Sachin - who taught me the word 'cricket'!

(written after Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement from One Day International cricket)

23 Dec 2012

The curly haired shy boy next door is my earliest memory of someone called Sachin who stormed into the limelight at a time when there were stalwarts in the Indian team. He was calm yet aggressive, raw yet niche and despite being as fresh as the morning showed glimpses of why he would last till the evening. Boy, wasn't he soon going to be the Man in the team, taller than everyone else in his fraternity!

Before long, the burden of carrying the aspiration and imagination of a billion-strong country was on his tender shoulders. Every time the little master walked in to the twenty two yards, the nation had its heart-beat hard-paused for a while followed by another while followed by another. No other Indian sportsperson, no other Indian actor, in fact no other Indian in the last twenty years enjoyed as much adulation and following. There were greats, there were legends who Sachin played with and against; but then they were not him. Only he could have been him.

Many brainless followers of the game ask who between Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar is better or bigger. It is equivalent to asking, 'Is the ball or the bat more necessary to play cricket'? The legend of few cannot be measured; it can only be imagined not by the runs they score or wickets they take, but by the way they leave an ever-lasting impression on the face of the game. They are just about few; rest are mere mortals. No other cricketer ever was more important to his countrymen than the team-score, never has a nation celebrated every century scored by a cricketer bothering far less about the outcome of matches.

It has always been hysteria galore, madness unplugged and love unwound! Sachin not only played cricket, he carried himself with the highest level of humbleness, integrity, honesty and dedication. All this has helped him stay grounded and earn unconditional love and respect from all quarters.

He was Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar before he became The Sachin Tendulkar. This is how he will live on for as long as the game of cricket is played!

Thank you Sachin for being what nobody else ever could be, for carrying the tri-color around your shoulders for over two decades, for gifting us memories more pleasant than our childhood itself, and for inspiring an entire generation of cricket-lovers.

And thank you for teaching me the meaning of the word 'cricket'!

Sachin's larger than life image! (11 March 2011)

I was one of the thousands of cricket fans who had jam-packed the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in 2011. The occasion: an IPL match between RCB and MI. The occasion was marred by a string of low-intensity bombs that blasted minutes after I – and my gang of friends – had comfortably found our seats inside the picturesque stadium, colored partly in blue and in red. Oh – the beautiful game of cricket; did not matter if it was an international encounter or a club match. I was awe-struck!

Drums were beating, ‘imported’ cheer-girls dancing, jumbo-screens flashing cricketers up-close-and-personal, Vijay Mallya and his dashing son along with his ‘special’ friend Deepika Padukone were waving at the page 3-hungry cameras. In short, the stage was ready to be set ablaze!

There were legends (Kumble and Dravid) and biggies (Harbhajan, Zaheer and Pollard) taking positions in the field. And then there was the genius whom his parents had named ‘Sachin’, 37 years back. That was to be my first close ‘encounter’ with the Little Master. He opened the innings for MI, but… much before he could start, and immediately after he stepped into the ground through the gates, the entire stadium lit up in roar, in joyous screams, and in frantic support. For a moment, I closed my eyes and wanted to feel it for the man himself. I failed to even imagine how it would feel to be truly deeply madly loved and cheered for.

The ‘local’ heroes Kumble and Dravid – when I dared to compare with Sachin’s welcome – could generate only a lukewarm response in the crowd. That did not surprise me though! It’s not Anil’s or Rahul’s fault to have been treated on a lesser scale; it’s just that nobody could possibly be bigger than Sachin. Not even the game of cricket itself. This madness defies mathematics, doesn’t care for logic, and denies obeying any rule or law. I guess that’s what love is.

That’s not Sachin’s fault either that he’s so tremendously admired. One wonders what this man could have done to achieve this unachievable status! Nothing much I’d say, except that he played seamlessly for 20 years, like a soldier wrapped in the tricolor.

Here’s to one of the few gentlemen of the game. I salute you Sachin Tendulkar. You being larger than life makes life worth living; you being bigger than the game makes it worth following!!

Saina and Sania: why you girls are special!

Let me begin by congratulating Saina Nehwal on winning the much-deserved bronze medal at the London Olympics. Bravo girl, even though many had expected you to get us a gold! I don't care about how the match was awarded to you, for you already are a true champion in the true sense.

Sania Mirza hasn't had the kind of run at this year's Olympics that she may have thought she would. But then, it doesn't take away any bit of what you've achieved so far on the court. 

My admiration for you girls goes much beyond the outcome of one particular event, even though the Olympics is the greatest sporting extravaganza in the world!

To me, you both symbolize fight, grit, determination and belief in yourself. While you were busy giving colors to your dreams, while you were sweating it out to prepare for big events, while you were breaking records nobody thought would be challenged any time soon, you were in fact gradually awakening the sleeping Indian woman. She had fallen asleep long back thinking that's what she was supposed to do, not quite knowing she had the right to choose when she wanted to wake up all by herself! She started realizing you could begin to lead the pack of 'others' should you feel the hunger for. Thanks to you, she started believing in herself.

She started knowing no fence could be high enough and no barrier strong enough if you made your mind up. You both may just be playing your sport, but the ripple your stories have created has inspired a whole lot of Indian women. Any race, any species, any nation takes a giant leap the moment it asks itself, "why can't I?". 

Sports has largely been a man's bastion in India for who knows how long. Thanks to your duo for questioning the taboo in our mind, and for challenging the status quo of Indian sport which wasn't doing much good anyway. The typical manish perception of who should play professional sports could be gauged from a statement issued more than ten years ago by the great tennis legend John McEnroe, when he said that even though he was well into his official retirement, he could still beat the top-ranked women tennis players on the court! It sure had irked some of the women at work.

A country like ours does need sporting icons, not as much for becoming like those icons themselves as for wanting to emulate their feats in a variety of fields. After all, as they say, the only people who never fail are those who never try!