In life as in cricket, Sachin Tendulkar is driven by rhyme and reason

Reams have been written about Sachin Tendulkar the batsman. And reams continue to be written…

Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth. The Master Blaster may not have read or heard this gem of a quote by former US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, but his father had told him something similar many years ago.

“I’ve fond memories of my days at Kirti College (Dadar). I moved to the institution because Achrekar (Ramakant) sir would hold coaching clinics there. I would drop my father (who was a professor there) and go for practice. One of those days, my father told me, ‘In life, everything is short-lived and has a deadline. But there’s something that comes without a deadline and that is your nature. Your nature always stays with you. Be humble, be polite, for these are qualities that people will always appreciate.’”

Tendulkar said at a function organised to announce the release of a CD of songs based on poems written by his father, Ramesh Tendulkar, as well as a book of poems penned by the maestro’s elder brother, Nitin Tendulkar, at the MCA Recreation Ground in Bandra on Tuesday.

The great man continues to value his late father’s words. In short, he believes in the fact that form is temporary, class is permanent. And that’s why reams continue to be written about his persona too…

The anecdote-filled afternoon was as entertaining as one of Tendulkar’s knocks on a sun-kissed ground. The gorgeous straight drives were replaced by witty one-liners, while the extravagant cover drives made way for heart-wrenching accounts. And he dished out those in Marathi, English and Hindi with familiar ease.

Sample this. When a journalist asked him if his mother played an equally important role in bringing him up, Tendulkar ‘stepped out and hit him out of the park’. “Well, she was the one who gave me food everyday. So I guess she did play her part.”

A little later, another mediaperson was a victim of a ‘late cut’. “Hi Sachin, Aamir Khan told me once that whenever he wishes you good luck, you fail to get a hundred,” the scribe said with a wry smile. “Then you please tell him not to wish me,” was the great man’s reply.

Tendulkar was not done. As always, he reserved his best for the last. “I remember an Under-15 camp in Indore. On the second day, the watchman complained to our coach, Vasu Paranjpe, saying that we were playing cricket till two in the morning, thereby disturbing people in the neighbourhood. Sir told him, “Then what are you watching? Go and field.”’ The ‘crowd’ (read journalists) was roaring by now.

Tendulkar also made it clear that his father never forced him to take to poetry or literature. And that’s exactly why he would never persuade his son to take up cricket. “The choice was always mine. And he always supported me. Similarly, Arjun (his son) has to decide what he wants to be. Arjun should do what he wants to.

It’s the passion that matters. If you are passionate about something and work towards it for 8-10 hours daily, you still want to do it the next day without the feeling of dreariness. If you sense that monotony has set in, that’s the time to reassess your options and you need to look at something else in life,” he said.
So what if he’s not inclined to poetry. His life is poetry in motion. And that’s why reams will continue to be written…