Rahul always in dreams

Dreams were born with me, every night I don’t sleep without one dream atleast.

Last night, I felt dreary and slept a very disturbed sleep. At four, my lil’ sister put on the light to start studying while I was still dreaming…on the out set, my sister saw me grimacing, saying “no, no,” and then smiling…. What was that about?

“I was shopping in a market place like those in Thailand where meat and veggies are sold, maybe some sort of Pallika replica. Topographically very confusing. I had just picked up some book and had a hand full of luggage. For those who don’t know me, I am always physically present and mentally elsewhere….I am a thinker you know!

In the next shop, rather a commercial venture constructed on four bamboo staves resting on the ground bearing a water proof sheet on top of them, with a high rise platform on the inside for display of the keeper’s various ‘brands’. What a drudgery life in India is, I thought!

The next moment I was pleasantly surprised. That shop was visited by the one and only – the Achilles – of India’s cricket team, Rahul Dravid along with another player!! He was shopping there, humbly cute he looked in his white attire with that cap. There wasn’t any hustle bustle on his presence today? How lucky I am, I thought. “Hello Rahul. How are you? I am 'so and so'…” “Hi” he said listening to me with interest. “You know, I am a big fan, I think you look absolutely gorgeous on the field. I like you so much…” he passed one of those adorable smiles, sheepishly and continued his chore. I continued mine, thinking hard, what next I should say.

Then I came up with the most disastrous statement of my entire life… “You know Rahul, I am actually from the media fraternity and umm..” I looked up at him. He seemed to have dropped what he was holding, his face suddenly turned pale and intimidated for some reason. He turned back and ran the fastest he would have ever run between the wickets. I shouted at him, “But Rahul, please listen to me…” he had vanished between the alleys, disappearing in a heart beat. I ran after…probably nothing….even then….i wanted to find him and tell him. “I am not paparazzi, I am on the editorial desk of Jetwings, soft journalism…. I won’t harm you…”

Tears felt in the corner of my eyes, I felt like finding a granite stone to bang my head on, why am I in this godforsaken business anyway? And most of all, why did I tell that to him? “Would you stop being a dork?” I asked myself.

Anyway, life is never always fair. If God wanted me to be acquainted with Rahul, he’d see to it that I am. I reconciled after so much of self-whining. I entered a store that had two entrances to it. Started rambling around looking for something in vain, Rahul’s cute face hovering in all corners of my mind. And there he was, entering from the other side into the same shop. He was destined to hear my defence, I thought. “Rahul,” I called out, he looked at me as if I were some gothic ‘JK Rowling’ monster who was going to dissolve his blood in a potpourri preparation of a deadly liquid in a cauldron cooking to recreate an evil wizard that was going to destroy his family.
He ran the race of his life, slipping away from me again. I looked at myself on the mirror nearby. All I could do now was to laugh it out!