Sachin - This is for you !

An Intro-

Well, for many years now, I had almost forgotten that I used to even write blogs. Took me a while to figure out how to even open mine. But I had to ! Everything I've written so far is the result of that sudden urge from within, to write about things I've felt most passionate about. Mysore, Bollywood, Betta,  F.R.I.E.N.D.S, novels, Aashayein Foundation... Myaaan the list is small but it sure covers everything that is supposed to be covered by me, but one! Something that has been a major part of my life - Indian Cricket; and someone who's been THE ONE throughout - Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar ! 

23rd Dec 2012 almost marks the end of an era; and I say ALMOST only because he's yet to retire from Cricket as a whole. An era that we should feel proud to be a part of! So no matter what, I just HAD to write this !

Well, SO much is written and said about him all these years that there's hardly anything left. But I still feel there's so much left unsaid. Mere words and appreciations can never do justice for some people in this world and this man is certainly one of them. 

Records say that the 16-year old boy debuted in November 1989! If I calculate, I was just above 3 years old so I honestly don't remember anything about it. It just feels nice to know that it happened after I was born! But i know this for sure- ever since I started watching cricket, ever since I started understanding cricket, ever since I started admiring the fours and the sixers and the centuries, its been primarily about one player- Sachin! 
Here's an unseen video- Check this out!

My early memories of Cricket-

I remember the really-dark blue jerseys and the really light blue ones. I remember Sachin opening with Sidhu, I remember the Azhars and the Jadejas, the Nayan Mongias and the Kiran Mores, the Prabhakars and the Srinaths and I totally remember the fact that there was this really long period of time, probably the whole of the 90s decade, when chasing a big total meant Sachin having to play a long innings and nothing else. I so vividly remember people immediately switching off their TV sets as soon as he got out because there was simply no more hope left.

It's been a long long journey since then- the world has changed, cricket has changed, hundreds of players have come and  gone, but this man just kept playing and playing and playing, giving us so many wonderful memories to live with. 

His best knocks-

Who can forget the Sharjah series in 1998! The two big matches against the mighty Aussies, 142 in the semi-final to take India into the finals, and then 134 in the finals to win the series! Those lofted sixers off Kasprowicz's bowling, Shane Warne coming around the wicket and Sachin coming forward and smashing him over his head! And to add the icing on the cake, Tony Greig's commentary- "OOOHH WHATTA SHOT" , "THIS IS ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE",  "SACHIN TEN-DULKA", "WHATTA PLAYAA", "OOOOHHHH IT'S A BIGGIIEEE "!!! Seriously, Those were the days! What cricket, what excitement! That was a time when chasing a total of 280 was considered nearly impossible and a time when back-to-back boundaries in an over used to send goosebumps to the millions of people watching the match. And this man showed the world how it needs to be done,  with sheer class and brilliance! Cricketing entertainment personified! Take a look, you'll totally love the 2 videos ! 

Sachin the bowler-

Something else that I've always been really really fond of, is his bowling. Wonder what was in it that every time he was given the ball, there was this sudden rush of excitement, a sudden belief that he would do something miraculous and change the course of the game. And he actually managed to do that quite a number of times. Each ball of his was a mystery before it was bowled- the off-breaks, leg-breaks, cutters , medium pacers, he just could bowl anything. I don't quite remember watching his famous "Give me the ball" last over saga in the 1993 Hero cup. But when I saw the video recently, just increased the respect I have for this guy, ten-fold. 6 runs required for the Proteas in the last over and even the mighty Kapil Dev refused to bowl. This young lad snatched the ball and won the match for India! In case you've missed it, here's the video- don't miss this- Click Here

But i certainly remember the 5 for 32 against Aus. Watch this video and you'll know what a genius of a player he is! And look at the happiness on his face after every wicket! That million-dollar smile and the juggling of the ball in his hands will remain in my memories forever. Click Here

Sachin The Fighter-

The 1999 World cup in England. India had lost the first two games and was on the verge of exiting from the competition. Sachin receives the news of his father's death. He misses the 2nd game, flies back to India for the final rituals and then comes back to play the next match against Kenya. And boy did he make it count! 140 not out and he brought the Indians back into the tournament with a bang! During the presentation ceremeny, when he dedicated the innings to his dad, it nearly brought tears in my eyes. 

