The Unbearable Heaviness of Being a Sachin Tendulkar Fan :Girish
Dear Sachin ,
There is always that ineffable moment isn’t it ? When we look back on our life with a nostalgic hue and realize when we turned the corner. When we shed our bearable lightness of being and braced up to face the vicissitudes of life. When we fell in love, out of love, faced disappointments and never managed to keep our tryst with destiny or at the very least Lady fortune. Some of us grew up, grew old, shed our past inhibitions and prejudices , embraced new ideas and passions and some of us were even running away from the past. When contemplating the uncertain times we are living in now where every one of us is vulnerable irrespective of our location , political or religious predilections , I am often reminded of the ruminations of Woody Allen in his movie Manhattan as character Isaac Davis ,
“Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um... Well, There are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. uh... Like what... okay... um... For me, uh... ooh... I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... uh... um... and Wilie Mays... and um... the 2nd movement of the Jupiter Symphony... and um... Louis Armstrong, recording of Potato Head Blues... um... Swedish movies, naturally... Sentimental Education by Flaubert... uh... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um... those incredible Apples and Pears by Cezanne... uh... the crabs at Sam Wo's... uh... Tracy's face.. “
There is a very good chance Woody Allen hasn’t ever heard of you but , if yes , then no doubt he would have added watching you play as one of the things which makes life worth living. To some it is inconceivable that so many of us give so much importance to a game played by “eleven fools and watched by eleven thousands fools ( give or take a few hundred million ) " and even so elevate a mere ‘man’ , who is arguably one of the greatest exponents of the game which has evolved as much as most of us who grew up watching it , to a demi god status. As I had argued, na rather defended the passion for you in a write up long back about how growing up in the nineties in India as a teenager and being a cricket aficionado inextricably intertwined our own life around you and your cricket exploits , even now I realize inspite of my interests diverging into other things in the tumultuous twenties, I have the same reverence and zealous partisanship when I watch you play. I *still* think you are the next best thing to sliced bread and the sheer religious joy you bring to some of us with your exquisite stroke play is only matched by Bach’s rendition of Ave Maria in repeat loop.
It is indeed true that some of us erstwhile “die hard” fans have stopped keeping tracking of the innumerable records you started to create before inevitably breaking it again yourself. It is true some of us flirted with the idea of shifting our loyalty to a certain other gentleman whose name also begins with S . We also confess there have been times we just wished you would hang up your boots while burning out rather than fading away. It is not without some merit when we have been accused of having unreasonable expectations of a man who has lived and breathed cricket almost to the point of being institutionalized. We admit to being capricious and foisting our own insecurity and high expectations on one man every single time you came to bat. Yes even during the “doubting phase” of 2004-2008. We also plead guilty to the charge of ignoring your other contemporary “good cricketers” inspite of externally claiming to be ‘objective’ and hubristically feeling your detractors do not “get you”.
But we are not apologizing. Not now and possibly never. Every single fan of yours who have watched you through the nineties would feel the anguish when we lost to Pakistan “that day”. When we lost the world cup in 2003. Every one of “us” have our special moments of anguish ,despair and sheer ecstasy involving your gamesmanship . When we “knew” that you have to be the uncrowned king of a game which had begin to lose it’s royal status. We “knew” there would come a day when we would rise up and say , “We told you so!” with a glint and undeterred love for your craftsmanship and that wonderful game called cricket. We “knew” that you are deserving of more accolades than what mere words can bestow on you. We “knew” with the vagaries of fortune that blow from the windmills of the gods, you would be one “certainty” which we would always cherish.
Our heartfelt thanks Sachin! It has been a privilege growing up and watching you play Sir!
- Me
About the Author : For those who have read the classic "Sach in our teen livfe", Girish needs no intro, others follow the link
We are truly "ineffably" happy to have been proved wrong after we had started discussing about "you hanging up your boots to leave the game with the same grace of a king rather than fade away".
To Girish :
In spite of us coming across numerous great articles about the little master, in spite of us being impressed by many of those articles, in spite of being disappointed that it has been a long time since you wrote something on the little master, we are not apologizing.
It has been indeed a privilege to have read both your articles time and again and feel the same inexplicable joy of "having had the little master as part of our teen lives" and feeling "the unbearable heaviness of being a sachin fan".
Outstanding depiction of a great feeling omnipresent in the Fans like us who possess that unique feeling towards our all time hero. A feeling that combines Love, Respect, Idolization, Adoration, Worship, Anguish, Admiration, Affection, Motivation & Plead all in a single breath; so difficult to describe yet so easy to live with.
