When Sachin Tendulkar was Batting

I was 10 years old. Just like any other superstitious Sachin fan, I take pride in associating myself with his jersey number. From the past twenty four years, I have been glued to the television with the same intensity of a 10-year old. Those excuses of fever and procrastination were religious rituals to see the little God at work, which many of us did till yesterday.

I first saw Sachin batting, on a Black & White television and I saw him last on an LCD TV.  There have been a lot of changes in the lives of many Indians like me – from B/W Doordarshan TVs to Dish TVs, Telephones to touch phones, Ambassador cars to Hondas, Radio commentary to Cricinfo, Chitrahar to caller tunes, Gulli-danda to Snookers, Pen-pals to Facebook, Cinema Theatre to Multiplexes and Video cassettes to Torrents, and many more... It was an eventful journey of change and Sachin was one such connecting link that kept us rooted to our yesteryear memories.

Sachin wouldn’t have slept the previous day of every match, but so were many Indians who would only go to sleep when he was out. The name that soothes a billion or more Indian hearts can be felt within when they take a deep sigh, chanting the name Sa-h-chin. Sa-h-chin...

To many fans, who are disappointed at Sachin’s missed century in his last innings, I would like to say that you have been blind all these years. Sachin is not about hitting centuries. He is all about keeping himself hungry for more. The fans will never be satisfied, even if he hit a century yesterday, one would ask for another 50 runs, and then another 50 more and on... and finally the most feared one... “Why do you want to retire?”

No, tears won’t come from my eyes, but there certainly is a void and a stiff suffocated throat that is really painful. It is hard to imagine the Indian team’s scoreboard without the name you have seen growing with you. Well, with Sachin’s retirement, I guess now is the time to take a break and follow and love some of the other sports which I missed during the past twenty four years. Thank God.