The evolution of Indian cricket in ODIs-

The late 90s and the early 2000s brought about a huge change in Indian Cricket. It saw the rise of the Gangulys, the Dravids, the Sehwags, the Yuvrajs and many more. They shared the burden of winning matches for India and people no more switched off their televisions after Sachin got out. But that did not bring down his hunger for runs one bit. The maturity with which he adopted to the game during this period and continued to play a pivotal role in the team is worth admiring. The opening pair of Sachin and Ganguly will remain as my all time favourite pair and I seriously miss watching that kind of one-day cricket anymore. And in spite of his lean patches after this period, time and again he showed the world what he is capable of. One of my all time proudest moments of Sachin is the Indo-Pak match at Centurion during the 2003 World Cup!

My all time favourite-

I so vividly remember how he was totally charged up on that day, and took the first ball strike himself instead of Sehwag, while chasing a target of 273! It was supposed to be a battle against the super-fast Shoaib Akthar and the experienced Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. But the sliced upper cut off Shoaib and the back-foot punch off Akram right in the beginning of the match left them all stunned! That's when we knew he meant business that day. And he went on to hit a flurry of boundaries and nearly took the game away from the Pakis himself. He started to struggle with his cramps but that didn't stop him. Once he reached his 90s, I remember taking few crackers in my hand and standing on the road eagerly waiting for his century. When he got out on 98, I was so so so shattered that I threw away the crackers and barged into the house. But what a knock! India eventually managed to win the game and keep their World Cup record against the Paks intact. And I managed to burst the crackers after the victory! For all those goons who keep saying Sachin hardly tries to win matches for India and plays for his own records, well no words for you, I just pity you all! 

Sachin The Gentleman-

Apart from his cricketing skills, the one quality of his that always stood out was his humility. How many times have we seen bowlers sledging at him and trying their level best to disturb his mindset? But I don't remember a single instance when he tried to react to any of it. He simply turned his head away and got himself ready for the next ball. He always believed in letting only his bat do all the talking. If the bowler tried to act too smart, we could be dead sure the next ball would reach the boundary. A true gentleman who took the gentlemen's game to its peak!

One of his best knocks gone in vain-

Another typical example of his fighting spirit to win a match for India was his innings vs Australia in Hyderabad in 2009. Chasing a mammoth total of 359, he nearly nearly got India home single-handedly as wickets kept falling at the other end. He made a classy knock of 175 but unfortunately got out towards the end with nobody else left to finish it off for India. It was probably one of his most painful defeats.

The Phoenix-

This was the period when people slowly began to write him off. His approach towards batting changed completely and he was beginning to be criticized for losing his attacking strokes. But true heroes rise from such situations, they build their lives with every brick thrown at them. And that's exactly what he did in 2010. In Ravi Shastri's words, he became the first man on the planet to reach 200 in One Day Internationals! And against one of the top teams in the world! Carrying his bat through the innings and scoring 200 off just 140 odd balls to get India to a mammoth total of 401, he announced to the world that he is not done yet! And this is one innings that would always repent in my life for not watching live! Click here if you had missed it too.

But the big question in everybody's minds, what next?! He had nearly all the records in his kitty and he'd done so much for the team, what is it that still made him hungry for runs and urged him to continue playing?? The world received the answer on 2nd April 2011!! 

World Cup 2011- A fitting tribute to the Little Master

After playing in 5 World Cups, after having hundreds of records in his name, after being called the GOD of cricket, it would have been totally unfair if he could not lay his hands on the World Cup. Seemed like a perfect script written for him and for the millions of Indian Cricket fans all over. Being India's leading run scorer in the tournament including 2 centuries, the stage was all set for the grand finale in front of his home crowd! I wish I was better with words to do enough justice to the feeling I experienced when India lifted the Cup! And for this great man, it was the final jewel in the crown! When he was lifted by his teammates on their shoulders and carried around the ground with the Indian flag wrapped around him, you could see the bliss of achievement and satisfaction in his face! Some of the team members rightly said- "He has lifted the burden of Indian Cricket on his shoulders all these years, its time we lift him on ours. This victory is dedicated to Sachin". And Sachin himself went on to say it was the proudest moment in his life! I remember watching the match in front of a big screen, and I remember literally falling on the ground to salute this genius ! Scenes that I will carry with me till my last breath.

