U WERE, U ARE, U WILL BE - MY HERO
Actually, on that day I was not aware of Sachin's innings till evening Tea time.
I was in office and it was only during the Tea break that I came to know that Sachin was on 90s. After the break, I came back and started working and completely forgot about the match. It was in the evening, when I was discussing about a new requirement with my PL, RaviKumar (colleague in HCL) called me and showed the update score on cricinfo.com... it showed Sachin 193*. I thought that he was bluffing me by showing a 'created-interface'. Over the last few years, I received few mails with false sites/images (cloned exactly as the host website like cricinfo, ibnlive ) about Tendulkar's retirement, Laden's death etc. So,I thought Ravi was showing a similar one. Immediately I said him "Poda dubuku .. ennna pannra" (in tamil nativity) and refreshed the page to find the shocker. It was cricinfo site (confirmed), Sachin is on 193 (confirmed). Also, there were many overs left for Sachin to reach the unthinkable.
I just sat there @ his desk to continue the journey towards double century. I refreshed to see him on 195* after scoring 2 runs to become the highest run scorer in International Cricket. That brought many smiles on my face and was jumping with joy. It's been a long-waited gift from the Master. Inspite of the disappointments over the last two times - especially with the one against Australia(when he scored 175 and missed out the double century), I was enjoying every moment on Feb 24th refreshing the website every minute. I started shaking hands, expressing my happiness waiting eagerly to see the 200 mark against my hero's name.
On the other hand, I was cursing Dhoni for not giving strike to Sachin. Even when Dhoni is hitting boundaries, I was cursing him and expecting a single. He was taking singles on the last ball to irritate me more. I think everyone who followed that match might have scolded Dhoni on that day till the 50th over when Sachin 'finally' got the strike.
I think cricinfo site didnt cope up with the number of refresh clicks I did (I've been doing it from 193*) - suddenly site went down (in Ravi's system) when Sachin was on 199. Page is not opening. Ravi looked at me and said that it was because of me. I thought it was not the time to care for his looks :-) and was looking for updates from other systems while refreshing again in his system :-). He said cricinfo will never be opened in his system as long as i'm in HCL. Poor chap, he doesnt know how much I like Sachin.
Suddenly claps started in the floor and I joined the party to see 200* against SACHIN TENDULKAR. After few minutes of enjoyment, I came back to normal state to continue the left-over discussion on the new requirement.
Came back home just before the match presentation cermony, saw highlights and slept thinking that one more record was broken that evening and was happy that Sachin did it. Now that he opened the 200 gate lock, let's see how many will cross the gate before he breaks some other record. ALL THE BEST SACHIN AND WELL DONE !!!
Few days back, I received a mail from my colleague Srikanth from capgemini with subject - "Time Magazine's quote on Sachin". I felt it's apt for the situation !!! It quoted ...
"When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam. When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican backwaters. The Berlin Wall was still intact, USSR was one big, big country, Dr Manmohan Singh was yet to "open" the Nehruvian economy.It seems while Time was having his toll on every individual on the face of this planet, he excused one man. Time stands frozen in front of Sachin Tendulkar. We have had champions, we have had legends, but we have never had another Sachin Tendulkar and we never will."
posted by Ajay's Views @ 4:34 PM
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