There goes our hero

August 29 2009
After arguing with myself for over 30 minutes that it was/wasn't time to wake up and oscillating between the sight of my cupboard and the man eating lion, I tried to force myself back to reality of the cupboard by trying to move some part of my limp body. I slept on my tummy (like always) such that my head was facing one of the sides of my dorso-ventral plane (as always). My mouth was open, lips dry but the lower side of my mouth was dripping saliva that was making its way out onto the pillow. My arm weighed heavier than any weight I'd ever lifted, half numb due to lack of circulation. I tried to revive it in a slumbering, slow-motion panic attack. I sat dazed and relieved that I wouldn't have to fight the lion afterall. I waded through the morning air and located the newspaper in the haze of reality that looked more beautiful, pleasing and non-ominous than what I had been seeing a few minutes ago in fantasy world. I picked the paper and was shaken by the condition of my sight; I was seeing things in decaplets. Or was I? No, these were real estate ads, ten of them, by different dealers about the same apartment building and consequently (and strangely) they all carried exactly the same picture but with different dealer addresses. I flipped the pages hoping to see something other than political unrest, murders, rapes, defalcations, cricket etc etc...all in vain, even Michael Jackson managed a very small place despite it being his birthday today. Except that section on Dhyan Chand, the legendary hockey player from our country. I remember reading about him in high school. I reckon all (probably) language text books, at some level in high school, do have a chapter on Dhyan Chand. I guess that's the only way to keep the memory of a legend alive and not mentioning the cruel apathy he faced in his last days. Everyone knows what a wizard DC was at his game, if you don't then spare a minute to read about him but we were never ever taught in high school that he died of liver cancer lying neglected in a general ward!