The Phenomenon Called Sachin Tendulkar!

From the moment BCCI announced a test series against West Indies by trimming the more important series against SA in their own backyard, it was evident that Sachin would be retired, though not announced officially by him or the board. And when Sachin finally announced that his 200th test would be his last, I felt a little annoyed that these two tests were accommodated only to help Sachin sign off his illustrious long career here in India.

As they say, no one is greater than the game, a person who is known for his utmost humility could have retired even without playing a so called farewell series. Though that thought was on and off. I still wanted to see him play for one last time, but somewhere I used to get this feel, should he really play? Maybe he wanted the occasion of his retirement more ostentatious and more respectful than any other player who retired in the recent past or any sportsperson ever in India. But, why? he could have still retired, I thought.

The updates on my facebook wall, the two week long series of articles on almost all major newspapers about his 24 year career, the continuous tv shows, the debates on how higher a place he deserves in the cricketing world, the interviews, all this have been making me more turbulent. Somewhere I used to feel that he should have just announced his retirement right away and not after a series or so wherein a lot of hype would be created. I thought he could have followed the way his peers Dravid and Laxman retired, in a low-key affair.

But, I was completely wrong. He could have retired right away, but the thought of Sachin not playing anymore and that Sachin wouldn't be seen on the field one last time would have put the country, the billion people in a state of national mourning. Instead, he made sure that we get an opportunity to witness and savour his batsmanship one last time right here in our country and bid him a grand farewell which he rightly deserves. For many of us, Sachin's career is the timeline of our lives. His debut - our birth. His prime form of the 90s - our childhood and first friends of life. His 2003 world cup run - our teenage highs. His two centuries of the 2008 CB series - our career questions. His 200* of 2010 - our professional challenges. His retirement, 2013 - our lives at cross roads.

Maybe there are exceptions to what I have written above, maybe there are people who are greater than the game. And yes, Sachin is one among them. He can influence a nation. If inspiration can be personified, Sachin would be it's name, a nation like ours with such a huge diversity, the mighty respect and love towards him is the imaginary cord that connects us all. A person of this calibre truly deserves the farewell he got, maybe that was even lesser. If the rules would permit, and a 12th player would be added in a team, just as an honor of respect, Sachin would take that place permanently in the Indian team for ever. Having said that, I feel that the government has gone a little overboard in conferring Bharat Ratna to him, not that he doesn't deserve such an honor but that might open up a whole new can of worms, which I don't want him to undergo. Anyways, that's quite a debatable topic. I don't want to get much into it.

Finally, this post would be incomplete without thanking the master, the cult, the colossus. A big Thank You dear Sachin! You have just retired from the game, not from our hearts. Miss you. 

Down the memory lane..

Pasanga, a children-centric Tamil movie that I watched recently made me write this post. No, this post is not a review about the movie, instead it is about the school-life memories that are etched for life in my mind.

It was a day during class 7, a notice was read by our class teacher saying that our preparatory/final exams were advanced by a week or so. Listening to that, the class went quiet, and I on a funny note said 'we will go on a strike!'. I thought I wasn't that loud but it fell into the ears of our teacher. The look on her face stated that she did not understand my so called 'humour'. Hell with it! She in turn called me to her desk and rewarded a painful whack on my back! Huh!

I was like Harbhajan Singh that time, a good student, at the same time, one who was always close to controversies, and our teachers used to rope in Sachin Tendulkar, my elder sister, who also was my immediate senior in the school (read it as who was always in the good books of my teachers), to pass on some words of wisdom to me.

The next thing that reminds me of high school was the "rote" method! I was so much into mugging that time that I even used to count the words of an answer (yes, that includes the count of the articles used in that answer!). And for me, a word written in the answer paper which wasn't printed in the text book was a crime. I thought answering a question as what printed in the texts would show that I was ridiculously meticulous. Somehow, my teachers and parents didn't observe that I was on a wrong learning method. May be the good marks I used to get masked the underlying fact.

About the games now. Though I wasn't that lean a boy, I had rather a poor throwing arm, and so I rarely played the 'catch-catch' game, where in a group of people would split into two teams and a member from one team would throw the ball up in the air, and the other team people would catch it in its descent. Ah! buoyed up one day, I too joined the league to play, and the first time I took the ball and tried to put it out of earth's orbit, it went off the flight and fell off the school's compound. Well, loss of the ball meant the end of the day's play. And ten bucks!

Those were some moments!. Thanks for the movie for putting me on the lane of reminiscence.

PS - I promise I will write something substantial the next post! Bouquets and brickbats are welcome!
Here's a pic of the heroes of the movie -

Image Courtesy: Google Images

6/25..!! The kid within me wakes up!

"Whose answer paper is this? There is no roll number written on it! Did anyone miss writing their roll number? It belongs to the C division..."

Hearing this, I got up from the last bench of the left side rows of benches of our classroom and walked slowly to the dais where Anuradha Madam,our Science teacher, was standing with my answer paper.

My seating place in the class was the last bench (am not able to recollect why I was made to sit there,maybe I was too tall! :) or maybe I joined the school late and that was the only place left for me to occupy). Added to this, my place was next to the window and I could see some public life out of it and I rarely concentrated in the class, but I used to listen English and Social-Science , the reason being I liked the teachers who taught them.

General Science was the most hated, as Anuradha Madam was considered strict and I felt like Science was not my cup of tea, reading about how a wind mill works, how a cycle repairer checks a puncture in the tube, and other basic physics stuff.. huh!! this little mind perceived that as rocket science and never bothered to take it to the head much! :)

Back to the scene, I took the paper from her hand and apologized for forgetting to write my roll number, and then I wrote my number and gave her back checking my marks, they were awful..! I had got 6 out of 25 in the second unit test of Class 5 General Science subject.

I walked to my place feeling humiliated with my shoulders drooped and my head held low, that was the first time I had ever failed in an exam to my remembrance. It was more painful as I forgot to mention my roll number and whole of the class got to know my marks. The red underline that will be made in the progress report was before my eyes! I was hurt that day, didn't talk to anyone, was silent in the rickshaw back home, don't remember the rest of the day :)

Soon the month's progress cards were issued, the first to get the card will be the one who scored less or failed in most number of subjects, there were few under performers than me, it was my turn now, I received the card and went back to my place, checked the card, yes there it was , the second column for General Science was written as 24/100, highlighted with an under-line marked in red and 'Fail' in the result column.

My parents were too good for me, they dint scold me for failing in the exam rather they asked me to do well in the coming exams.

Being failed for the first time, I was determined now to perform in the further tests, and I actually did it, though I was not in the rankers list.
But still, I was the average boy!! and I managed to sneak a rank by the end of class 5 unit tests and it was rank IX (9).

Its fun getting on the lane of reminiscence and thinking how much life has changed, the priorities associated, the goals to be achieved, the modes of fun, the situations of high complexities..

This particular '6/25' incident helped me restructure my way, perform well, and as the old adage goes 'failures are the stepping stones', I consider it as one of those stepping stones, and that doesn't mean that I am successful right now, still a long way ahead and many stepping stones to cross, and stacking up some little incidents like this :)