview

I have been preparing to do some book readings and signings at different venues, including book stores, with my book God and Destiny. Therefore, when I received a request for a reading and interview in the 3D-virtual-world Second Life, I accepted it happily, thinking it will be a good preparation for my real-life events, and indeed it turned out to be a wonderful experience, thanks to the intelligent and inquisitive interviewer and audience, who asked me some very good questions. Here is the link to the transcript of the whole programme:

http://www.godanddestiny.com/interview/

FAQ

One day, the maid who comes to my apartment for cleaning and washing cloths asked me, “Why don’t you get married?” I said, “Two women come to this house—you for cleaning and the other for cooking; they stay here for a total time of one hour, but they talk so much that by the time they leave, I feel drained, exhausted. Can you imagine what will happen to me if I get married and a woman stays with me 24/7!”

shot hat

My chat with a random stranger on 27-05-2010 20:43:25:

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

Stranger: m 22 uk

You: m 37 India

Stranger: black bastard

You: carry on

Stranger: carry on wat wat can u do to me
Stranger: blow me up

You: abuse me more

Stranger: why
Stranger: ?

You: just want to know all that you feel about the race I belong to.

Stranger: i feel people like you a child beaters and war starters i dont think you should be aloud to abuse your children
Stranger: in any way shape or form
Stranger: ?

You: and what else?

Stranger: thats it?

You: is that all?

Stranger: yea why
Stranger: ?

You: well, I thought there is more hatred inside you.

Stranger: no why would u think that i am a honest person who will tell anyone haw i feeel if there r summut the devil brings into the world
Stranger: ?

You: are you white?

Stranger: yes and proud why?

You: and you are honest too, cuz many white people have the superiority complex and hatred for people of other races but they dont express it.

Stranger: well i do avt got a problem with you its just alot of people hurt there children in india
Stranger: ? have you got owt to say

You: How do we hurt our children?

Stranger: u work them like a horse the children over there looks after the adults
Stranger: and olnt thing there get is shot hat

You: shot hat?

Stranger: yh

You: what is a shot hat?

Stranger: well iam going avt got time to speak to people who r war causers sorry buy

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

One year of being an author

My first book, God and Destiny: The Supreme Knowledge, was published by Rupa & Co. on first April, 2009, so yesterday I completed an year of being an author, and this year has passed very quickly—I can’t stop myself from saying, “Time flies,” even if it is a cliché. I am smiling when I write that it was an interesting, eventful, proud, busy, not very successful but mostly happy year.

Many of you may still not be knowing that my book has been published and is available in both physical and online bookstores, because I wanted to announce its publication in style—by inviting you to the book launch function or passing you on a link of an article or news about it in a reputable medium—but I could not do so, because I could not timely organize a book launch function, which I had planned to be grand and huge to an unforeseen scale, and the articles published about the book in the print media were not good enough to be shown to you. So the main purpose of this post is to let all of my friends and acquaintances who are not yet aware of the publication of my book know about it being out there.

In the first year of its publication, the sale of God and Destiny was not anywhere close to my expectations, I could not execute the majority of plans I had made for its promotion, and the main thing on which I spent my time for its publicity failed. But my efforts are on, and there were some positives too: I noticed a positive comment of a reader about the book on the Web; some sellers listed the book on Amazon.com, making it available at very reasonable price for US residents, and people are actually purchasing it from there too; the book got a place in the library of the Indian parliament; and this is what a reader from Mumbai (Hormasd Sumariwalla) had to say about the book in an email he sent to me on January 01, 2010:

“I convey my deep gratitude to you for your book God & Destiny which I consider a treasure, and which is one-in-a-million that one can find in the mountain of "so-called" spiritual books.”

His was the first email I read this year, and I thought, “Oh my God, what a wonderful way to begin an year!”

More information about the book is on its website, http://www.godanddestiny.com/. Thanks again to all of you for your love and support.

Regards,
Vivake Pathak

next time

This is an excerpt of a news I read in Hindustan Times:

>>>
New Delhi, January 23, 2010: A 32-year-old man was beaten to death by two young men after he protested against their urinating on his wall in west Delhi, police said. According Delhi Police data, the Capital saw some bizarre murder cases in 2009 as far as motives are concerned. Among these, figure cases like a man murdering his neighbour because the latter had kicked his dog at Ranhola village in Outer Delhi. In another case, a man was killed for breaking the queue at a public toilet in Civil Lines. In New Friends Colony in South Delhi, a man was killed for refusing to let another person make a call from his cell phone.
<<<

Considering the above, I would say that next time be careful if you decide to stop someone from urinating on your property, to kick your neighbor's dog, to break the queue at a public toilet, or to refuse to let a stranger make a call from your cell phone. But above all, next time, if somebody stops you from urinating on their property, your neighbor or anyone kicks your dog, someone breaks the queue at a public toilet, or a stranger refuses to let you make a call from their cell phone, then you definitely know what you have to do.