When Charlie met Sachin

I know that I've pondered before the genetic stamp that we have that creates the unrelenting urge to photograph celebrity, and I thought that having said what I said, that would be the end of it.

However I wasn't accounting for some very dear and otherwise sensible friends who for the purpose of this episode I shall refer to only as Deb and Charlie. Now Deb has a few things going for her that at least partially offset the fact that her hair is somewhat lighter than the tone that is commonly considered to be an indicator of a less than median thought process capability.

Charlie has a lot going for him too, not the least of them being Deb.

With a bit going for each of them, they found themselves staying one weekend in a well known Hotel in the Big Smoke, the sort of place that you'd expect to find the upwardly mobile, or at the very least, the rich and famous. Indeed as they ambled through the foyer on this one particularly balmy evening, they discovered they were sharing their retreat with the entire Indian Cricket Team, who as it happens were boarding their own particular bus for a bit of a game with Australia.

Charlie knows a thing or two about sport, including who Sachin Tendulka is, and more impressively what he looks like. In fact Charlie has Sachin up there in his top two in the international sportsmen stakes. So as the Captain of the Indian Team was about to board the bus, bat in hand, one can only imagine his surprise to be bailed up by a bloke he'd never met, asking if he could shake hands and have his photo taken by the bloke's camera wielding spouse.

The great man (who is probably the only international sportsman in the world who is shorter than Charlie) obliged politely, even if his mind was on other things. Deb fired off the single shot like a true Pepperoni even though her mind was clearly on other things as well, and they all went their separate ways.

Sachin's concentration must have been badly effected by the flash, as a few hours later he was given out while batting for his country, after standing on his own wicket. No one can say what it was that effected Deb's concentration, but she spent all that night trying to find novel ways of avoiding that moment when Charlie would ask to see the picture.

POSTSCRIPT:

History records that the great man was stalked by a blonde over breakfast the next morning, and after being shown the photograph from the evening before was heard to say in a surprisingly dismayed Indian accent, laced with a mouthful of baked beans.

"Oh that is very terrible"

A new photograph was made, and Deb and Charlie have lived somewhat more happily after that than perhaps they may otherwise have, had the original photograph been their sole piece of memorabilia from the encounter.