Temptation

They asked me if I would like to go on the Asian Pacific Edition of TeLinde's operative Gynecology Advisor list. I agreed. So they sent me two copies of the book. I went through the book. A month later, someone from the Delhi asked me to send them my suggestions to improve the book. So I sent them a long list of suggestions for changes or inclusions in the next edition. That must have pleased them. One day I got a call from Delhi asking me if I would like to write a whole new chapter in the book. I agreed. They promised to pay me Rs. 10000/- for my troubles. It was not any trouble. Actually it was a pleasure. So I wrote a chapter, formatted it to look like the other chapters in the book and sent it to that fellow by email. Months passed, but there was no progress. There would be no answer to my emails. When one of their marketing managers met me for sales promotion, I asked if this fellow had left the company. He hadn't. So I sent a verbal reminder through that manager. I got an email promising me a cheque of Rs. 10000/- in 10 days, and the chapter in the book whenever they printed the book again. Months have passed since, and neither promise has been fulfilled. In the meantime, they used my email address to make me an offer. If I promoted TeLinde's book to my residents, and it resulted in the sale of a given number of copies of that book that they would verify with the bookseller, they would give me a free copy of some other book. I felt sort of violated by the insinuation. Did they honestly think professors were like that? Or did they think we made so little money that we would fall to such low levels? I wrote back it was unethical to ask me to do so. They did not answer my mail. But they did not make any such suggestion in their future emails for sales promotion. That reminded me of the offer of a Tanishq gold coin, to be given to me if I prescribed a certain calcium brand so much that at the end of six months they would find a great increase in sales that they could verify at the chemist's shop across the road. I had politely but firmly asked them to get lost. Perhaps all corporates believe professors need money badly and would do anything to get it.