Feeling satisfied and happy after sending paperback copies of my book, 'Who am I? I am I ...' to some top political leaders of India
Over the past few days, I first organized printing and sending of paperback copies of my book, "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation", https://pothi.com/pothi/book/ravi-s-iyer-ultimate-existential-reality-answer-vedanta-god-and-science to some top political leaders of my country, India. Then I followed up with their offices when the courier reported delivery of the book. This has been going on from 25th Sept. to today ( 5th Oct.) with most of the work done, except for 2 to 3 particular cases where delivery has been delayed due to some reason.
This set of leaders include current and a former Prime Minister, current and a former President, current Vice-President, current and former Chief Ministers of my first home state - Maharashtra - where I was born, educated, worked for a living and experienced various aspects of life, for most of the first four decades of my life, current Chief Minister of my current home state - Andhra Pradesh, current and former union ministers managing key portfolios of Education (HRD), Finance, Home, Defence, External Affairs, Science & Technology, Information Technology etc.
A typical introductory part of my mails to the offices of these VVIPs (Very Very Important Persons) was as follows:
Thank you sir (madam) for your service to the country.
I am glad to have the opportunity to express my gratitude and love to you, sir (madam), for the service you have rendered to the country, by sending you a copy of my first self-published book.
---end typical introductory part of my mails ---
I really mean the above. Today, in my mid 50s, I have a much better and wiser understanding of the important roles played by current and former top political leaders of the country and my former home and current home states, in facilitating peaceful and happy life for law-abiding and hard working citizens including me. Their role in protecting vital freedoms in India like freedom of speech and freedom of religion has been crucial, as becomes clear when compared to some neighbouring countries of India. It is such an environment of freedom that top political leadership of India protected and maintained that enabled me to explore spirituality, religion and sensitive topics like the God and Science conversation which form the key topics of my book.
If I were living in some other neighbouring country of India, I doubt I would have felt as free and relatively safe, as I felt in India while writing on these topics in my public blog and later converting most of that blog content into this self-published book, with paperback (at cost; no royalty to me) and ebook (free) versions.
As my readers would know, I have a publicly politically neutral stand in Indian (and most, if not all, other countries') politics. And I am a beneficiary, a lover and an open supporter of democracy, having lived all my life, mostly in democratic and sovereign India (I was born in 1962, 15 years after India got independence), and some periods spent in other democratic countries of the world.
I respect the leaders of various noted political parties in India. Further, opposition parties play a vital role in keeping an eye and check on ruling parties that are currently in power. So I respect opposition political leaders too for their contribution to sustaining democracy in India.
So I am feeling satisfied and happy that I have been able to send my paperback book copy to some top political leaders of India as a gesture of my gratitude and love. I thank the self-publishing platform (support) company, Pothi.com, that provided me the vital business service of a platform for self-publishing my book which includes print-on-demand facility to print decent quality paperback books, which in turn made it possible for me to express my gratitude and love to these VVIPs in this manner.
In most of the cases, I was able to follow up with the offices to confirm that the book was received, but not in all cases. I guess that a good number of these VVIP leaders would have found or will shortly find my book copy placed on their table. One problem is that I could not attach a covering letter to the book as I ordered the book with the self-publishing support company, Pothi.com and specified the shipping address as that of the VVIP's office. I sent emails to their offices which provided the covering letter equivalent but I doubt that the VVIP office staff would print such an email and place it along with the book on the VVIP's table. Today, I realize that I made a mistake in this matter. I should have first got copies of the book delivered to me. Then I should have attached a specific letter for each VVIP, packaged the book and covering letter together, and then couriered the package to the VVIP office. That would have been much more work and some additional cost for me but given that access to VVIP himself/herself is almost impossible on phone for persons like me, I should have taken up that additional work for these VVIP cases.
Do I expect those VVIPs who see my book copy on their table, to read it? Not really. Perhaps some might flip a few pages and then either keep it aside or pass it on to somebody else. Some may even wonder why the book was sent to them as there is no covering letter, and so just keep it aside without bothering to go through it. [That's how important it is to have the covering letter being physically with the book copy when sent to VVIPs. I realized that too late!]
But some may read some parts. These VVIPs play a vital role in top level policy making. I hope the current and former union HRD (education) ministers do read some parts of my book - all 3 of such current and former HRD ministers to whose offices I sent the book, (their offices) confirmed receipt of my book. These HRD ministers played, or are playing, or may play in future, a vital role in formulating education policy in India.
One former union minister who studied Engineering in an IIT in India and did post-graduation in a Carnegie Mellon University college in USA, pleasantly surprised me - actually thrilled me - by responding to me on email and telling me that he looks forward to reading my book soon! I will be glad if he reads some parts of the book whenever he can squeeze out some time.
Sometime later I plan to extend this gratitude and love offering to ambassadors (to India) of some countries that I have either lived in and had a good time, or did software development project work for companies of that country which led to me getting paid decent money, or countries that were beneficial to my life in some other way. I plan to first check with their offices whether they would like to have this offering of gratitude and love from me, and if they are willing to accept it then I will send them the book.
