Kolkata: Life has come full circle for the Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan. From being signed by Little, Brown and Company for the book deals that made her richer by $5,00,000  – a staggering amount for an unknown writer – she is now the most-hated name in the world of publishing after being accused of plagiarising parts of her recently published novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. Although, she calls it ‘internalising’ the thoughts of others – how euphemistic can one get? – nobody is listening.

 

Evidently, the illusion of shortcut to fame and fortune tempted her to be a copycat. After all, very few people can wait patiently for the $5,00,000 bait: it is not easy to resist such a temptation in this era of super computers and a fast-moving world. Kudos to the keen readers who discovered the similarity between her novel and the pieces she has been guilty of copying from.

 

Now, the question remains whether Little, Brown and Company should be held responsible for the works it publishes. Or, did the similitude catch the eyes of the compnay bosses only to be ignored for some other reason? Who knows Viswanathan’s apology might have come out of some clandestine deal fetching her more money than the original deal! However, the exclusive winners of the brouhaha are the readers. Once again, Abraham Lincoln is proved right through ‘You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time’. And, this will certainly dishearten the likes of Viswanathan from all over the world.

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