as an adult my "prayers" comprised of asking god to take care of Himself. seems like a logical thing to ask, if He is to take care for the rest of us! besides, being God must be a lonely affair. we ought to ask Him from time to time on how He is doing, before He should plummet into vortex of depression, noticing what a selfish sack of whiners we are! very "religiously" thus, i ask Him to stay well, and that's all i ask of Him. i am told, however, this was not the case, always. there used to be a time when i made direct, nothing-left-to-interpretation kinda prayers, demanding that Sachin Tendulkar make a century on that day. of course i followed it up with other things in my power to improve Sachin's chances. for example, our seating arrangements! it was the single most deciding factor conducive to Sachin's performance! we committed ourselves to sitting at the same spot- the chair/sofa/floor/local-shop/window-sill as the last time when Sachin played well. to make a long story short, superstitions played out in myriad ways. howsoever difficult the bodily contorting might be, to replicate the position we were in which resulted in Sachin's last 6 or 4 runs, we braved it!
it had been quite an ulcer-inducing experience watching him play over the last 24 years. every ball he hit presented with a very real possibility that the world would end had he been out. my brother would tease me on how completely uninterested in the game i am and only stayed around up until Sachin played. i remember my father, people in the bazaar, angry pedestrians, complaining about how India was completely useless and helpless after Sachin got out, that how, acutely analogical it was that Sachin was the bicycle on which a series of bicycles leaned on and which if you removed, the rest would fall. i remember secretly collecting posters and newspaper clippings and magazines on Sachin, and hiding them under my bed, displaying which, was strictly prohibited in the house. but Sachin seemed like a man worth the adoration and loyalty. speaking of which, i was smacked across the face by my father in a very dramatic hat-trick (because of course, one slap doesn't quite make the point, and two seems incomplete, so three it is!) when i ended up, accidentally, ahem, extending my dad the same opinion that he had of me when he called me "a donkey" (direct translation from Bengali) for liking Sachin over Sourav. but enduring a few smacks for Sachin seemed okay. (not that i dared to show THAT particular kind of loyalty for Sachin before the Patriarch ever again)! another, rather amusing anecdote comes to mind when in a shameless but desperate appeal i prayed to Mother Teresa: "i will donate to you Rs. 10,000 when i grow up if you let Sachin stay." i am sure there were other cosmic reasons than this economic incentive made to Mother Teresa, but he did in fact survive at the crease. and so I followed up on my promise when i did "grow up."
in a very intimate, intrinsic, familial way, the name Sachin Tendulkar had become synonymous for many things: Indian cricket, "adda" after lunch, vehement fights between bengalis on who is better- Sachin or Sourav, empty streets on a one-day match, the batsman every boy in the block emulated, Eden Gardens' collective madness and stunned silence at his entry and departure from the field. a strange lonesome, thus, spreads now to think that we will never again see him at the crease. He was like a rockstar: perhaps, the last of its kind to show the world on how to be a "rockstar" sans scandal, sans rudeness, but with unfailing politeness, dedication, endurance, and humility. you inspired way more than just cricket.
thank you for the entertainment.
it had been quite an ulcer-inducing experience watching him play over the last 24 years. every ball he hit presented with a very real possibility that the world would end had he been out. my brother would tease me on how completely uninterested in the game i am and only stayed around up until Sachin played. i remember my father, people in the bazaar, angry pedestrians, complaining about how India was completely useless and helpless after Sachin got out, that how, acutely analogical it was that Sachin was the bicycle on which a series of bicycles leaned on and which if you removed, the rest would fall. i remember secretly collecting posters and newspaper clippings and magazines on Sachin, and hiding them under my bed, displaying which, was strictly prohibited in the house. but Sachin seemed like a man worth the adoration and loyalty. speaking of which, i was smacked across the face by my father in a very dramatic hat-trick (because of course, one slap doesn't quite make the point, and two seems incomplete, so three it is!) when i ended up, accidentally, ahem, extending my dad the same opinion that he had of me when he called me "a donkey" (direct translation from Bengali) for liking Sachin over Sourav. but enduring a few smacks for Sachin seemed okay. (not that i dared to show THAT particular kind of loyalty for Sachin before the Patriarch ever again)! another, rather amusing anecdote comes to mind when in a shameless but desperate appeal i prayed to Mother Teresa: "i will donate to you Rs. 10,000 when i grow up if you let Sachin stay." i am sure there were other cosmic reasons than this economic incentive made to Mother Teresa, but he did in fact survive at the crease. and so I followed up on my promise when i did "grow up."
in a very intimate, intrinsic, familial way, the name Sachin Tendulkar had become synonymous for many things: Indian cricket, "adda" after lunch, vehement fights between bengalis on who is better- Sachin or Sourav, empty streets on a one-day match, the batsman every boy in the block emulated, Eden Gardens' collective madness and stunned silence at his entry and departure from the field. a strange lonesome, thus, spreads now to think that we will never again see him at the crease. He was like a rockstar: perhaps, the last of its kind to show the world on how to be a "rockstar" sans scandal, sans rudeness, but with unfailing politeness, dedication, endurance, and humility. you inspired way more than just cricket.
thank you for the entertainment.