My final words to him-

Sachin- Take a bow, master! You are a legend in its true sense. And this small piece of writing is a tiny tribute to everything that you've done! As I said at the beginning, I consider myself highly fortunate to be a part of this era, an era in which you conquered the world with your little piece of wood! I grew up watching you play and till date, there are very few other things in life that have been more exciting than watching you raise your bat after every century! You will remain as my greatest hero forever. Thank you for all the entertainment. One-day matches won't be the same anymore without you on the ground and probably after a few more months from now, I would say cricket won't be the same anymore.

HALLI SUMMER CAMP- THE FINALE`

The preparations:

A closing ceremony was probably never in our agenda when we started the summer camp. But after the first few days, looking the enormous amount of talent and zeal in the kids of Hadinaru and considering the fact that the volunteers were all game for something much bigger, we decided to have a grand function on the last day. As told in the previous entry, preparations for the event had begun long back and just a few final arrangements were left. The ceremony was scheduled to start at 10 am and we reached there as early as 8.00 !! Setting up the stage, the mikes and the generator, one final practice for all, costumes for the dance-participants, and it was soon 10:00! We were actually surprised and pleased to see that almost all the guests had arrived on time. The list of guests included some prominent personalities of the village who were mostly politicians.

The inauguration:

The program, anchored by Satish and Vidya, kick-started with an invocation song by one of the girls who attended the summer camp. Our Ramesh Sir then welcomed all the guests and soon the event was inaugurated by the Chief Guest by lighting the lamp. My report was next, where I was supposed to talk about AF in general and about the summer camp in particular. I was all set with a ppt that I'd prepared, containing some selected photos of all the activities that we had during the camp. But unfortunately, due to lack of sufficient light near the stage, it was hardly visible so I had to manage the report without it. But the guests were happy to know the kinds of activities we had, and the kind of response we got from the kids.

The speeches and the feedback:

The report was followed by a series of short speeches by all the dignitaries on the dais (they were probably 6-7 of them). In between them, we had another very interesting episode. As I said in the previous entry, we had asked all the kids to write their opinion about the camp and after reading them, we were so happy that we wanted few of them to speak it out on stage during the closing event. So we had 5-6 of them coming on stage and telling their experiences of the camp. Well, experience is a small word, as they actually shared their emotions, telling us how we became a part of their lives during those 3 weeks, how they learnt so much from us, how they got inspired from us, and how they would miss us after the camp got over. It was truly an emotional and memorable moment for all of us and I regard it as the peak of achievement of AF Mysore so far!

The prizes and the mementos:

Mementos were given away to all the children who had attended a considerable part of the camp, which included a pen-stand and few pens and pencils. Special prizes were given to the winners of the painting competition that was held on Day2, which included a few books. At the end of it, we also gave a special memento to the school, which was a huge wall clock with the name of Aashayein Foundation imprinted on it. This was our way of expressing gratitude to the school authorities for all their co-operation and also our way of leaving behind something permanent for the school in our memory. The clock was immediately put up inside one of the rooms in the school, and I guess it will stay there for a long time to come.

The "THANK YOUs":

The vote-of-thanks was presented by my mother, Mrs. Asha Manohar, who was incidentally born in Hadinaru and who was the reason behind we choosing that place for our summer camp. She thanked all the guests who'd taken time to attend the function. She also thanked all the non-AF members who'd taken so much interest to take various classes for during the course of the camp. In the end, she also thanked all of us volunteers (in spite of me strictly asking her to remove that part) and it turned out to be quite a happy moment for all of us.

