SachinTendulkar: an ode to India

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 themselves. 

Sachin Tendulkar is a cricket legend but his career is also an ode to India at large.

    

Why winning the cricket world cup means so much for India?

Like all Indians, I was elated to see India win the Cricket World Cup in Mumbai. I caught up with the final moments of the match on a terribly slow and scrambled  live stream on the internet. Writing from a serene evening here in England, where it won the cup for the first time at Lords 28 years ago, I can well imagine the euphoria and the pompous celebrations that must be sweeping across India.

Ever since India first won the world cup in 1983, cricket in India assumed a quasi-religious status.  Like most members of India’s winning squad, a vast majority of India’s massive young population were not even born when it first lifted the world cup. However, they grew up in an era, where cricket became the heart and soul of India’s public consciousness, serving as a unifying force in a vast and culturally diverse country. It is in cricket that ordinary Indians from different regions and backgrounds find a common language and also respite from the hardships of daily life.

Cricket’s rise as the most popular sport in India was also propelled by the economic forces. As India liberalised its economy in the early 1990s, the inflow of multinationals were quick to cash in on cricket by promoting a culture of endorsements. Soon cricketers became glamorous figures, equated with or even considered taller than Bollywood stars, endorsing almost every product. The brilliant advertisements involving cricketers that littered the then India’s evolving satellite media landscape appealed to the masses, and to become a cricketer became a dream of every child.

In many ways, cricket in India is a symbol of the country's emergence as an economic power.  It metaphorically reflects India’s growing wealth. The multi - billion dollar Indian Premier League is an example of that. During this period, India also produced the greatest batsman in the history of the game, Sachin Tendulkar. One reason  why this tournament meant so much to Indians is because everyone wanted to see India lift the cup while Tendulkar was presumably playing his last world cup. Sachin Tendulkar in India is almost a mythical figure, who not only entertains the fans with the willow, but in a country that is often beleaguered by high level scandals and corruption, he serves as an inspirational role model for millions for exemplifying  exceptional humility and integrity in public life.

The cricket saga in India will continue for years to come, but it is difficult to predict if it will be characterised by the same hysteria. This victory for India goes beyond the boundaries of sport. For the last two decades, cricket with all its glitz and glamour became almost a pulsating force of the nation so much so that the national passion for the game and the expectations from its team to win another world cup almost reached a tipping point. This is the first major international tournament India has won in a generation, and for Indians it is a matter of immense pride. The triumph is a momentous occasion, but it could also be the beginning of a new era of renewed confidence of a young and fast growing nation determined to be a force to be reckon with in the 21^st century.