A dream that greets me every night

I raise my hand slowly,tentatively and cautiously (do all three mean the same? slowly because I want to savour the moment, tentatively as I am going to caress her cheeks for the first time, cautiously considering her reaction). I bring my fingers pretty close to their target. Suddenly, I realize I have not checked if the cracks caused by cold are gone or not. I feel my thumb on the other fingers and am relieved to find them smooth. Meanwhile, in anticipation of my touch, her cheeks have gone in a bit. Her lips are quivering. My fingers are shivering too. I brought them close and as if friends caught in a crime, they become relaxed- as it is not only one of them but all that are dying to feel her skin.

I summon all my courage and in a second, my fingers are there resting on her high cheekbones. I can feel her jaws and as my fingers traverse against gravity, I reached the corners of her eyelids. I can write about her eyes for ever and still sell them short. When she is elated, her eyes become lively and seem to smile. When I compliment her, her eyes become narrow in disbelief and slowly widen knowing I mean every word of mine. What I have encountered in the eyes has completely swept me off my feet and my fingers come tumbling down to her nose- a long nose that somehow gives me an impression that she is of high intellect. Every finger of mine slides down her nose with pure joy and more curiosity to learn what nature has blessed her face with. It is here the dream breaks. My eyes open to reality.

P.S. Some dreams are within so realistic distance of reality that they seem to turn real in the future though they are surreal for now.

What a team could do?

Sachin Tendulkar- a champion player from India . He has all the talent in the world and loads of hardwork and motivation to go along with it. Still he gets undeserved criticism just because he chose to play a team game. He could have easily won over 14 grandslams in tennis if he had wielded a racquet instead of a bat. It is a pity that he chose cricket, a team game, to showcase his skills. He has to depend on lesser mortals to ensure that his knocks came in a winning cause. It is an irony that his followers or devotees has to find arguments to prove his greatness. What does Team India/ Team BCCI do to him? How does it reward him for his choice to excel in cricket? Giving him a bunch of pie-chuckers who can`t defend any total. By bringing him down to their levels of mediocrity. A tail that can`t add 20 odd runs in a test match at chennai. I wonder whether the team has impacted the man more or otherwise. He could have been in Australia/South Africa/England. That would have been a reasonably symbiotic relationship. But here, the team as a parasite feeds off him.

I find it real funny when people say one should support a team rather than an individual. Why should I care about a team which has the dangerous praveen bowling at 120 kph, irfan pathan dishing out full tosses at will and raina who can`t play short pitch bowling? And cliches like “no individual is bigger than the team” suck. Borrowing from Rand, I would say the only purpose of a team is to render the other 10 handicapped members relevant by disabling the sole efficient performer.