I got my first Wooden cricket bat at the age of seven in class 3rd. With a red grip on the handle and a shiny picture of my GOD I started making strokes in the air with utter sincerity. Only in advertisements they showed how He practiced His shots, on field He did the real practice. But I could only afford the air practice and so I did. Surprisingly neither my parents knew nor had the minutest inclination of knowing the rules of the game. They knew only one thing, that there was only one king in that huge jungle, Sachin Tendulkar…courtesy me.
And as I grew up, I realized that his kingdom not only comprises of me, or humans of my age but much more, many many more. I deduced that if the “die hard” fans of this legend grouped together, they could definitely make a different country. Sachinistan it could be called.
I learned and observed that the madness over this soul’s performance influenced many people. People who came under “aam aadmi”. Because of his extra-ordinary performance, “aam aadmi” started to feel very proud of the prefix. “He”(common man) gradually started believing in himself, in his abilities. After many years, he recognized that hard work could lead to glory. He started trusting himself, I guess he was bored of worshiping stone idols, he needed a real one. A live Kalki. and so whenever a match was telecasted onto the televisions featuring ST, he would sit down and pray.
We genuinely do not like if a rich man becomes richer, we feel indifferent if a poor man becomes poorer, but when some one from our lot excels to that status(super high) where we do not belong, it feels different. not happy nor sad, not jealousy nor pride but different, weird. But when ST succeeded, we felt happy and proud and Avenged. Yes sir, Avenged, for the atrocities of the capitalists, for the crimes they have been committing for so long. The crime of ignorance. It wasn’t that we didn’t work hard enough, but we were never seen as leaders, rather always peasants. If we worked hard the rich said hard work was in our blood, if we didn’t they said that was the reason we were aam aadmi. But this man showed them all, One could not ignore him. No one can ignore him.
When the cars to be given to the man of the series were shown at the start of tournaments, we prayed and hoped that Sachin gets them. Every time he got a cash reward of some dollars, it felt as if we just got richer by that much. Such was the connection. We believed the newspapers when they said that India thrashed Pakistan in Kargil, but this man showed us how. After avenging us from the riches, he avenged us from Pakistan for just merely existing. When a normal 5 ft 5 inches Indian hits a six off the fastest bowler of Pakistan, the feeling that every Indian experiences is pure JOY. It feels good, you know it.
He went on breaking records, crossing off the names of various nationalities from the record books, and placed the Indian tricolour on top. He went on making hundreds and our religion went on from strength to strength. He went on avenging us, for the terror attacks, for the tsunamis, he went after every body who came in his way. He does what he knows best. He does what he believes in. He does not drink alcohol not that he asks not to drink, I respect that, that he respects others choices, he does not talk much; he works hard just like a common peasant in a field 18 hours a day with burning body and plays with a wooden tool. He does not believe in one thing and that is surrender.
So few might not like him that much, few might say that he is a failure in tough situations and few might say he does not know when to end. Well my friends those “few”, may be correct or may be not, but in the end it is “mays” & “mights”. One thing i am sure of is that those few don’t know that he has fought for them, he is the leading soldier to take revenge on our behalf. They don’t know that he is the solution of confusion that every common man, every common family goes through and suffers. The confusion never gets sorted in tough situations: “weather to be patient like Gandhi or extremely aggressive like Bhagat Singh?”
..Well he is both, the perfect blend… In the end few would ask with a sarcastic tone “allright, he is fighting, or fought and he is the greatest warrior, but fought for what, where is the war?” And I will smile and say, “there is NO war, there will be NO war, its long over, because ST is there. When Kalki will be there, Kalyug will cease to exist, Satyug will begin.”