16/11/2013
It could have been just another day!Kids could have refused to wake up early in the morning just like they would have done on any other day!They could have got ready to go to their schools reluctantly!Teenagers could have kept themselves busy in looking at the mirrors and could have tried a few more cosmetics to look smarter!Women could have been busy in helping their children and their husbands to get set to go to their schools and offices respectively.Men could have gone through the waves of confusion and worry on how to complete the works in their offices and how to manage their day with their hectic schedules!News papers and news channels could have focused on the millions of issues that our country has to face and solve!On hitting the roads, you could have found expensive vehicles whizzing past you in the scorching sun with pollution all over.Life could have been as busy as it could have been on any other day.
BUT THAT WAS NOT THE CASE TO BE!
Everything seemed to have come to a temporary pause!
Everything seemed to be abnormal!
The world seemed to have stood still!
Most people on the planet might have wished for the time to stop scampering!
For every one wanted to enjoy and soak themselves in that unique form of happiness and joy for one last time!
They realised that the great man SACHIN RAMESH TENDULKAR would step on to the cricket field for one last time at the international level!They realised that the moment,they didn't even dream of in their scariest dreams,has come in to reality!They realised that SACHIN would hang his boots up after that day!
The fact, that the man that they loved the most and the man, who had carried the burden of expectations and hopes of a billion people over an unbelievable span of 24 years, would call it a day to his cricketing career, made their eyes moist as if someone in their family is going far away from them!
To describe that moment like Pt.Jawaharlal Nehru described the moment India achieved independence,
"A moment comes but comes rarely in the history of the world when the soul, that has been the primary reason for the happiness and joy of millions, decides to call it a day to his cricketing career and the world erupts into tears of happiness celebrating such a long and a beautiful journey!
As the world finds itself busy with other things,a billion hearts break open into tears and weep endlessly to bid farewell to their favourite hero!"
People rushed to the Wankhede stadium to have a glimpse of the great man playing for one last time on the cricket field!People across various parts of the world got glued to their television sets to watch those historic moments and the moment arrived when the team India sealed victory over the West Indies and all eyes and cameras focused on one man,that has been phenomenal in the cricketing world for 24 years!
Every moment in that phase is a great memory and the fact that there will be no more such memories pinched the hearts of millions and it even made the otherwise emotionally strong SACHIN shed a few tears!As he walked back to the pavilion with the souvenir stump in his hands and as he walked back amidst a standing ovation of the crowd and as he acknowledged the cheers and support of his fans,every heart grew heavier and every step that he has put forward laid his impact on the game that will never be erased! The words that he has spoken thereafter,as a farewell speech, tested the ability of the people to stay longer without weeping and most of them failed in that test and for the first time they would have loved failure as the failure to stay longer without weeping, after hearing his farewell speech, only reflected their love towards the gifted son of the Indian soil!
"The God of Cricket" ,as the fans call him,showed that nothing in life lasts forever and SACHIN seemed to be teaching the truths of life by retiring from cricket!Any language will run out of adjectives to describe this great man and he has not just been a part of the history but he has earned the eligibility to occupy volumes in the history of the cricketing world!Not many can have an impact on the whole world. SACHIN'S impact on the world can be described by the statement of the secretary general of the U.N.O,Mr.Ban Ki Moon, that SACHIN will be missed by the U.N.O!
The greatness of SACHIN will occupy volumes if written and the retirement of such a legend from the game of cricket has made the 16th of November,2013 a day that will be written in "platinum" letters in the history of the world!
So,a day that could have been nothing but yet another day turned out to be a "platinum" day in the history of the world with the exit of the legend from cricket.
-SATYA SRINIVAS.J
