Tagged: tendulkar

Thursday night. I had gone to sleep quite early thanks to a darned headache. I heard the landline ring. Irritated again that people call to the stupid landline rather than to my mobile (technology has grown, wake-up sheeple!), I got up and picked up the call. It was Bachu, my roommate, all excited telling me that if I don’t want to miss Sachin’s 200 better come fast to Shyam’s house (we are a TV-free home, you see). So I get dressed quickly and run to our very own homely sports-bar.

There’s some excitement going on in there as I reached. Sachin has reached somewhere around 170, Bachu is yelling trivial anecdotes about Sachin, Tony’s not combing his hair or looking at the mirror and even Shyam’s not playing TF2! That was when I knew this was going to be something special. So I took a seat and joined in. As soon as I sat down, Raina gets out. Hmm.. I thought I brought my bad luck with me. Boy! Was I right.

The game was taking interesting directions; with Ravindra Jadeja keen on taking singles every last ball of an over and not giving the strike to Sachin; when I first noticed an unlikely visitor in the kitchen. A pretty big rat; let’s say the biggest I have seen; not that I have seen many. I announced our royal visitor to the other friends in the room; and the usually cool Shyam all freaked out. “Oh! Its going to bite me when I’m sleeping. I’m going to get swine-flu and stuff”.. hmm.. swine-flu from a rat? Well, let’s discuss that later.

So we decide to fight this guy. And by chance it got trapped inside one of the plastic carry-bags lying around. The rest of the party wanted to kill the rat; but I somehow found a bit of compassion towards the animal and convinced them not to do it. Since the rest of us had an excuse that we didn’t have shoes on; we assigned the task of capturing the rat in the bag to Tony. Naturally the rat gnawed away the other end of the sheet and was on its way to its next hiding place.

Meanwhile in TVLand: Tendulkar has no chance to reach 200; but India can still win. If only Mr. Jadeja gave some strike to him. We are all in a dillema now whether to watch the TV or mind the rat. Every 3 balls or so, the little guy would peep out from its hiding place and as soon as we make the slightest of movements; it would go right back in. This hide and seek continued for a while… and then the unthinkable happened … Tendulkar got out

While we were mourning the departure of Sachin, our hero peeps out from his hiding place and runs right into the sink drain. Sensing the kill, the brave Tony Thomas strides in for the final act and closes the drain with a mosaic tile in pure ‘Quick-Gun Murugun’ style. That’ll do, we all thought. Shyam runs out to get something to seal our hero shut. But alas before he reached, the little guy, amasses all the power he has; slides out the tile; rushes out; and winks at us proudly for the effort (ok it didn’t; but I’m sure it would have, if it could).

The Indians are sinking to deeper trouble; while the rat is still playing hide-and-seek with us. Finally we managed to trick it to go back to the drain. Everybody quickly swings into action and we trap that darn rat finally. Victorious we set our focus back on the tv set. India may have lost by 3 runs and Sachin may not have hit a double-ton; but we did win our chase against the rat!

So what’s so blog-able about this? Small moments like this; tend to be lost in bigger memories of the past. I just wanted to treasure a few ‘big’ small moments… so that I can be all nostalgic in the future

The other night, I was watching Tendulkar and Jayasurya smash every bowler to all nooks and corners of the ground in the IPL match. Watching that performance, made me that little kid, giving me the same old excitement when the 4s and 6s were smashed. It made me think how I fell in love with cricket at a very young age.

My first memories of cricket was invariably watching Sachin play. He was the first cricketer I knew by name. At 6 or 7 years old, despite not knowing the difference between silly point and deep fine leg, I knew one thing – Sachin was a legend. He was my first hero. As years went by and my cricketing brain developed I found other heroes to worship, some of whom I liked more than Sachin. But then he had a special place. Maybe because he was my first hero, or maybe it was because his career coincided with my growing up days. Whatever it is, Sachin was, is and will be very very special.

I mean can you imagine (if you are Indian, that is) any other player in the whole wide world like Sachin, for whom your heart sinks into a bottomless abyss when he gets out? I don’t think so. And the genuine bliss you get watching him hit a four or a six you never get from anyone else. It’s not Lara’s flair, Sehwag’s flamboyance, Warne’s rock-stardom, Murali’s charm or Dhoni’s charisma. It’s something different – unique only to Sachin. I mean, for a second just forget what he is and then look at him for a while. It beats me, how a person can be so humble, calm and quiet despite being the most paid, most adored, most famous and arguably the best cricketer of all time. He is the perfect role model. This is how you should treat success according to me. I can’t remember one incident of arrogance in his entire career. That is just absolutely incredible for a person of his stature.

I cannot imagine the day he hangs up his boots. I’m sure I’ll be that emotional child again who weeps in his heart when he gets out. Oh how do we explain to the next generation that such a man walked the pitch one day. We were lucky, to be born in that generation to see a legend in all respects in action.