A Straight Nostalgic Drive with Sachin

“Nostalgia is like a Grammar lesson, you find the present tense, but the past perfect” - Owens Lee Pomeroy

It is rightly said that the month of December is rife with nostalgia. Writers and journalists come up with ‘Best of the year’ and ‘Top 10 moments’ among others. Given that within few days we will be in the year 2020, the best of the decade from 2010 to 2019 (although few consider that the decade is from 2011 to 2020) is also doing rounds.

In the midst of all this, last Saturday witnessed the interview of Sachin Tendulkar in a new program called Inspiration. Now, to most of us Indian kids of the 1990s, Sachin was (probably still is) ‘God’ and the epitome of inspiration. Hence, the mere mention of the name was enough to send us into a sea of schmaltz.

So, when Sachin was asked how he felt when the entire nation used to switch off their television after his dismissal, I tried remembering all those occasions when my father had switched off the TV set post his dismissal. The way I used to still fight with him to allow me to watch the match even when India’s loss was inevitable brought a smile on my face. It was a time when Sachin’s each and every action on and off the field was imitated by his fans. When Sachin became the vice-captain, I was happy to have the same role in the matches in our society. Also, our bowling styles changed on the basis of whether he was bowling seam-up, off-spin or leg-break.

Was MRF a bat manufacturer?

Sachin Tendulkar with a MRF sticker on his bat

For a long time, I used to think that MRF was actually a company that manufactured cricket bats. Needless to say, my bat also had a MRF sticker. The number of runs I scored with the bat was immaterial, the mere ownership of a MRF bat made me feel closer to Sachin.

Around the same time when injuries started to trouble Sachin, I too had a leg injury after being struck on the knee cap by a leather ball (I was playing without putting on the pads). The physical pain was lessened by the feeling that I too had a cricketing injury just like Sachin. Of course, all the injuries to him taught us more about human bones and muscles than any biology teacher could ever do.

In Sharjah, when he had everyone dancing in the aisles (Tony Greig’s legendary words), we all were jumping in our living rooms. When he hit a six of English bowler Andrew Caddick, many window panes were broken in buildings across the small maidans throughout India just imitating that shot.

Why this hoopla around one man?

Sachin Tendulkar being carried by his teammates after the 2011 World Cup Final

By the time he lifted the World Cup and his teammates lifted him in 2011, we were adults. The team also had got many more match-winners and the burden of expectation on him had reduced drastically. I am sure anyone born post 2000 would have been thinking, why this hoopla around one man when actually the team had won.

Also see – World Test Championship points table

Well, it would be impossible to explain, just like the way a generation before us talks about the exploits of Sunil Gavaskar and a generation after us is doing about Virat Kohli. Thankfully for India, generation after generation, batting heroes have been produced and every era rightfully thinks that their idol was the best.

But the emotion that these great men leave us with is immortal. And that one hour of Sachin on Inspiration took us back to a time when we closed our eyes for the fear of him getting out. But today, on this nostalgic drive, I was relaxed. As they say, “Part of why nostalgia feels good is because it’s a clean narrative. You know how everything turns out; you remember the happy ending as opposed to any stressful lead-ups.”