When God became Man!

This post is a continuation of sorts to an earlier post of mine - If not for you, my man...

I had read only three chapters of 'Playing it my way' when I had typed the aforementioned post. I had lashed out at the media for calling 'Playing it my way' a disappointment and stating that the book provided little insights into the great little man. I still do stand by my statement that the media allowed very little privacy to a man who provided not just hope but a reason to unite and celebrate for the millions of this country. 

But having finished 'Playing it my way', I have sought to a totally different perspective from my earlier childish one of trying to idolize and immortalize SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR to the heights of an eternal being - or in simpler terms, God.

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When I came across the part where Sachin had described how he, in his childhood, had kept circling his friends with his new bicycle to evoke a bit of jealousy and to show off his riding skills, I was shocked a bit. 

More so was the shock when I came across how Sachin (with Ganguly as his batting partner), after having faced majority of Andrew Flintoff's deliveries in a test match had mocked at Ganguly who had stated in the dressing room that they had handled Flintoff well with his statement - "Humne jhela? Saale maine jhela hain!" (We handled? It was me who had handled alone!)

I had never thought that Sachin could dispense with his humility. Could he also be a guy who would occasionally have fun at others' expense?

When I came across how he had cried profusely after having missed his first test century in the 1990 tour of New Zealand, I paused for a moment. Why did it matter so much when he had already contributed 88 runs to the team score, I thought. Did the century, perhaps, matter to him so much?

Similar was the case when an entire chapter had been devoted to his recollection of how much he had struggled for the 100th hundred. He had described in length about the mental pressures he had gone through the twelve months he had gone century-less. But did one more hundred matter? After all, 99 hundreds in itself is a remarkable feat. So why burden oneself so much for one more? 

And all these questions pointed to only one direction that I had never ever given a single thought of during my following of his entire career - Did Sachin, after all, play only for the centuries?

"The world cup was promising to be the biggest tournament of my life. It was the one title that had eluded me..." - As I read this statement, I was shocked again. 

'..one title that had eluded me...'? Didn't the world cup belong to the entire nation? 

Even after I completed the book, these questions still kept haunting me. I was honestly rattled by the questions and I couldn't bring about myself for some time as I kept staring at the huge blow-up of Sachin that adorned my bedroom wall. 

A man I had worshiped without an iota of doubt lay caught amidst a web of questions resulting from the 450 pages of his book.

An entire day passed with these thoughts and the next day, I decided not to spend anymore time giving thought to the questions. 

I had been blown away by Interstellar which I had watched the earlier week and had started reading about time travel, retrocausality, bad wolf resolution etc., and had taken an immense liking to the 'Parallel Universes resolution' theory. I had tried really hard to form a short story trying to bring together 'Hitler's Paradox' and the theory of parallel universes with an idea of making Hitler's character travel back in past from one universe to kill his existing counterpart in another universe. The idea had seemed to be very shallow and I had given up on it taking in my hand 'Playing it my way'.

But now having completed the book, I went back to the idea of the story. As I tried to imagine a common man as the protagonist,  trying to develop a back story for him, it hit me.

During the process of developing the back story, I had been trying to make the protagonist a man with noble intentions but also one suffering from a few drawbacks. It was owing to my firm belief that no character in a story could be completely rid of follies/guilty pleasures/ambitions as it would make him a hero, which I needed not.

And this conscious effort to bring in a few drawbacks in my protagonist had subconsciously led my thought process to Sachin. 

I stared from my seat on the floor at the blow-up of Sachin again. And I couldn't help smiling.

What a fool I had been?

I had expected Sachin to be a being free from the common trivialities of human life. I had expected Sachin to be a being so noble that he would have had to force himself extensively to punish a ball by hitting it harshly.

But I had been wrong. 

Sachin had been a being as simple as you and me. He had had his share of ambitions and desires. He had had his share of shortcomings. And that is the exact reason why he had been pushed to a status so high by the common mass. 

(By the way, I guess a filmmaker crying for not winning an award he deserved for a very sincere film of his or an artist crying for having spoilt a piece of art with one wrong stroke of his brush cannot be deemed to be wrong or selfish. So why accuse Sachin, an artist in his own right, for trying to have his fair share of achievements and accolades?)

An eternal being going around performing heroic deeds is not a significant achievement. But imagine a mere mortal doing the same trying to set aside his true feelings in the pursuit of achieving a reality as close to the one his worshipers want/expect out of him.

I had so long been admiring and adoring a mere mortal who had been trying to brave every single obstacle that had presented itself in his path and not an eternal being who had pushed them away easily. I had so long been admiring and adoring a mere mortal who had been trying to achieve the impossible feat of bringing an entire country to standstill with the rise of his bat and not an eternal being who had done it with a swish of his wand.

This thought, ever since it took birth in my head, has left me overwhelmed with happiness and I feel proud - immensely proud - for having been an ardent follower of a mere mortal and not an eternal being for all these years.