Finally, the
moment arrived and ended with one of the finest speeches that sent India
rolling into tears. Sachin Tendulkar in his final words thanked everyone as a
cricketer, father, son, husband, brother, student and a disciple.
His sense of gratitude was pervasive and
touched the chord of everyone who heard him. So far he entertained people with
his bat, but today when he spoke, he stood higher than any of his records, and
his words were far sweeter than any of his centuries.
No living
human being has been celebrated in modern India the way he has been. For the world a great sportsperson was retiring
but for Indians the country’s greatest inspirational figure was calling his
day.
Like a God’s
idol or a picture that occupied a space in every Indian household, Sachin
remained in the heart of every Indian during the last 24 years. In Dharavi, one
of Mumbai’s largest slums where humans put up with extreme odds in their
grueling battle for survival, Sachin’s name brings about a smile in the face of
children and adults alike. Prakash Jodgankan, an elderly Dharavi resident tells
me: “ Sachin gave me joy and hope. He has made a name for himself in the world and
represented the country with so much dignity. If he is not God who else is? ”
Aziz Menon,
a Mumbai based journalist tells how Sachin rallied the entire nation behind him
whenever he would walk into the pitch to bat. Cricket united India more than
anything else, he says, and Sachin was the unifying force of around 1.2 billion Indians.
When
Tendulkar arrived at the world stage, India as a nation was going through a
turbulent phase. The economy was in tatters, communal violence had plagued the
nation, ethnic and regional tensions were on a rise. The country was loosing direction in every
sense. Tendulkar through his magical
batting on other hand was simply on a rampage and pitchforked himself as an
international star– it mesmerized Indians and gave us a sense of hope. Here was
someone from a country that was making its way up with a massive burden of
history, suffering and struggling to provide a better life for its teeming
millions.
Sachin’s
career also coincided with India’s story of economic liberalization. He heralded that era of brand endorsements and
he practically endorsed everything. Prahlad
Kakkar, a man behind most of Tendulkar’s ads since 1992 tells that Tendulkar
stood for courage, hope and confidence, and he brought out those values in the
brands he represented. He said: “ Tendulkar didn’t represent a brand but brands
represented him. He showed Indians that you don’t have to be corrupt to be
successful and he was very sincere in everything he did.”
Tendulkar’s
ads almost act as a timeline of India’s recent history. People can simply relate to a point in their
life in the last two decades by simply looking at those ads.
The tales of
Tendulkar’s hero-worship are uncountable. By his own account he says he has met
many people who fasted for him whenever he went to bat. His sister fasted every
time he went to bat.
What
Tendulkar leaves behind: it is just not records that he made in the cricketing
arena but more importantly for Indians he leaves behind a legacy that is rooted in a character built on a strong foundation of great Indian values.
His farewell
speech was a reminder that not everything of our values and traditions are
nonsense, and great things can be achieved if
you are true to yourself, your family the people around you. He taught Indians to believe in
Sachin
Tendulkar is a cricket legend but his career is also an ode to India at large.
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