Sach!ndia

It’s that time in the scheme of worldly things that if you are a creature of the cricketing ecology in general and Indian cricketing ecology in particular you cannot avoid breathing the entity Sachin rather you will feel privileged to breathe him in.

Everywhere there are talks about his greatness and whether he is the greatest cricketer of all times and Times of India has even launched a poll asking whether he is the greatest sportsperson of all times. All these talks, polls and omnipresent discussions and tweets and updates are fuelling the celebration of perfection and humility by an individual.

Such comparisons are bound to happen but I don’t find them worth, reasonable and logical to do.

When I talk about him, the fan-confessed God of cricket, I don’t want to talk about those records and figures and awards and accolades which always eat so much of pulp and bits and bytes. No.

Being born as a human what are those values, qualities and personal attributes that much of the human race finds as exemplary and ones which have made the human civilization what it is.

Passion for something and so much that you live for it.

Quest for Perfection to keep on improving yourself all the time and every time even when there are no benchmarks to look upon.

Even if millions call you God, pray you like God, Humility to just be a human and nothing more than that.

Acceptance that you have been privileged to be what you are and so use that privilege to make other humans privileged, what we generally call Giving Back to the Society.

Everyone follows money, but very few are followed by it and there are still fewer who disallow it to follow them, blindly, Value the Values more than the Valuables.

Single Minded and Pure Focus to know what you want and how you want that, no matter what the world feels or says about it.

Losing is never a crime but to stop trying to win is and here is his Persistence.

Last but not at all the least, be a ray of Hope and Optimism and give Joy to the innumerous living humans.

I think I am done with my portrait of a perfect human.

The human civilization is such a glorious one because of the innumerous humans who try to fit themselves to this portrait, they might fit or not is inconsequential, they might be known or anonymous is consequential. Path is what matters, Destination is inconsequential.

Let me take the ball head on now –

Why Sachin is SACHIN?

Why there are few individuals who can be compared to him as an individual, forget as a sportsperson?

Why there are so many Indians like me who are as ardent a follower of him as one can be?

In a country like India where mediocrity is one of the bigger virtues than many others, to find someone like Sachin is like finding an oasis in the Sahara. And for Sachin, to strive for such excellence without finding any benchmarks around him must have been a greater task.

If we can dive a bit deeper into this then sporting excellence in India is rarer. Ours has been a country where sport at best used to be considered as a past time activity. Considering it as a career option for a child is as weird as it can get. But I think such a mindset is quite understandable if we look at our per capita incomes, our living standards and the sheer competition required in achieving even that much. Here, Sachin, had an advantage in the kind of support he got from his family and specially from his elder brother and this can be attributed to his natural talent to some extent.

Born in a country at a time when no other sport enjoyed much following, forget comparisons with the stature of cricket, proved to be an extra advantage for him. And arriving at the international arena at such a young age added more charm, mystery and curiosity in the minds of the cricket followers. Picture this: a young lad who looked even younger than his underage taking on one of the fiercest bowling attack of all times in Pakistan. Such were the chapters in cricketing history which helped him create huge following and even awe and respect. They captured the imagination of the entire nation and even across the borders.

Display of perfection, pursuit of excellence and craftsmanship like his would have been revered anywhere and more so in a country like ours deprived of any real joys. Being an underdeveloped country since long and now moving on to be a developing one we have always been busy in our everyday sorrows and struggles either at workplace, home, school, kitchen or wherever you can think of. And then every time in such a lull, suddenly comes an entertaining knock, a masterpiece from Sachin. It entertains us; it gives us a fresh perspective to life and it gives us a brief break to forget all that matters or I must say does not matter. For what matters in life is life and joy. And I personally have not felt such elation in my life as I had because of an innings from Sachin, again and again.

And this is one the reasons, that even when we lost to South Africa in the 1st test match at Centurion, we were celebrating his feat more than lamenting on India’s loss. I don’t see anything wrong in this. Life gives us rare occasions to celebrate and enjoy and when it does give, take it with open boundaries.

His success is often attributed to his natural talent or what people say gifted talent. There is no doubt on him being gifted; but wait for a moment and just check how many talents keep on bursting on the international arena now and then and how many actually turn talent to success? Don’t go far, take the example of Kambli for that matter who came on the scene along with Sachin and see where he is now? In the recent times, Yuvraj Singh is an apt example of a spoiled talent – being level headed is a rarer attribute than talent. And this is one of the other things which has kept Sachin on the top for so long and can again be attributed to Sachin’s family.

With love comes expectations and when love is boundless as this, so are the expectations and the pressure of Indian followers and Indian media can only be taken either by Atlas or our own Sachin. This can easily be attributed to his focus and love for the game, love for playing for the tricolor. Every time people throw stones at him, as he said, he turns them into milestones.

And let me be clear on one thing - nothing and no one in this world goes outside the purview of criticism, such is our race of cynics and hypocrites, that people who might have never held a cricket bat go on to criticize the batting skills and decisions of Sachin.

And at the same time let me also stress that everyone, including Sachin is a human and it’s only human to err, but the less the human errs, the greater he or she becomes. And being a human he too has some dreams to fulfill yet - like the World Cup.

People talk and write a lot about brand value of Dhoni surpassing that of Sachin in the recent times but then how many individuals would reject more lucrative offers because they go against the principles and values of his father, tell me how many?

Sachin is slowly on the path of becoming a legend which will live on forever, someone whose value is invaluable and hence cannot be valued in a market driven, materialistic manner. He is a joy for us, a real bliss and would be a mystery and inspiration to all those who will not be privileged to see God bat.