Disguised Blessings – An Interesting True Story !

Have you ever wondered why people say, ‘It is a blessing in disguise’? Maybe it’s because it is the norm of blessings to come in disguised form so that the ignorant and visionless will not pick what does not rightfully belong to them.

I have always been good at writing short stories even from my school days and my interest is in motivating pupils to excel. One day, I read a magazine submission request for short stories with a prize being offered for the successful story. I went home and wrote two interesting short stories that I submitted via my email. I waited and waited but heard nothing from that magazine. After two months, I submitted two more stories to no avail and so it became a routine and by the end of that year, I had submitted what I thought were twelve classic short stories.

Then, it happened one day that I picked up a new issue of that magazine and guess what?! It contained my short story just as I had written it without my name. It was plagiarism at its best – not a single word was changed. I became suspicious and I hunted for the past issues of that magazine and discovered six of my short stories were published. On none of them, was I acknowledged, but I was replaced by a funny name.

I first thought of litigation, and then a golden revelation struck me. If they could publish six of my stories, it meant that I was good, a well-established writer. I was going to beat them at their own game. I was going to be a writer and publisher. So, being a teacher, I started a school magazine that is currently selling like hot cakes. I sometimes ask myself what would have happened had these crooks not cheated me.