"Main khelega" these were the formal first famous words from his mouth,the meaning is simple "I will play" but it was only after people untied the "main khelega" phrase that they realized what he meant. He meant "I will play long,I will play till the end,I will play till it dawns,till it dusks again,till its summer again,till winters come,till game changes,till era changes,till the time this game exists,till the time I have others to play with,till the time 'time' exists, I WILL PLAY". So who is this guy?Did he play that long?Will he play that long? We will find it out in a short while.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, thats the name lord Vishnu picked up for His last avatar.This avatar was born on 24th April'73(nineteen silent)to rule the planet from 1989.Like Krishna who had magical powers in His flute,which made men,women,animals,plants,insects,wind,fire,rivers,oceans,mountains go majestically crazy,go nonsensically mad with just single stroke of air on His flute.Sachin has been provided with exactly the same powers,his magical flute is his bat.A single stroke of his bat has the same effect on the country,a leg glance,a cover drive,a paddle sweep,occasional pull,a front foot straight drive,a backfoot push,a scoop over third man,and plenty more such strokes have made the country blind followers of his rhythmic shot making.Arjuna was blessed to be closest to Krishna and receive preachings from Him,Krishna guided Arjuna as a father guides a son. Closest to Sachin to receive preachings has to be his son whose name is Arjun. Another of Vishnu's avatar,lord Rama,was denied the crown for fourteen years,Sachin Tendulkar in spite of ruling the planet for a long time got his ultimate crown(The World Cup) after a long wait,and guess what,it was Lanka again.
Vishnu's avatars have been sent time and again to free the world from evils,evils like Ravana,Kansa,Hirnyakashyap.The country has faced numerous problems,wars,epidemics,politics,terror and many more,but there is one thing that makes the country happy,a small man,wet with sweat, takes off his helmet,raises his bat 120 degrees from the ground and the country is happy(it has happened 99 times till date) and as one of great admirer of Sachin, Harsha Bhogle once said "country sleeps well when Sachin scores well".Another great admirer of Sachin Mr. Amitabh Bachchan once said "The day after Sachin scores a hundred even the cashier at the bank gives you cash with a smile".That has been the impact of the man. I am not going to list out his records,his stroke making,his hundreds,his contribution to the game,to the country,to the world,to our lives because listing it would mean my article becomes a small replica of Srimad Bhagawat Geeta.
Many greats have spoken a lot of him,Mathew Hayden once said the he witnessed God in Sachin,Steve Waugh after loosing a match to India said that they did not loose to a team called India but lost a man called Sachin,I do not even have to mention the famous words of Shane Warne,and then Sunil Gavasker spoke with actions,he bend down infront of a jam packed stadium to touch Sachin's feet and take blessings from him.So when all these greats have said and done so much for Sachin,then what a normal fan like me is talking about?Well I don't know how to achieve salvation,just trying my hand at it.
So what am I going to discuss here?Well what do worshipers in temples do, they chant "Hare Krishna ! Hare Rama!".They just sing on and on,clap non stop and keep singing "Hare Krishna ! Hare Rama!".They stand with their hands up,they dance to the music of this magical spell,they forget every thing else in their lives, all they do is just dance.The same happens at the cricket temples,the stadiums,there too worshipers scream "Sachin Sachin" and dance,and celebrate,and enjoy the magic at display.
India won the world cup this year,after 14n years,(you understand the numbers now,don't you?It couldn't have been just 14 years,because no world cup was played in 1997).Like half of the country I too went out on roads to celebrate this feat.What I witnessed was a carnival,there were boys,men,women,older men and women,children everywhere just screaming and dancing,India were the world champions and there were sounds of "India India" and "Sachin Sachin".It was Diwali time,Lord Ram was back after winning over Lankans,Ayodha erupted in celebrations,people were mad,they were crying,laughing,dancing,singing everywhere.It was the time country had an emotional orgasm.
At the start I mentioned how people concluded that Sachin Tendulkar will play forever."Main khelega" were the words of a 16 year old after being hit by a bouncer on his nose.So how can he be always playing?Can this be true?He still gets out, doesn't he? Well then let me tell you one thing,Sachin Tendulkar never gets out,he refuses to bat again after making a mistake.But then what about playing forever? Here I have another thing to mention,ten out of eleven members of Indian cricket team who play for India have Sachin Tendulkar as there idol,they have grown up looking upto him,they want to play like him,so even if Sachin retires from international cricket,he will still be playing,both in the minds of players and the viewers.It is just like there are no Rama and Krishna but we know that they are present,they are listening,they know when we pray and when we don't,so its the same,Sachin will always be playing.I do not doubt that the "Sachin Sachin"chants will ever go,that every next batsmen will be compared to Sachin,that every shot will be matched with Sachin's,that every hundred will only be x hundred away from Sachin's total hundreds,every run that a batsmen scores will be x runs away from Sachins total runs,that every batsmen will always be far away from Sachin Tendulkar.Sachin will always play...
Today on his birthday I wish to thank Sachin for making my life blissful, for making me believe that the God is within, it depends on how one brings Him out.HAPPY BIRTHDAY SACHIN !
