Why I would never want to be Sachin Tendulkar !!!!!!!! -- HARSHA BHOGALE

Remember when you failed an examination. How many people recall that, your class, friends, relatives? You failed to make it to the IITs or IIMs. Who remembers. How many times have you had the feeling of being the best in your class, school , university, state….., you failed to get a visa stamped this quarter…, you missed a promotion this year…, how did it feel when your dad told you in your early twenties that you are good for nothing…..and now your boss tell you the same...



You keep introspecting and go into a shell when people most of whom don’t matter a dime in your life criticize you, back bite you, make fun of you. You are left sad and shattered and you cry when your own kin scoffs at you. You say I am feeling low today. It takes a lot from us to come out of these everyday situations and move on. A lot??? really?



Now here’s a man standing on the third man boundary in the last over of a world cup match. The bowler just has to bowl sensibly to win this game. What the man at the boundary sees is 4 rank bad bowls bowled without any sense of focus, planning or regret. India loses, yet again in those circumstances when he has done just about everything right.

He does not cry. Does not show any emotion. Just keeps his head down and leaves the field. He has seen these failures for 22 years now. And not just his class, relatives, friends but the whole world has seen these failures. We are too immature to even imagine what goes on in that mind and heart of his. That’s why I would never want to be Sachin.



True, he has single handedly lifted to moods of this entire nation umpteen number of times. He has been an inspiration to rise above our mediocrity. Nobody who has ever lifted the willow even comes close to this man’s genius. His dedication and metal strength is unparallel.

This is specially for those people who would have made fun of him again last night when India lost. They are people who are mediocre in their own lives. Who just scoff at others to create cheap fun. Who have lived in a small hole throughout their lives and thought they have seen the oceans.



Think about the man himself. He is 37 years of age. He has been playing almost non stop for 22 years. The way he was running and diving around the field last night would have put 22 year olds to shame. The way he played the best opening quickies in the world was breathtaking. He just keeps getting better which is by the way humanly impossible. Its not for nothing that people call him GOD.

But still I don’t want to be in those shoes. We struggle in keeping our monotonous lives straight, lives which affect a limited number of people. Imagine what would be the magnitude of the inner struggle for him, pain both mental and physical, tears that have frozen with time, knees and ankles and every other joint in the body that is either bandaged or needs to be attended to every night, eyes that don’t sleep before a big game, bats that have scored 99 international tons and still see expectations from a billion people.



And he just converts those expectations into reality. We watch in awe, feel privileged.

Well I think its time that his team realizes that enough is enough. They have an obligation, not towards their country alone but towards sachin. They need to win this one for him. Stay assured that he himself will still deliver and leave no stone unturned to make sure India wins this cup.

This is not just a game, and he is not just a sportsman. Its much more than this. Words fail here.....

This Time For TENDULKAR !!!!!

Dear Sachin,
I feel sad. Even after 22 years of playing for the country, you are still expected to win matches on your own. We forget that apart from you there are 10 more players in the team. You have been the run machine in World Cups with an average ...of 60. Even today while you yet again proved your class with a 111 the others around took it easy. You chased the ball in the outfield and ensured that your throws landed on top of the bails. Others preferred to drop catches or go back to the dressing room for a 'rest' while a substitute fielder came in. Sachin, the current Indian cricket team doesn't deserve you. They don't know what it is like to give one's blood and sweat for this nation of a billion people. For them fame and money has come to easy and undeserving - not commensurate to the 'supposed talent' that they posses. Do you remember what you had said to Tom Alter in that interview in 1989? "I just want to play cricket". Sachin, let me also not hide the truth - you are not my favorite cricketer - but one plays favorites only with humans - not with Gods for they are revered, emulated and looked at in awe... [We expect Sachin to win this cup for us. But what about the other players? Are they supposed to be playing ludo in the dressing room? I hope that the rest of the team wake up and realize that they are not there to 'play' in the tournament, they are supposed to 'win' it - not for themselves, not for India but for the greatest Indian to have lived - Sachin Tendulkar. P.S: In the 1992, Hero Cup semi-final in Eden Gardens Kolkata (India Vs. SA), SA needed 6 runs to win off the last over. Tendulkar snatched the ball from Azhar and bowled a magnificent over to win that match for us. (He gave away only 3 runs). Maybe our team needs to watch that over to know what guts and glory are all about.]
                                            Sachin, I hope we win the final in Wankhede. If we don't a billion people can only hang their heads in shame and ask for your forgiveness.

 Regards,
One of your undying fans who:
 1. Still goes crazy when you hit that straight drive and show us the manufacturer's name on the   bat.
 2. Stayed awake late into the night before my end terms to watch that 100 in Sharjah in the midst of that sandstorm.
 3. Relished every shot that you played to decimate Warne in 1998 and then Shoaib Akhtar in that   2003 World Cup against Pakistan.
 4. Will stop watching cricket after you retire.

don't understand !!!

I don’t understand how you can smile all day long but cry yourself to sleep at night. How pictures never change but the people in them do. How your best friend can become your worst enemy, or how strange it is when your worst enemy turns into your best friend. How forever turns into a few short months that you’d do almost anything to get back. How you can let go of something you once said you couldn’t live without. How even though you know something is best for you, it just hurts the same. How the people you once wanted to spend every second with you, think a few minutes of their time is too much to spare. How people make promises despite knowing how common it is for promises to be broken. How people can erase you from their lives just because it’s easier than working things out.

How things would change??

As I entered the four walls of office for the first time I was gripped with a strange feeling that how things would change. I could sense the burden of responsibilities on my shoulder and feel the breeze of seriousness around.


Right from the entrance everything was different. The iron gates of college changed to the robotic ones. The ever smiling security guards(mama) changed to surveillance cameras and access cards. Employee id took the place of roll number. Trainers took the place of teachers and Boss was the new principal. My quoted T-shirt and torn jeans were replaced by formal shirts and trousers :( . The colors of life changed to commercial blues and blacks and the only designs dominating are horizontals and verticals. Comfort breaks were my only bunks and lectures took form of training sessions. College katta will now be enclosed to AC cafeteria.



However as after every night comes a day, after all the minuses comes the plus. Now there won't be monthly reporting of expenses to dad, as my pocket money would change to salary. All my clothes in the wardrobe will get a label and even I would own the Zod's and the Blackberries. My prepaid number would change to postpaid and extra lectures would be termed as paid overtimes. Now there won't be late night boozing but official Corporate Parties.


From boy next door I will be the Eligible Bachelor and will be watching movies on Friday nights instead of early morning shows at multiplexes...

How things would change???

Relationship !!!!

Last month I bought a suave new Laptop. And God, I was so hyper about it? All through the next one week I kept exploring its features to the maximum (carrying it wherever I went!!!). But as the time passed I didn’t seem as interested and excited as I was when I just bought it. It was just then I thought, I’ll probably see my hyper-self again when I lay my hand on another gadget.







I think there is a latent lesson in relationship here. And the more I thought about it, the more the answers to what makes a relationship click or bleak grew on me.