How I Connect to My Heritage
Bidding farewell to India’s brightest star
We arrived in India during June of 1997, a month shy of my 11th birthday. My dad had just got assigned on a year-long project in New Delhi. I had only been to India once before, so my knowledge of the country was limited to the customs and culture that my parents had brought to the United States. The adjustment to India did not go well. I felt lost in a foreign land, homesick for American comforts.
The biggest challenge of moving to India was being completely closed off from the sports world. In those days, the three most important things to me were: my basketball hoop in the driveway, the sports section, and Barry Bonds. Our move to India had stripped me of those things. Keep in mind, this was before the Internet was easily accessible.
And then I found cricket. Or better yet, cricket found me.
I didn’t know anything about cricket before moving to India. During my first month in India, I slowly started watching the sport as it was the only thing worth watching on TV. Immediately, I was hooked. I had found my new passion and was ever so quick to replace my love for American sports with cricket. More importantly, I also found a new hero: Sachin Tendulkar.
Sports has an abundance of stars, but very few legends. These are the people whose legacy goes beyond just performing well in the field. These athletes come along once in a lifetime and can never be replaced. In boxing, there is Muhammad Ali; in basketball, there is Michael Jordan; in hockey, there is Wayne Gretzky. Any cricket fan will tell you that Sachin Tendulkar is cricket’s legend. Standing at a mere 5’5, he has towered over the sport of cricket for the last 24 years. On Saturday, he walked off the field for the last time.
“There are two kinds of batsman in the world. One, Sachin Tendulkar. Two, all the others.” — Andy Flower, coach of England National Team
The statistics to support Tendulkar’s greatness are staggering. In a sport where the goal is to score runs, he has scored more than anyone else, by a long shot. Even more impressive was his longevity. For most of his 24-year career, he was the world’s most dangerous batsman. I won’t list his accomplishments here, as there is a Wikipedia page devoted to all his records alone. To summarize his career in American terms, he had the scoring prowess of Wilt Chamberlain, the endurance of Cal Ripken Jr, and the consistency of Jerry Rice.
Ultimately, what separates Tendulkar is his ability to deal with insurmountable pressure. Since he was 16, his every move and knock was scrutinized by over a billion people. “Jordan, Woods and Beckham may cross more boundaries, but nowhere do those players carry the weight of expectation that Tendulkar carries in India (and among the Indian diaspora).” said the U.S. writer Mike Marqusee.
“When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.” — BBC Sports
Yet the on-field performance is only part of Tendulkar’s legacy. Sports has the magical ability to dissolve differences and bring people together. This was Sachin Tendulkar’s greatest gift to India. In a letter to the BBC, an Indian from a rural town in Bihar, describes watching Tendulkar while growing up, “…on a black and white television running on tractor batteries. And I remember [the] whole village cheering up for this young lad…, the Brahmins[upper-caste] and the Dalits[lower-caste] alike, on that single television screen available.”
When Tendulkar walked off the pitch for the final time on Saturday, a small piece of India also left with him. Tendulkar represents the old India, before the economy opened up and globalization dominated popular culture. Unlike the celebrities of India today, who appear brash and westernized, Tendulkar was much more soft spoken. He steered clear of controversy and stood for traditional Indian values. He’s a devout Hindu and a family man. You will find Tendulkar on many billboards in India, but not on any that promote alcohol. In a country where corruption is the norm from politicians to stars, Tendulkar epitomizes what it means to be a true professional.
I cannot say my obsession with cricket persisted when I returned back to the United States. Ultimately, you are a function of your environment and I eventually got back into my routine of following my beloved American sports. But I never let cricket stray far away. During big matches India was playing in, I would follow diligently on the Internet. When India played in the World Cup, I would wake up early with my Dad and watch at our family friend’s house. In 2011, when India won its first World Cup in 28 years, I watched and celebrated with a number of my Indian-American friends in San Francisco.
Since I lived in India over 15 years ago, I have only been back once. Almost none of my immediate family lives in India anymore and I still don’t speak an Indian language. The reality is that it is becoming harder and harder for me to find connections to my Indian heritage.
Thanks to Tendulkar, cricket represents one of the few ties I still have. When I watch India play, you would think I spent my entire life there. I understand why a nation of a billion people comes to a stand still when India plays Pakistan. I understand why millions in India and elsewhere wept on Friday, when Tendulkar was caught out for 74, his final innings in a storied career.
I recently saw a Quora question which asked, “What are Sachin Tendulkar’s estimated career earnings?”
Here was the top response with almost 900 votes:
Farewell to one of the greatest athletes on the planet.
When he is not emo, Ravi usually writes about sports/business topics which can be seen here. For comments/suggestions, e-mail him at: ravidev86@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter.