The cultural events:

Finally the most awaited part of the program. We started off with the group song and as I said earlier, we almost had the whole musical band for it. Me playing the keyboard was probably a surprise element, even for the volunteers. Mr. Chandrappa was on the guitar, Vidyadhar on congo and Abdul on drums. Around 7-8 girls from the camp had come up for this and they sang "Hachchevu Kannadada Deepa", which is a beautiful song written by Kuvempu.

The song was soon followed by a group dance by around 15 girls who danced to "Dhim tha dare" from Thakshak and "Araluva hoovugale" from a Kannada movie "My Autograph". The dance was cheered with a loud applause by the audience and it was really heartening to see the girls dancing so well, having had so less time to practice for it, all thanks to Harshini and Seetha, their dance instructors.

If the girls had completely stolen the show with their song and the dance, it was now turn of the boys. Directed by Ramesh Sir, the boys first presented a short skit which was based on a story of Tenali Rama. It was very well enacted by the little boys and left the audience in stitches.

The final act was the pyramid formations. Headed by Mac, the boys displayed some unique formations on the ground and were again treated with a loud applause. Thus ended the exciting and eventful cultural program.

And finally ...

As usual, lunch was served by us after the program ended, but this time, not just for the kids of the camp but for everyone who attended the function. And soon it was time to say goodbye. It was a pleasant surprise when the children started taking our autographs and even took our phone numbers so that they could keep in touch with us. The words of gratitude that they expressed while leaving were seriously priceless and it actually turned out to be a pretty emotional moment for all of us. At the same time, it was also a moment of celebration with a sense of achievement. The summer camp was the first big event that AF Mysore had taken up and I take pride in saying that it turned out to be much more successful than expected.

With more challenges to face and more important projects to be taken up, the summer camp was a huge morale booster for all of us and certainly a feather in the cap of AF Mysore. Hoping to have many such events in future. As Jay always keeps saying, the Aashayein caravan shall go on.

Click here to see all the pics of the closing ceremony !!

To know more about Aashayein Foundation, visit our official blog.

HALLI SUMMER CAMP- A Detailed Report- Part 3

Day 5: 8th May '10

By the end of the 2nd week, we had decided to have a closing ceremony on Day 7, where we would invite a lot of people from the village and make the kids exhibit their talents. So this formed the major part of the schedule for Day 5 and 6- giving practice to the children for these events.

Day 5 started off with yet another useful session, by Mr. Raghu, who again happened to be a renowned speaker who spoke to the village kids about personality development. The kids were given some basic tips about how to improve concentration while studying, how meditation helps, etc. He also gave them a live demo of meditation and asked them to repeat it and advised them to follow the same throughout their lives. He also divided the children into various groups where each of them was asked to share his/her achievements to the group, no matter how small the achievements were. We volunteers were also divided to monitor each of these groups and applaud the achievements of the kids. It was a highly unique activity intended to make the kids realize their own potential and work towards it.
This was followed by a brief but useful session on cleanliness and hygiene by Seetha and Vidya where they were told about the hazards of unhealthy environment and the importance of cleanliness in their village. At the end of it, the children were asked to clean up their school premises and they willingly did it with a lot of interest. As a reward, they were served with some yummy food as usual.
After lunch, it was time for practice! The children were divided into 4 groups based on the their choices of events- Group Dance, Group Song, Skit and Pyramid. Ms. Harshini, a dance teacher by passion, was called in, and aided by Seetha and a few others, she quickly struck a chord with the kids and thus began the dance practice. I was given the responsibility of training the kids for the group song and fortunately and unexpectedly, I got the help of a few professional musicians from LnT who came to Hadinaru with all their instruments(drums, guitar) and thus began an exciting and challenging song practice. Similarly, Ramesh Sir took up skit and Mac took up pyramid and very soon, all of us were immersed in practicing for the big event. In the meantime, the other volunteers started making all sorts of planning and arrangements for the event and finally at around 2.30 pm, we chose to call it a day.

