Sachin Tendulkar: The humble legend

Sachin Tendulkar has inspired generations with his acumen, determination, and humility — traits that carve legends out of stars. MEENAKSHI RAO explores what shaped this man extraordinaire in the backdrop of the recent docu-film serenading the icon

Memories diminish, stars fade into new dawns. The public and its adulation move on, as do time and moments that make a legend. It’s been three years and just over five months since Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar retired from all forms of cricket on that sobbing day of November 16, 2013, at Wankhede Stadium, which left the nation wondering what India is without Sachin in the middle and what Sachin is without cricket.

That was the day this colossal called Sachin, hamara Sachin, played the last Test match of his career, scored 74 runs, kissed the ground he so often rocked with his bat and walked away into the sunset after a teary-eyed, simple and heart-warming first-ever public speech of his 24-year-long career in a game which gave India all the good reasons to live. Everyone wept that day, unabashedly. For none, then, could imagine a world where Sachin was not walking in at No 4, looking up at the sky, rotating his arm, adjusting his crotch guard, surveying the field placements, flexing his knees and taking stance. None could imagine Team India without him guiding youngsters or advising the skipper from the first slip.

None could imagine that next century not coming from the bat of the nation’s most loved asset. Can joy be the same when a Rohit Sharma or a Virat Kohli hit a scintillating century? Can anyone fire the love and imagination of generations as Tendulkar did? No, one would say, and therein lies the difference between a legend and a star.

Indeed, the day after looked really wintry. But the huge tectonic shift in India’s cricketing world was borne with stoic silence by the little master even as his fans were noisy, brittle and emotional all in one go. He receded into his private space with rare dignity and reserve and has since then been living a life outside the only life he never knew — cricket — with other meaningful purposes, this time away from public gaze. Both the nation and its legend have lived and quite purposefully at that.

Stars abound in the sporting world, every generation has its own twinkle, its own poster boy of inspiration. So, what is it that makes Sachin any different from a Roger Federer, a Pele or a Sergey Bubka? He is different because he has done the rare deed of giving the less-than-ordinary mortals their most extraordinary moments, their reason to smile, hope and be happy in the face of tears, hopelessness and sorrow. He has been that singular force which provided a bridge from one world to another — from the world of high prices, low life, extreme poverty, ill health and stark woes to a globe where aspirations and inspirations swept away the ifs and buts of the daily churn.

But why so much reverence for him? Social activists do the same, don’t they? Bring smiles to the faces of the underprivileged? After all, for 24 years, Sachin Tendulkar merely swung around a heavy

bat assembled by someone else and made more runs than anyone else, which do not feed any hungry mouths. It was not as if he saved humanity or lifted mountains to prevent earthquakes. Not at all.

What he did instead was dress up individual effort as no man had ever done before — with poise, perseverance, and singular determination. Along the way, he crossed the rubicon of ordinariness to become a genius from whom everyone could take away a slice of meaning and a platter of purpose.

To limit Tendulkar’s wonderment to just his mindboggling longevity would be criminal. He was no ordinary sportsperson but a phenomenon, an apostle of impossible achievements and a saint of gentle aggrandisement. You can call him family drama — appealing to all ages, all tastes and all communities, at all times. He could make a nation of one billion stop in its track merely by walking into the crease and taking guard on a 22-yard pitch in some circular stadium in some corner of the world. Only BR Chopra’s Mahabharat had shown similar signs of such absolute captivation. As there has been no Mahabharat version to match BR Chopra’s, there will be no cricketer to stand up to Sachin’s rarity.

So, what went into the making of such a classy genius, totally untouched by controversy? After all, as a child, he was just as naughty, as ordinary, as normal as your next door neighbour’s son. He came from a middle class family, lived in an ordinary apartment and went to an ordinary school. He was no brilliant student. He loved playing pranks. Like all other children, he had his tantrum days and moods. He worshipped his icons, strutting around with a bandana over his curly locks like the fiery, volatile John McEnroe, someone who was not his style in temperament or presentation. So, what shaped him into becoming this man extraordinaire with so much poise, resilience and dignity?

The answer lies in the family values that he grew up with. His humility comes from his equally unassuming poet father who taught Marathi at a local college but never imposed his literary moorings on his son. What he did teach him, though, was to be a good human being with a purpose, courage, humility and silent reserve — traits that Tendulkar sported all his cricketing life, something that his debut tour team manager, Chandu Borde, mentions.

