When the proofs would come from the press, Shri Nathji would read them meticulously and perfectly, not even letting a comma or a full-stop escape his attention. He would frequently advise Priya Nath how to read the rough proofs:
“Piyaji, first compare the proof with the original manuscript and correct all the errors, then later read through the entire proof a second time to detect further errors.”
The press where the books had been given for printing was at Hauz Khas and had the name: Caretek Press. The owner had promised to print the books within one month, but delays were heaped on delays and the entire process took months. Many of the books were ruined while being bound.
Shri Nathji had taken a great interest in seeing the binding of the books and would examine the thickness of the spine like an expert in printing technology.
The owner of the press would come personally to apologise to Shri Nathji for the delay. He was also the owner of a furniture shop. In the process of apologising, he even managed to sell a large armchair to Shri Nathji!
Shri Nathji had the armchair especially made to order. He had always wanted a chair that would keep the “stomach straight” and where he could sit back in comfort with his back erect. The chair looked like a throne. Shri Nathji liked it so much that in later years he had it removed to Mussoorie and placed in the dining room there.
It was during this time in 1972 that Shri Nathji and Priya Nath met a certain Alfred Hicky, an Australian who had an Indian wife and lived in Delhi. The man had designed the postage stamps of Afghanistan and was an expert at designing the covers of books.
He designed the covers of the two books, “The first Rays of Dawn” and “Rigmarole” printed by Shri Nathji. His wife also took up the work of proof reading for a while.
He was a minister in his church and often quoted from Shri Nathji’s: “The First Rays of Dawn”, in his sermons in church. He was particularly fond of Shri Nathji’s parable on Alexander the Great, in which Alexander had said at the last moment of His life:
“When you take out my funeral procession, let my hands hang by the side of my body so that the world may see, that the hands of Alexander the Great, which sought to possess the whole world, are today going away empty!”
If Hicky had thought he was an expert on cover designing, he was mistaken. Priya Nath discovered that the nose of the figure drawn on the cover was mis-shapen and he rushed to Hicky’s House at midnight to have it corrected before it could be printed the next morning.
Shri Nathji would ever afterwards recall this incident to show the exactness that Priya Nath followed in any discipline that he took up. Shri Nathji would say:
“A Harvard scholar is noted not only for his ability in his own subject, but also for his capability to handle any subject in the world like an expert! No matter which work Priya Nathji engages in, he always does it with exactness. Ye har kaam ki baareekiyon men jaate hain!”