These countries are:
1) USA
2) Belgium
3) Russia
4) Netherlands
5) Germany
6) UK
7) South Korea
8) Japan
9) Singapore
This set of leaders include current and a former Prime Minister, current and a former President, current Vice-President, current and former Chief Ministers of my first home state - Maharashtra - where I was born, educated, worked for a living and experienced various aspects of life, for most of the first four decades of my life, current Chief Minister of my current home state - Andhra Pradesh, current and former union ministers managing key portfolios of Education (HRD), Finance, Home, Defence, External Affairs, Science & Technology, Information Technology etc.
A typical introductory part of my mails to the offices of these VVIPs (Very Very Important Persons) was as follows:
Thank you sir (madam) for your service to the country.
I am glad to have the opportunity to express my gratitude and love to you, sir (madam), for the service you have rendered to the country, by sending you a copy of my first self-published book.
---end typical introductory part of my mails ---
I really mean the above. Today, in my mid 50s, I have a much better and wiser understanding of the important roles played by current and former top political leaders of the country and my former home and current home states, in facilitating peaceful and happy life for law-abiding and hard working citizens including me. Their role in protecting vital freedoms in India like freedom of speech and freedom of religion has been crucial, as becomes clear when compared to some neighbouring countries of India. It is such an environment of freedom that top political leadership of India protected and maintained that enabled me to explore spirituality, religion and sensitive topics like the God and Science conversation which form the key topics of my book.
If I were living in some other neighbouring country of India, I doubt I would have felt as free and relatively safe, as I felt in India while writing on these topics in my public blog and later converting most of that blog content into this self-published book, with paperback (at cost; no royalty to me) and ebook (free) versions.
As my readers would know, I have a publicly politically neutral stand in Indian (and most, if not all, other countries') politics. And I am a beneficiary, a lover and an open supporter of democracy, having lived all my life, mostly in democratic and sovereign India (I was born in 1962, 15 years after India got independence), and some periods spent in other democratic countries of the world.
I respect the leaders of various noted political parties in India. Further, opposition parties play a vital role in keeping an eye and check on ruling parties that are currently in power. So I respect opposition political leaders too for their contribution to sustaining democracy in India.
So I am feeling satisfied and happy that I have been able to send my paperback book copy to some top political leaders of India as a gesture of my gratitude and love. I thank the self-publishing platform (support) company, Pothi.com, that provided me the vital business service of a platform for self-publishing my book which includes print-on-demand facility to print decent quality paperback books, which in turn made it possible for me to express my gratitude and love to these VVIPs in this manner.
In most of the cases, I was able to follow up with the offices to confirm that the book was received, but not in all cases. I guess that a good number of these VVIP leaders would have found or will shortly find my book copy placed on their table. One problem is that I could not attach a covering letter to the book as I ordered the book with the self-publishing support company, Pothi.com and specified the shipping address as that of the VVIP's office. I sent emails to their offices which provided the covering letter equivalent but I doubt that the VVIP office staff would print such an email and place it along with the book on the VVIP's table. Today, I realize that I made a mistake in this matter. I should have first got copies of the book delivered to me. Then I should have attached a specific letter for each VVIP, packaged the book and covering letter together, and then couriered the package to the VVIP office. That would have been much more work and some additional cost for me but given that access to VVIP himself/herself is almost impossible on phone for persons like me, I should have taken up that additional work for these VVIP cases.
Do I expect those VVIPs who see my book copy on their table, to read it? Not really. Perhaps some might flip a few pages and then either keep it aside or pass it on to somebody else. Some may even wonder why the book was sent to them as there is no covering letter, and so just keep it aside without bothering to go through it. [That's how important it is to have the covering letter being physically with the book copy when sent to VVIPs. I realized that too late!]
But some may read some parts. These VVIPs play a vital role in top level policy making. I hope the current and former union HRD (education) ministers do read some parts of my book - all 3 of such current and former HRD ministers to whose offices I sent the book, (their offices) confirmed receipt of my book. These HRD ministers played, or are playing, or may play in future, a vital role in formulating education policy in India.
One former union minister who studied Engineering in an IIT in India and did post-graduation in a Carnegie Mellon University college in USA, pleasantly surprised me - actually thrilled me - by responding to me on email and telling me that he looks forward to reading my book soon! I will be glad if he reads some parts of the book whenever he can squeeze out some time.
Sometime later I plan to extend this gratitude and love offering to ambassadors (to India) of some countries that I have either lived in and had a good time, or did software development project work for companies of that country which led to me getting paid decent money, or countries that were beneficial to my life in some other way. I plan to first check with their offices whether they would like to have this offering of gratitude and love from me, and if they are willing to accept it then I will send them the book.
These countries are:
1) USA
2) Belgium
3) Russia
4) Netherlands
5) Germany
6) UK
7) South Korea
8) Japan
9) Singapore
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