Proud moment receiving trophy from Grandmaster Maurice Ashley

Switching places with my favorite celebrity

I suddenly wake up one day and realize that I’m not in my own house. When I get out of the bed and look around, I see a door. My curiosity just makes me open the door and it was a bathroom. I have the biggest shock of my life as I look at the mirror... I was M. S. Dhoni! If you don’t know who M. S. Dhoni is, then he is great Indian cricket player and my most favorite celebrity.

            I don’t know whether I am excited, nervous or overwhelmed. However, I started to panic and ran out of the door, then something caught me in the corner of my eye. It was a piece of paper stuck on to one of the nicely decorated walls in the room. As soon as I looked at it I realized that it was a schedule, but when looked closer I got an immense shock. There was a cricket match in a few hours with me, M. S. Dhoni in it and I was in London! So I felt like fainting.

But I calmed down when I took some deep breaths. After that I threw everything that looked like cricket gear into what looked like an Indian cricket kit and I threw on the jersey for India. I was the happiest person at that moment as I got to wear the Indian cricket jersey, it must be in the top of the wish-lists for every Indian cricket follower.

            Then I went out of the other door and rushed passed some other rooms. So M. S. Dhoni must have rented a house in London for this match against Australia. When I finally reached the front door of the house I found myself hungry so I ate some food from the kitchen. I found M.S. Dhoni’s favorite drink which is milk in the fridge and that really helped my morning. Then I was ready, so I went out of the front door and saw the streets of London, I was amazed at how busy and charismatic they were. After that I got into M.S. Dhoni’s Ferrari and surprisingly I knew how to drive it. I knew that playing Mario Kart would help, so I put in the coordinates for the Wembley Stadium in the GPS (which was written in the schedule) and there I go to the stadium.

            Then I reached the stadium and I saw rest of the Indian team, I couldn’t believe myself. I was excited to see Virat Kohli and tried touching him, but he was like “what is it bro!”! So I realized once again that I am not my normal self anymore, I am M.S. Dhoni. Then he said that it was almost time for our match against Australia. So I started to sweat, not because of the heat, because of my nervousness. But I relaxed when he said that we were to start bowling (or pitching if you play baseball).

I sat at M. S. Dhoni’s place as the wicket keeper who sits behind the wicket so that he can catch the ball if the batsman doesn’t hit the ball that the bowler throws. At the end of Australia’s batting they scored two hundred ninety-nine runs which was really an amazing job and my team was on a tricky spot. But I knew that if my team tried hard enough, we could still win.

Then it was our turn to bat. We were started off good but soon we got worse and my team Captain said that I can’t go into the game yet. So I waited impatiently. Finally I was allowed to step in to the pitch to bat, and I was delighted. But my smile turned into a frown once I realized that it was the last ball and India needed six runs to win! So India had two hundred ninety-four runs. Six runs is the hardest shot to get from a single ball – everyone knows that!

When I went to bat my feet stomped on the pitch as I saw the Australian bowler Billy Stanlake who was getting ready who gave me a spine-chilling look.  Memories flashed back in my mind where Dhoni had hit amazing sixers and saved the matches. So I took a gigantic breath and stood up. The bowler sped down the pitch like a cheetah and when he let go of the ball it came to me at terrific speed.

I closed my eyes and swung the bat as I hard as I could not knowing if I hit the ball or not. I waited for a few seconds, still closing my eyes and holding the bat in the air. I was not sure what was happening until I heard the audience and the Indian team chanting my name (Dhoni! Dhoni! Dhoni!). When I opened my eyes I realized that I had actually won the game for my team by hitting a record breaking six runs! It was a moment of extreme bliss. After everyone had congratulated me for winning I found myself exhausted.

So I drove back to M. S. Dhoni’s house and I head straight for the bed, I didn’t even realize when I slept. But I woke up again to realize that I was back in my own house. It was all a dream! And a perfect one to have.

Nail Bites

Nails, nails, my lovely nails
Ten of my nails in my lovely fingers
They look flat, and beautiful
Days passed by and something happened
I started biting my nails when I got anxious
My lovely nails got crooked and bitten

People around thought yuck-yuck-yuck
Nail-biter, called by buddies
Better stop it now, said my dad
My lovely nails, I wanted to stop biting
I was out of control and couldn't stop
For a year or two, I tried and tried
Determination is what I had to have
I decided to stop, stop and stop
Shouted, screamed and let things go
I stopped biting them for once
Happy, happy and happy forever
Nails, nails, my lovely nails
I have them back intact

(Published in Creative Communications, Poetic Power)

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