Day 6: 9th May '10

Well, technically this was the last day of the summer camp and we tried to fit in as much as possible. Jayanth started off with another session on computers, but this time mainly centered on the internet. He spoke briefly about the history of internet and how it has gained importance in the recent past. The children also learnt how to send mails and also generally about how they can use the net for some of their needs.

On the previous day, all the children who attended the camp were compulsorily asked to write a short feedback, giving us their opinion about the summer camp. So the next half an hour went in collecting the feedback from them and we reading them. This was by far THE BEST part of the summer camp for us as we had certainly not expected the kids to write it so beautifully. It was really hard to choose the best among them as all of them had written it wonderfully and it was really touching for all of us to hear such nice words written about us. Those feedbacks will be treasured by AF Mysore for a very long time to come.

After this, for the very last session of the summer camp, we had few volunteers from Columbia Asia Hospital, who had come all the way to the village to educate the kids on First Aid. they were happy to see that the kids already knew most of what they were trying to teach them.

Finally, it was practice time again! The fact that this was the last day they could get for practice kept everyone on their toes and we were all game for 2 hours of rigorous practice. Meanwhile, few of us went around the village, inviting some important personalities and politicians for the closing ceremony. Most of them had already heard about the summer camp, as word spreads very quickly in villages, and were more than willing to attend the function.

Finally, after ensuring everything was in place, we left the place hoping for a grand and successful closing ceremony. I'll be back with another post entirely about the closing ceremony and trust me, it's gonna be real interesting!

To see pics of Weekend 3, click here.

To visit our official AF Mysore blog, click here.

HALLI SUMMER CAMP- A Detailed Report- Part 2

Day 3: 1st May '10

After the success of the painting class during Day2 and looking at the amount of interest shown by the kids towards it, it was decided that we go for another activity on arts and crafts. So the first half of Day3 was dedicated to "Mask Making". the children designed different kinds of masks using colour papers, paints, crayons, etc. guided yet again by Mrs. Sandhya who had taken the painting classes for them. This was probably the most exciting activity for the kids in the entire summer camp and the look of happiness on their faces after they completed their respective masks and were allowed to wear them over their faces, was really priceless !! It was followed by a long photo-session which included a lot of cheering and shouting.
Since all this consumed a lot of time, even brunch got delayed and after that, few of the major activities were postponed to Day4. But the children had another exciting thing in store, especially the guys. Mr. Makrand, or "MAC" as he's popularly known as, demonstrated rope climbing, and quick learners that they were, the boys hardly took any time to learn it and do it themselves. Even some of the volunteers tried their hand at this, and were pretty successful. At the same time, the girls continued to be trained by Anil on swiftness and agility.

Day 4: 2nd May '10

The day kick-started with a very useful session by Mr. Bhanuchandran, who's a professional speaker on career guidance. He spoke about the different aspects that together make up an ideal life, the key points to be considered by a student while deciding about his/her career and various other such useful topics. Some of the children expressed their dreams and ambitions- one of the girls wanted to be a Kannada teacher in future, one guy aspired to be a software engineer, other kids had various other such goals. At the end of the session, they were asked to prepare a CAREER MAP as a home work, illustrating the path that they need to take up to achieve their respective goals.
This was followed by another session of science experiments by Vidya, Girish, Vinay, Seetha and a few others. But this was a lot different from that on Day2, as it was not a typical classroom session but instead the kids were divided into 3 groups and were shown some practical demonstrations of a few concepts like- formation of spectrum, role of O2 and CO2 in combustion, inertia, etc.
Post brunch, they got another very interesting session by Jayanth on computers, where he actually dismantled a CPU and showed them the different components, explaining how each thing works. Even though the children were already exposed to some basic concepts about computers, this was something they had never come across so it was fascinating for them to realize how a computer actually looks from inside. Finally Anupam and I came up with another short session on English and today they learnt how to converse with another person in English when you meet him/her for the first time. So this was about Weekend-2. Overall a very packed and useful 2 days, which inspired us to continue the camp for two more days and hoping to cover a lot more interesting and useful stuff in the last week.

Click here to see pics of Summer Camp- Weekend 2.
To know more about Aashayein Foundation, visit our official blog by clicking here.