Sachin Tendulkar and Me!!!

I've been a die hard fan of the master blaster Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar for ages and have done so many things that appear really funny today.. I was three years old during the 1992 world cup.. My mom used to watch cricket and that time I thought cricket is a game played against many teams and the funniest part is I thought the different teams who played the game were India, Paskistan(I used to pronounce Pakistan as Paskistan during those days, Pakistan is more easy to pronounce than Paskistan, still dunno how I could get it as Paskistan rather than Pakistan ;-)), Sachin Tendulkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Imran Khan etc.(Didn't know that Sachin, Sanjay were all players rather thought they were all countries like India)..

I read that Angoor in Hindi means Grapes during my first standard.. If anyone asked me who my favourite cricketer is, I used to answer as Azhar.. I never knew how Md. Azharuddin used to play when I was at the first standard.. I thought there is some resemblance between the words Angoor and Azhar(though there is nothing common in both except for both starting with the letter 'A' and ending with the letter 'R' ;)), I like grapes and because of that Azharuddin became my favourite cricketer at that time..

I knew what a proper game of cricketing is when I watched the 1996WC with my parents and uncle at home.. And at that time only I recognized that Sachin Tendulkar is a player who plays for India and I started loving the way he plays the game.. Since then am a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar..

I bought a big blue ball and used to play catch and catch with my mom.. I used to represent India and mom would represent Sri Lanka.. Who ever misses a catch loses a wicket.. Me and mom both will have 11 wickets each at the beginning of the game.. And whenever am to play for Sachin's wicket I used to be double the times more careful than the other wickets..

Once parents took me and my brother to an exhibition and they bought two cricket bat type boxes one with Sachin's sticker and the other one with Ajay Jadeja's sticker(box with two different stickers just for the sake of differentiation between mine and my bro's) .. I demanded I need the box with Sachin's sticker.. My brother neither knew who Sachin is nor who Jadeja is.. Just because I am asking for box with Sachin's sticker he too wanted that box only.. How much ever I try to persuade he never agreed.. Being the elder one I had to give him that box.. But, I learnt a good lesson from that.. Whenever there is a selection to be made by me and my bro I need to ask for the one that I like the least.. He will also ask for what am asking.. Ultimately, I will end up with what I wanted :).. This trick worked for many days..

Whenever Sachin gets out, I used to switch off the television and will never watch that match after that.. I used to write lot of letters(but won't post) addressed to Sachin Tendulkar(without knowing his actual address) before beginning of a match(to wish him all the best), after Sachin's achievements(congratulating him), also during the occasions of his birthday and wedding day.. The to address of those letters would be To Sachin Tendulkar, S/O: Ramesh Tendulkar, Bandra, Mumbai..

I used to celebrate every 24th of April(Sachin's birthday) by giving chocolates to my friends.. But, I won't give chocolates on my birthdays(like Sharman Joshi in Airtel ad asking money for celebrating his friend's birthday by telling he won't celebrate his birthday)..

I used to play cricket cards with my friends and cousins.. The trump cards could even be used as ordinary cards.. Sachin Tendulkar's card contained 'A Spade'imprinted to it.. I would always want to have that A Spade card with me.. In the game of Ass loser would get the A Spade card.. Even when am not the loser of Ass I used to request others to give me the A Spade card :).. I would always want to buy Mumbai in the game of business and build lot of houses and hotels at Mumbai :).. Me and my bro used to play hand video game.. There would be different levels and we used to have an agreement that each one of us would play the alternate levels.. I used to tell him, (since he is the younger than me) to start(though that was not the actual reason of I asking him to play the game).. He gets chance to play all odd numbered games and I would get the even numbered games.. Yeah, i will get the level '10'(Sachin's jersy number) :)..

During my seventh standard I started collecting his photos from the Hindu newspaper, CSR and Children's Digest magazine.. I used to stick all of them on the wardrobe doors.. The front side doors had no place for anything to be stuck further.. So, I started sticking the pictures even on the backside of the doors.. Daily I used to wish him good morning as soon as I got up from the bed..

I used to go to the Anjaneya temple in my locality for praying two things- I need to get good marks in my school and Sachin should always lead in the number of runs, number of centuries, number of man of the match and man of the series.. I remember I've prayed to the god that Sachin should surpass Saeed Anwar's record of 194( and also that Sachin should be the first man to get 200 in ODI), Shahid Afridi's record of fastest century etc..

Within somedays Sachin became a God to me.. I used to write his initials before starting the answers in my exam papers.. My answer sheets would contain the letters SRT (which stands for Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar) at the top right corner.. The first time I wrote SRT was in the answer sheet of Maths paper during seventh standard.. That paper was really tough.. I was the only one who scored full marks in that paper.. I used to make mistakes in addition or used to write numbers different than that given, sometimes also used to carry over wrong data from the previous page.. Because of all these I used to loose one or two marks in the total.. But when I got full mark in that test, I was of an impression that SRT proves lucky.. Soon, started writing SRT everywhere(not restricted only to answer sheets)..

My brother became a fan of Sourav Ganguly when he started watching cricket.. We both would be fighting by debating on Sachin vs Sourav- who is the best? And it was on 31st March'2001 when Sachin became the first man in the world to score 10,000 runs in the history of ODI cricket.. Sachin scored 100+ while Sourav got duck out in that match.. That match had put a full stop to our debate as he too became Sachin's fan..

Hindi is the only subject which I really hate reading.. That's mainly because there were three text books and a vyaakaran book all to be read for a single subject.. Moreover all questions from the back side of each lesson alone would be asked unlike other subjects.. So, I without reading inside the text would read only exercise questions.. In a hindi cumulative exam at my school, we were asked to write an essay on a topic Chota Jaadugar.. Chota Jaadugar was a lesson from our Hindi main text book.. The essay question carried ten marks.. I clubbed the answers of all exercise questions to form an essay.. But, the answer came only to one page and our Hindi madam would give only 3 or 3.5 marks for essays of one page.. She always expects an essay for three pages(six sides).. To fill up the remaining two pages I started writing about the little magician(Chota Jaadugar) Sachin Tendulkar.. Again Sach turned to be lucky for me.. I got 9.5 on 10.. ;)

I always like the ads featuring Sachin Tendulkar.. All pepsi ads of Sachin, especially Dil Ki Patang Hai became my all time favourite ad.. I started liking him even more after watching him playing KBC for helping out people who suffered due to Gujarat earthquake.. I can never forget that episode of KBC as two of my favourites(Sachin Tendulkar and Madhuri Dixit) were the guests.. I also enjoyed Sachin's performance at the ICC 2003 WC held at South Africa.. It would have been nice if India had surpassed Aussies on 23rd March'03 finals.. But still, Sachin got the player of the tournament award..

Though am not that much craze on Sachin(or anyone) now, Sachin will always be my favourite personality both as a cricketer and as a person too.. I've a twitter account and the only account am following is sachin_rt.. It's Sachin Tendulkar's twitter account..

I strongly believe that if Cricket is a religion, then Sachin Tendulkar is the god.. I am really proud that Sachin Tendulkar belongs to the same country as mine.. I wish Sachin Tendulkar creates more and more miracles in the game of cricket and make India proud of him always.. Jai Ho to Sachin Tendulkar..