Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Chepauk in all Smiles ..


And again I’ve never thought I would write here about this man before he decides to quit… But all of a sudden , last night I was struck with this.. Why praise a man, write ballads after ballads, sonnets after sonnets when he is done and dead..!! Adore him when he is living…Indeed, at his best :)

Disz the time were we see Dadas signin off, Jumbos callin it a day n Solid Walls turning into dusts… Anyone can get 20 mins of fame.. Even Kasab did.. But being a Darling of a nation , dat too in India, for almost 20 long years….U gotta be a Sachin Tendulkar !!!

It’s an art!! The art of being Tendulkar!!

Well , it was in 1999, I was in ma 8th then,I remember there were quite a few transformations… Empty philtrum to the first moustache, Half-Trousers to Pants, Childhood Crush into a Puppy Love and more importantly Sachin Fan into a Sachin Worshipper…:) Spl Thanks to the Damien Fleming, Kasprowikz n Co ;-P

“ Sachin Out .. Switch Off TV” was the slogan then… There were no SMS, No Cricinfo, No E-mail n nothing.. We were in our own world …Exam pads as bats, 3 rupees plastic balls n Charcoal Stumps..:) We had to wait for someone who had gone home 4 lunch to come back with the score.. If Sachin was batting ,a group of 4, made sure we jump out of the fences , run to the admin TV Hall, get the score and back to the class in that 10 mins recess break.. Mind u the distance was more than a Km.. We were Ussain Bolts then :) ..

It was 31st Jan ,Old foes again ,target was a lil lesser but the bowling was a lot decent..Wasim, Waqar n Saqlain …Oops …scary even to read them aloud!! The scoreboard showed 274 as the target.. This man was playing them single handedly along with dat new one…Damit!! Dat f**kin backpain…!! That lofted shot off Saqlain , the curtains were halfdown.. Read the last paragraph’s first line again now…

Yup, India lost the match by 12 Runs…Sachin was given the MOM.. But he was absent for the presentation, weeping in the dressing room like a school kid, blamin himself…

But things were lot different in the last test… We had a good opening stand in the last session of the 4th day… But Pieter would ve thought they gonna win the match the next eve.. The ball did every possible thing that a spinner would dream off.. It jumped, spun , turned and bounced…Last few bricks of the wall were shattered and caught behind and in came the master…

Same venue , Similar situation sans Back Pain !! Settled was gone for a Collinwood Beauty, Stylish was deceived but Sachin was unstoppable… This time he din wanna surrender n weep…He glided, pushed, punched, pulled and paddled and then jumped in Joy..He sealed the famous Indian Victory along with ‘Sixy’ Leftie…:)

The Umpire too was busy looking at this man,like every other at Chepauk…He went on signaling it a boundry for quite sometime,not realizing dat Swann was already tired of askin his Sunglasses back ;-)…

Spectators were happy…! Dressing room was happy…!! Commentators were happy…!!! Even the Groundsmen !!! U don’t c many a times, a woman in a red saree in all smiles who sweeps the ground for less than hundred bucks a day, running all the way to shake hands with Sachin… And a physically challenged man crawling into the ground for the same reason. This will happen only in India n for dat u again gotta be a Sachin Tendulkar!!!

U missed those?? Do wat the commentators were saying last night.. Go.. Go n get the DVD :)

Special thanks to Chennai’s Aficionados…

Stadium was relatively empty when he went past Lara, a part of his own home crowd booed him wen he was not at his best and u could very well remember the infamous semis in 96… But the only crowd which stood n applauded a Pakistan’s Test Victory in India … Kudos Chennai….!!

How can one ever forget those 136 and 155*…!!!

Amidst all those Semesters, Lay-offs, Project fears and blah – blahs, you turned up in big numbers and cheered him.. Your ostensible reasons may be a migraine or a stomach upset ..U wer getting them cured last eve … :)

Thank God !! U din end up meeting ur ( Wait , Wait… Which ‘God’ am meaning here?? Am confused too :) )...TLs n Lecturers at Stand B and HODs n PMs at Stand G …;-P .. And no wonder Sachin reserved his Best for u :)…U deserved dat show Guys ….!!!

Oops.. I forgot u.. Thanks Nisha !! for not stripping off … He..He…

Wat Mickey Mouse is to the world, Tendulkar is to many of us … He never gets any old :)..

Long Live Sachin !!!

10 comments:

R Srikkant said...

Good one!! I am reserving my one blog on Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar for a more momentous occasion :) May be GOD's 50th test/ODI century!! :)

Sethu Maathavan said...

Srikant - Sachin has one more momentous occasion than scoring 50 Century. Its winning the world cup.

MNK said...

Just wonderful dude...an Indian who deserves to be a pride for the nation...Chanceless...great work machi...

vicky said...

Good one.... A real interesting refreshment of memories of all worshipers of the "God of Cricket"

JSTHEONE said...

Awesome... No doubt He is the god of cricket...but still some atheist didnt hav faith on him but now they started worshipping him....
Sachin need encouragement from us yes of course he have that...
But we need more centuries from our god.. sure he will fulfill our wishes... no doubt Hail Sachin.....
Sachin Sachin Sachin....

Venkata Ramanan S said...

@R Srikkant...

U r too Optimistic...Like evry other Greedy Indian :)

@Maathav

Huh...523!! & 673!!!... Wasnt possible even then :(

@Vicky,MNK,JS

Thanks Buddies !! :)

R Srikkant said...

@Maathav

Who knows.. He may well play till the next world cup!! Let s see..

Maha said...

Just one objection....

"Solid walls turning into dust" doesn't go quite well when we consider the facts....

Lets not promote "Sachin" by demoting other icons....

They are equally good in their own right....

Venkata Ramanan S said...

@Maha

Its not dat way...
Ive always believed rahul has a better techniqs than sachin... Some1 grtr than d God himself...

It was jus a matr of time.. he was in his all time low that season except for that ton in d same ground again SA..

Such was d statement made...

Venkata Ramanan S said...

@ Srikka, @maathav

Well we ve witnessed both. 50th Test hundred and a World Cup.. :)