And there goes...My Childhood.

 

 

And then, he turned and walked back to the 22 yards which made the legend of Tendulkar, surrounded by a sea of humanity chanting his name and weeping for him, he bent forward and paid his obeisance to the soil that made him…Its was the most touching moment in the history of sports and I dare to say a billion Indians reached out for their kerchiefs at that very moment. But that’s all right, a few tears in exchange of the countless smiles he has given to this country of a billion people, that’s but small change. And at that very moment, I found the answer to my question, the question that has been plaguing my mind for years now. What makes this man so special? Why is 20% of humanity so much in love with him? There have been more gifted cricketers than him and there are and will be people who will challenge his records, yet none before him, or after him, will ever come close to the kind of love and reverence that he got. Cricket in general and India in particular has blessed him in a way that will never be repeated again. I know the answer to this now. His final act on a cricket field has provided that answer.  Quite simply, he was the biggest worshipper of the game of cricket, the biggest lover of his sport and the proudest practitioner of his trade. If the game of cricket is a deity, then Tendulkar was its biggest worshipper in history, its biggest devotee and its most ardent lover. And sure enough, Cricket did pay him back for all his worship and love. It made him the most blessed cricketer that ever lived, the most loved man the sport  will ever see.

 Statistics are for the  cold blooded and they can never tell the true story of Sachin Tendulkar. But even there, his records will always keep his place secured at the very top echelon of the cricketing greats. But as I said, stats can never tell the story of Tendulkar. If his greatness as a cricketer has to be ascertained, the best way will be to seek the opinion of the other cricketing greats who have witnessed the theatre of Sachin. From the man whose place he substituted in the hearts of Indians, Gavaskar, to his most illustrious rival during his playing days, Lara.  From his childhood hero, Sir Vivian to the most revered of them all, the Don himself. Everyone had just one thing to say about him, that he was the most complete batsman that the game has ever seen. The most natural, the most uncomplicated and the most beautiful. In a day and age of intense cut throat competition, when his biggest rival sings paens of his greatness, that should and will, settle the argument about his position among the creating greats of all time. Most people often tend to overlook this fact, but it’s a remarkably outstanding achievement of Sachin, that he is loved unequivocally by every single person that he has played with or played against. As he walked of the field today, so many of the former greats shed tears along with his billion followers. This was an extraordinary phenomenon and it just goes to show that even in this age of intense rivalry and competitive spirit, we can still have the one guy who is loved by all.  Also for me, his major contribution to cricket is in expanding the game like no other. His place as the person who has had the most impact on the game itself can never be challenged. That cricket today is a multi-billion dollar industry, that cricketers today earn multiple times more than what the cricketers of earlier decades used to, is to a significant extent because of the growth h of the sport-fuelled by the man himself. Forget about international cricket for a moment, even Ranji cricketers used to survive on a paltry sum of Rs.400 per day till the late 90s. All that has changed for good now and Sachin has had a big role ot play in this transformation. Nobody has helped to expand the sport as much as Sachin as done and he is the single biggest reason why millions youngsters around the globe have taken up the sport.

 But the legend of Sachin is not about the cricketer alone. In fact it is a very small part of his legend. Of course, his creating achievements and his record breaking career was India’s initiation into Sachin. But  for a billion Indians across the globe, Sachin ceased to be just a cricketer a long  time ago. He is much more than a cricketer to the people who madly worship him as a living God. For them, as for me, he represents the very best of human values. So many values are synonymous with this guy- dedication, discipline, love, passion, purity…and most of all-Hope…In an India bereft of heroes of any stature post-independence, in an India which finds it incredibly hard to believe in a public figure, he is India’s only true Hero. Someone, who is admired and madly loved by everyone… Cutting across age, religion and region. Someone, who makes every Indian dream and hope of a better tomorrow. In a country plagued with corruption at all levels, he is the biggest example that success can be had, even while not resorting to short cuts.  He is the living example of the “Indian Dream” and he is the man everyone wants their kids to grow up to be like. Nobody, and I mean nobody, in India’s 5000 year old history has made so many people smile more than Sachin. Of course, there have been many great Indians before him who have shaped India’s destiny, but simply in terms of brining smiles to the faces of millions of nameless and faceless Indians, nobody has matched Sachin. Such is his sway over the Indian populace that many a times I feel that central and state governments should just get a statement of unity issued by Sachin during any of India’s endless riots. Trust me, all we be well… For the average Indian, struggling with the many challenges that life throws at him/her, Sachin was always a gateway to momentary happiness. Whenever he played, and whenever he scored, a nation of a billion people smiled. Personally, I can recall countless such moments when a Sachin innings lightened my mood and brought me out of a depressing situation. As someone rightly said, Sachin was India’s one man Happiness Industry. And on this count more than on anything else, he will be sorely missed by his billion followers across the globe.

