<p class="bodytext">The US President, Donald Trump, openly tried to secure a Nobel Peace Prize this year, but to no avail. Whether he is a genuine peace broker remains debatable. Some twenty-five years ago, when a maestro in the world of music was awarded the Bharat Ratna, it was reported that the renowned classical vocalist, the late Pandit Jasraj, was peeved at being overlooked for the country's highest civilian honour. </p>.<p class="bodytext">As for me, with an utterly mediocre calibre in every field, I have never received any prize in my life, barring a few medals for completing various half-marathons around the time of my retirement – and I am quite content with that. But once, when I was in pre-engineering, the thought of not winning a single prize, while everyone around me seemed to have one for academics, sports or extracurricular activities, struck me deeply. That is when the ordeal began. </p>.Bonding with cousins.<p class="bodytext">In those days, Hindi newspapers and assorted magazines carried an advertisement screaming, <span class="italic"><em>Inaam Jeetiye</em></span>, where one had to fill the smaller squares of a large square with numbers so that the sum of each horizontal row and vertical column came to the same number, X. The ad included an example where the total differed slightly from X as a hint. A transistor radio was assured as a prize if one filled the grid correctly. Overpowered by the desire to win something, I completed the square and posted it to the advertising company. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Some eight or ten days later, when I saw the postman approaching our house, I felt a strange tingling of excitement. He said there was a VPP in my name. I went forward, expecting to sign his register, but he insisted the parcel would be delivered only if I paid Rs 70. Crestfallen, I asked him to return the next day. I immediately checked the advertisement and was dismayed to find, in the fine print, that winner had to bear half the cost of the transistor.</p>.<p class="bodytext">When my father returned from the office, I narrated the incident. He said he would arrange the money, provided the transistor was a Murphy or Philips and had three bands.</p>.<p class="bodytext">I hurried to consult my classmates in the neighbourhood. They all dissuaded me from paying. One of them had won a similar "prize"—a single-band, local-brand transistor—and felt thoroughly duped. I told my father.</p>.<p class="bodytext">When the postman came again, I told him, dejectedly, that I did not want the VPP. And so my strong desire to win a prize during my student days was shattered. When my articles see the light of day, they more than make up for that long-lost prize as I approach my seventies. </p>
<p class="bodytext">The US President, Donald Trump, openly tried to secure a Nobel Peace Prize this year, but to no avail. Whether he is a genuine peace broker remains debatable. Some twenty-five years ago, when a maestro in the world of music was awarded the Bharat Ratna, it was reported that the renowned classical vocalist, the late Pandit Jasraj, was peeved at being overlooked for the country's highest civilian honour. </p>.<p class="bodytext">As for me, with an utterly mediocre calibre in every field, I have never received any prize in my life, barring a few medals for completing various half-marathons around the time of my retirement – and I am quite content with that. But once, when I was in pre-engineering, the thought of not winning a single prize, while everyone around me seemed to have one for academics, sports or extracurricular activities, struck me deeply. That is when the ordeal began. </p>.Bonding with cousins.<p class="bodytext">In those days, Hindi newspapers and assorted magazines carried an advertisement screaming, <span class="italic"><em>Inaam Jeetiye</em></span>, where one had to fill the smaller squares of a large square with numbers so that the sum of each horizontal row and vertical column came to the same number, X. The ad included an example where the total differed slightly from X as a hint. A transistor radio was assured as a prize if one filled the grid correctly. Overpowered by the desire to win something, I completed the square and posted it to the advertising company. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Some eight or ten days later, when I saw the postman approaching our house, I felt a strange tingling of excitement. He said there was a VPP in my name. I went forward, expecting to sign his register, but he insisted the parcel would be delivered only if I paid Rs 70. Crestfallen, I asked him to return the next day. I immediately checked the advertisement and was dismayed to find, in the fine print, that winner had to bear half the cost of the transistor.</p>.<p class="bodytext">When my father returned from the office, I narrated the incident. He said he would arrange the money, provided the transistor was a Murphy or Philips and had three bands.</p>.<p class="bodytext">I hurried to consult my classmates in the neighbourhood. They all dissuaded me from paying. One of them had won a similar "prize"—a single-band, local-brand transistor—and felt thoroughly duped. I told my father.</p>.<p class="bodytext">When the postman came again, I told him, dejectedly, that I did not want the VPP. And so my strong desire to win a prize during my student days was shattered. When my articles see the light of day, they more than make up for that long-lost prize as I approach my seventies. </p>
