My day has been full of cricket. Having nothing to work at work, I've been mostly in cricinfo site. And sharing the "wows.. oohs.. aahs" with people in (gtalk) and around (me). So.. India won, won convincingly enough. That's good news, but the post isn't about that.
Out of the blue, I dug out my gmail chats to find out the link recommended by a friend, sometime back. He stated it pretty clearly that it was about the way we group watching cricket, it was by Siddhartha Vidhyanathan, that it is a must read and a lot other things. Being busy at that point of time, just kept it away. The only thing I do with something postponed is to postpone. Now the news is, I READ it! ;-)
And the bad part of the news is that I feel like talking / blogging / writing about it, just as Siddhartha did. But how to start and where all to touch, wish walking down the memory lane was easy. So, what I'm gonna do now is, just copy, paste few of the lines that I loved in the post.
Sachin Tendulkar spoilt us. He commanded that we sit in front of the television sets. He ensured we got late with homework, he took care of our lunch-break discussions. He was not all that much older than us, and some of us naïve schoolboys thought we would achieve similar feats when we were 16. We got to 16 and continued to struggle with homework.
For me, he was more than all this. (Just like he's for everyone else too.) Being in an all-gals school, and talking about him all through day, I was kinda "pick the odd". Hero was supposedly Shahrukh or Aamir, only few had an idea of Sachin, thanks to his endorsements. Atleast during the 96 WC that I found hard to share the excitement at School. Things then changed, cricket penetrated so deep into everybody's life, that like it or not, you had to live with it.Thankfully, gained a lot of friends just because of cricket. To date, if I've prayed it was for Sachin Tendulkar. I pray whenever he plays. I prayed for his health, for the serious backache he had halfway through career. Was li'l grown up, but yet worried a lot for his tennis elbow. And I prayed hard, that he shouldn't be part of any scams and scandals.Had he been associated with any of these, my trust about humans would have shattered forever.
I never ever tried to emulate him, for the simple reason that I was never keen on playing the sport. I seriously wonder, why couldn't Sachin inspire me to pick up the bat. But the lessons he taught, were all helpful in making me better person. What amazes me is the "BALANCE" he achieves, be it on the field and off it. Watching him bat is like heaven. I desparately wanted to whistle for his super shots. Alas, that's something I can't practice. That way, he leaves with me a sense of nonaccomplishment.
Did Sachin spoil me or not? Without him, my childhood would have been deprived of much joy and happiness. Not sure if Sachin's retirement would mark an end to the first quarter of my life or any such things, but surely he's the one who would let the child in me intact. Which means, I can be a kid whenever I feel like and that way, yeah.. he did spoil me. It's tough for people around to handle me as a kid, and when going gets tough, people just start complaining. ;-)
(This is "half baked" stuff from me. Supposed to be posted on Nov 17th! Untimely too.. )
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