 

Today, as I watched him take the long walk back, as he walked out of the cricket field for one last time, and as he crossed the boundary rope and climbed up the stairs and disappeared into the dressing room, I felt a kind of emptiness engulfing my heart, hitherto unknown. His love story with game is over, it was the greatest love story between cricket and any of its lovers, and it was a love story that a billion Indians were party to. Unlike what Sachin said in his farewell speech, the Tendulkar dream was not shared and lived only by the Tendulkar brothers, it was a dream lived by every single Indian who loved him. Every time he walked onto the cricket field, every single one of us, people who love him, walked out to the field with him. That dream is over now and tomorrow the world will be a very different place for all of us.  This change was inevitable and for all his God like qualities, Tendulkar’s spirit still resides in a human body and hence, this day had to come. But it’s a change that millions like me will find impossible to live with. A lot of us grew up with Sachin and he was the most loved person outside our immediate families. His exit from the theatre of our dreams will be an extremely hard fact of life to digest.

 

I don’t remember a lot from that period of my life as I was about 7 years old, but I still remember my father talking to my mother on a winter evening sometime in 1989, about this curly haired 16 year old kid whom the Pakistanis were taunting to get back to drinking milk from a feeding bottle. I don’t know why I remember this or how it got registered in my mind, but the name of “Sachin Tendulkar” is etched in my memory from that day. If not anything else, Sachin is a folk hero and his legend will never die down. Of course with time, new heroes will emerge and be admired, but none will be worshipped like Tendulkar. We, the people who were witness to the theatre of Sachin can count ourselves as extremely lucky. And I feel really sorry for the future generations who will never ever have the chance to have the Tendulkar experience. Innumerable books will be written about him and million stories will exist in public space about the legend of Tendulkar, but the future generations will never ever be able to know or appreciate what this guy meant to an entire nation. As someone rightly said, Tendulkar was an experience, either you were there, or you were not there. And our future generations will never ever get a chance to experience Tendulkar. Yesterday evening, I had called my 6 year old nephew and was desperately hoping that this momentous day would gave got registered in his mind in some way, unfortunately for me and for him, he is still too engrossed with Chhota Bheem and Doremon to be able to care about who Sachin Tendulkar is. Every time I think about this, my heart sinks…

 

I am but a small and ordinary man, fighting my own little battles in life, and yet no matter what the future holds for me and no matter what position I find myself in, I will always find solace and peace every single time the face of the great man with his curly hair and his boyish smile gets flashed in my mind.

Sachin-You were the greatest thing that happened to our lives, you were the a greatest thing which happened to this nation of ours post-independence, your contribution will never be forgotten, your memories will never fade away, your legend will never die. You are not just a master of cricket; you are a master of life. You are an epitome of how life should be lived …With your exit, the final chord with my own childhood is broken and the world around me suddenly seems less innocent and less simple. I will miss you no end and I am sure this feeling is shared by a millions across the globe.  A thank you is certainly not enough to express how much you mean to me, but still I must say a big Thank You for all those moments when you brought me out of depression and brought a smile to my face. I don’t have a lot of possessions and I can’t think of anything to gift you with, but let me say this, I pray to the almighty, whatever good he has in store for me in the future, let him gift all of that to you…Let him give you all my share of happiness…