“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love... ” — Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Love in the Time of Cholera.
There aren’t too many opportunities in life when you read a piece of news and be like: “this is a well deserved accolade”!
I felt it today, I could be biased because he is my favourite author; nevertheless, I couldn’t help but feel an immense sense of pride when I realised that I could buy a Marquez, with a Marquez in Columbia!
To honour the Nobel laureate, the Columbian government released 50,000 COP banknotes, the value of which is about Rs 1,200. The full-length image is surrounded by a kaleidoscope of butterflies is a reference to a leitmotif in his 1967 opus, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
The 50,000 note is the second-highest denomination in Colombia. The note also has a a quotation from García Márquez’s Nobel prize acceptance speech, printed in microtext.
So, buy him, with him and keep reading on!
(With Inputs From Quartz)
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