Fortunately, he woke up minutes before he was to make that speech. He could tackle the media people without much difficulty. No doubt, there was a barrage of questions but there was answers in their questions and his replies were in monosyllables. “Yeah” ,“not exactly”, “Sure, sure” etc. There was quite a few sitting in front of the stage where he was seated. Those who were addressing the gathering praised him sky-high and added to his woes. “He was a dark horse till the other day, but his debut novel has made him a celebrity overnight”.

 Of course, he has published a couple of books earlier but the readers were mostly his kith and kin.

 Ironically, he became nervous when he won the award though he was happy beyond words. It was the thought of the speech he was to make, that made him nervous. But fortunately, minutes before he was to make the dreaded speech he woke up and sat on his bed and heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank God, it was a dream”, he whispered and reached for his fag. Even the award was a part of his dream.