Courtesy : BHEL SINGH / Unbreakable
1.COURAGE CONQUERS FEAR--- Believe in yourself , You can do better than what others expect from you , 75 + international hundreds wernt dreamt off a decade ago .
2.READ, ANALYZE ACT ---Its important to have a plan B. SOmetimes things dont go as planned ,analyze the situation before reacting to it , like every wicket is not a 300+ wicket similarly every war cant be won .
3.KEEP THE FIRE BURNING--- No matter what height you reach , sky doesnt have a limit , there's always scope for improvement ........remember ur as good as your last Inning .
4. A TREE WITHOUT ROOTS IS JUST A DEAD PIECE OF WOOD --- Keep your feet firmly rooted to the ground , its easy to get carried away by success, greats dont let it get to their head .
5. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS --- Keep ur tongue where it belongs (firmly in ur cheek) , your acts can make people look at the mirror and introspect .....harsh words merely reflect frustration .
6.TOUGH TIMES DONT LAST, TOUGH PEOPLE DO ---- There are highs and lows in everyone life , You have to be strong when the time demands it .
7. KEEP IT SIMPLE ---- The simpler you are , the lesser are your chances of messing up , Style fades away , simplicity is always in vogue .
8. TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY ----Take the responsibility and act accordingly , 91 in 190 odd balls can make you look very very ordinary , but if it helps in the bigger objective(Winning) than its worth it .
9.BE PATIENT --- Rome was not built in a day , 26k runs were not made in a single series , when it took 18 years for Sach to achieve all this , what makes you think you can make a difference in a day, week, month or year .
10.KEEP ON MOVING ---Failure is a part of life ,and like success you shouldn't allow this to effect you either , one chance, one, year , one choice one world cup .It doesnt mean the end of the world.
SACH-IN OUR TEEN LIFE by Girish
This isnt an attempt to write an elegy about the man. Better and gifted pens have already done that. Neither is this an attempt to "statistically" prove the "greatness" of this man and how he is "non pareil". Those have been done to death as well.
I am just representative of the coterie of preponderant number of people who entered their teenage world with the entry of cable TV, liberalized economy, rapidly changing middle class dynamics, clandestinely purchased Debonairs, paradigm shift in middle class values, increased access to happenings in "western world", ubiquitous Street cricket, cornucopia of Hardy boys, Nancy Drew's and Archies, highly accommodative parents, over achieving siblings, the ravishing Steffi Grafs, vanishing Sabatinis', ebullient Agassis and one man whose presence in the currently playing Indian Cricket team could bring our whole day to a standstill.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
In hindsight it is amazing how the Sachin phenomenon had perpetrated into the Indian collective consciousness ( especially the middle class the one I was intimately acquainted with ). I am an unabashed Sachin fan ( using it as loosely as possible ) not because of his exquisite strokeplay, his dazzling cover drives, his scintillating straight drives, his pulverizing pulls or the impeccable prancing down the tracks to hoist the hapless fast bowler for a maximum.
It was for all this and so much more.
Again going down the nostalgic lane it is amazing how much of my teenage life I remember revolving around Sachin and his innings.
There would be plenty in this forum who, I am sure, like me would have feigned illness on a match day just to watch the little Master play. There would be plenty who would have sneaked a radio into the class just to be updated ball by ball how Sachin (ostensibly "India" ) was progressing. (Remember no mobile phones in mid nineties). There would be plenty who like me would have dreamed before a match day the Little Master would yet again score a century. Assuming they slept. There would be plenty who like me could recount in amazing detail the exact words he spoke in the man of the match ceremony, the way he got off the mark, the number of balls he took to do it, the way he "unfortunately" got out, the number of fours and sixes you ask? Child's play. There would be plenty of people like me who would have had a knot in their stomach every ball he faced. Waiting. Hoping against hope hopen. The desperate of us even praying. There would be plenty of people who like me would have hurled imprecations on the poor non striker who didn't have the "common sense" to "take a single" and give "strike" to the Little Master. There would again be plenty like me who would have missed the "model board exam" ( oh what is the wrath of the principle and parents when compared to the master dancing down the track and giving Warne the nightmares of his life? Nothing was comparable to it and nothing could have compensated missing it.) and sneaked into Chepauk stadium just to see the Little man take on the mighty Australians . There would be plenty like me who would have read the dependable "The Hindu" the moment we woke up after a match day, the habitual morning ablutions hardly being a priority.There would be plenty like me who when introduced to a girl who professed interest in cricket and actually remembered how much Sachin scored in the last match would immediately start believing in soul mates. There would be plenty like me who would have devoured every article about the Master ( Favorite being R. Mohan's ) and still feeling no adjectives could do justice to him. There would be plenty like me who would have expressed an undisguised scorn at the disinterest shown by the sis and the parents with their callous and blasphemous "I don't understand what the big deal is!!" There would be plenty like me who would have thought spending a whole three hours seeing the Little master striking a ball with a wood a life well spent. There would be plenty like me who would have stayed well late into the night just to catch the highlights after watching the full match in the morning. Sometimes watch a re run of the match again in the night.Finally there would be plenty like me for whom teenage life without Sachin would be almost unimaginable as The God Father without Don Corleone.
Lets face it there are probably people like me out there for whom it was never really about India actually "winning". ( If Sachin plays and they win it would be just a "nice feeling". )
Who really cares about how many matches India actually "won" because of his contribution?
It's like arguing Britney Spears sells more than Beethoven ergo Britney Spears is a better artist.
Yes that's bad logic but logic, teenage life and Sachin didn't really go hand in hand
For some of us it wasn't really about winning at all.
It is the realization how far we would have gone to just see him play that shot.
Oh just to see him on the pitch.
Oh the unbridled pure adulation for a man whose dismissal could break a billion hearts.
Oh if there was heaven it would be just it.
It's a moment of epiphany which plenty of people like me would have gone through.
It wouldn't be banal to say "You can take Sachin out of the Indian team but can never ever take him out of some people's teenage life! "
