Sachin Tendulkar 39 Not Out

Every time Sachin Tendulkar celebrates his birthday it seems like a generation has aged. Unknowingly thrust with the responsibility for the last 23 years Tendulkar has epitomized just about everything Indians are about. The one question that plagues many minds these days is what next now that the boy wonder has finally aged.

When he burst upon the scene Tendulkar was everything that a young nation craved to be. At 16 he took on the mighty Imran Khan, he negotiated the brilliance of Abdul Qadir and he survived the wrath of Javed Miandad. There was nothing this kid couldn’t do and fraught with decades of the inability to live up to the promises India looked at him as the change it was ready for. Just as Tendulkar emerged from obscurity, somewhere the nation, too, started looking beyond the obvious. Discontented with the way things were the electoral mandate swung away from Rajiv Gandhi, the custodian of the old guard who believed more in inheritance than hard work, the untried options people believed would work better.

Surreal, if nothing else, the way the socio-political scenario underwent some uncertainty the nation’s cricket board forced almost every member of the playing eleven into a game of musical chairs to decide the new skipper. And just when Tendulkar finally came good with his first century and announced his arrival the country too saw PV Narashima Rao shake things up. These connections may sound bizarre but looking back at the last two decades of Tendulkar how else do you explain the demigod like status bestowed upon a man who, technically is, well…just 1/11 of the team he represents.

For 23 years now Tendulkar has been synonymous with India. Every times he crosses a milestone it’s like the nation has achieved something; every time the country seems to be in the dumps his walk from the pavilion to the pitch and then his flair at the center is good enough to elevate the spirits. Like Tendulkar has given to this country, the country too craves to repay him. There are talks of a Bharat Ratna and if were a little greyer he could have been our next President and like everything else when it comes to him the appointment would be unopposed. The man is nothing less than a miracle that happens once in a lifetime. He can’t do anything wrong and even when he does falter it’s just to remind us that its human to err. Or better still even gods vacillate at times.

For years now Tendulkar made us believe. But those days are drifting away and the boy is all grown up now. India was 40 when Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar happened and now when he’s touching 40 India is on a threshold of change. Unlike the last time it’d be India that decides the next phase for Tendulkar and not the player who changed fortunes on more occasions that he can recall. Both Sachin Tendulkar and India have reached a stage where the body seems to be on autopilot but the mind has started questioning. Tendulkar might fight the mortal body on the strength of his mind but when the mind ages it’s a different battle. But like they say the candle shines the brightest when it reaches it’s end, here’s looking to a magnificent parting shot from marathon man.

This article originally appeared in Buzz in Town.