Borde recalls that in 2007, Sachin was given out twice in his 90s. He had become a star by then. On both occasions, the decision was wrong but he just walked without showing any dissent. Later on, the umpires approached Sachin in the dressing room and admitted that they had made a mistake. Sachin merely said, “Never mind”. “If a cricketer of his stature can behave in such a dignified manner, then his behaviour sets an example for other cricketers to keep their emotions in check and concentrate on their game,” Borde said back then, adding that it’s difficult to follow tenets like humility, forgiveness and the courage to walk away, and that made Sachin a youth icon.

The courage and dedication were not Sachin’s alone. To a large extent, it came from his elder brother, Ajit Tendulkar, who had it in him to sacrifice his own budding career as a cricketer to devote all his might in honing Sachin’s. He saw in him a bigger cricketing genius and had the courage to stand down for his younger brother. Years later, Sachin acknowledged this when he said he never walked into the crease alone. An invisible Ajit and his sacrifice were always holding the bat for him.

Being so committed and grounded at the same time has been Sachin’s singular asset. To remain ordinary in the face of rare extraordinariness is an impossible achievement. And this came to Sachin from his mother who never raised the bar of living a normal life to bask in the frenzied glory of her son. She continued to work as an LIC agent even as her youngest son, Sachin, became a global icon. She taught him the art of keeping sanity in the face of the insane adulation he was living with.

That’s what amazed people like Borde who saw him from close quarters during the 2007 trip. Despite tasting tremendous success since the debut tour in 1989, Sachin had the same zeal to learn and make improvisations to the game. “What surprised me during the tour was that despite scoring so many runs and becoming the nation’s darling, Sachin had remained the same person — a student of the game always willing to learn with dedication and humility.”

The other standout asset of Sachin is his fierce loyalty and respect to his mentors, like coach Ramakant Achrekar, to whom he was taken by his brother at a tender age of 11. More than three decades later, when coach Achrekar is old and in a wheelchair, Sachin is by his side in most of his moments of glory, celebrating occasions with him, like the recent premiere of the film on him, Sachin: A Billion Dreams. Achrekar gave him clarity of mind, made him taste the fruit of dedication and taught him perseverance. Sachin, in turn, never forgot his contribution to his career.

Post-retirement, Sachin’s asset gathering has not decreased. Not many stars have the ability to walk away from their halo and still get inscribed in contemporary history as a pointer to responsible living. Away from the cricket that was his one and only life, Sachin took care to evolve into being a loving father to the two children he could not give much time to during his playing days, a committed husband to a wife who gave up her career to look after the children while her husband was incessantly on tours, a dedicated son, brother, and sportsperson, expanding the boundaries of cricket as its ambassador, propelling excellence in fields other than cricket and silently being involved in philanthropic endeavours.

Sachin’s mother-in-law, Annabel, has spoken about him being the giver like his elder sister and brother Ajit. She works for an organisation that helps slum children, and Sachin has sponsored the education of many of them in his father’s memory. Whenever asked, which she says she rarely did, he has always been ready to help out without any stardom issues.

“Sachin is undoubtedly one of the greatest cricketers of all times, but what is more important to me is that he is a fine human being. He was greatly influenced by his father and has grown up with strong family values. He is very much a family man,” Annabel told PTI in a one-off interview.

Indeed, Sachin has had the discipline to keep his post-retirement life constructively eventful. As ISL franchisee of Kerala Blasters, stardom has followed him in another manner. His club clocks the highest turnout in football every year. In its three-year existence, the Blasters have been part of two ISL Finals and command the most fanatic following among any side in the league. Average stadium attendance for their matches is said to rival big football clubs in Europe and has been a major reason why the ISL is regarded as one of the most well-supported leagues in the world.

He also co-owns the Premier Badminton League franchisee, Bengaluru Blasters. He presented BMWs to athletes who starred for India in the Rio Olympics and was part of the felicitation of Indian Paralympians who won medals in Rio.

In a LinkedIn post earlier this the year, Tendulkar said that one of the highlights of his post-retirement activities has been the adoption of Puttamraju Kandriga, a village in Andhra Pradesh. “Seeing the village don a new look after two years of intensive infrastructural development had a joy that can’t be put into words,” he said in the post. He is also UNICEF ambassador for hygiene and sanitation and is involved in ‘Spreading Happiness,’ a project that provides electricity to deprived areas.

In a recent interview, he said he is happy with the extra time he is getting to spend with his family. “I now have more time to give to my family, to travel, to pursue my passions and to focus on things that are close to my heart, ones that I can now explore. The love and affection from fans has remained unchanged, the chants still resonate and appear wherever I travel, which is amazing and something for which I am eternally grateful,” he said.

That’s just being ordinary despite being extraordinary. That’s just being a legend. That’s just being Sachin, the boy of a billion dreams.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 4 June, 2017