Growing Up With an Idol

In the journey of any person’s growing up, idolizing someone is a common checkbox that gets ticked. It could be anyone. It could be someone from your family, a middle school teacher, someone with movie stardom, a charismatic leader or a sporting legend. Someone we take pride in following, feel joyous pleasure in watching and talk up their name amidst peers whenever the chance arises. It does not imply that we always try to become like our idols. It is more the admiration for them that drove the emotions. Always reminds us of memories of ourselves growing up with our idol. How many of you think back on special moments involving your idols? I have several of them that bring out a raw smile while going down the memory lane. I wanted to share one such experience that will always stay fresh with me. Pit Stop: If you guys are not familiar with the sport of Cricket or do not like it, you may not relate to the rest of the post emotionally but still I hope reading it may make you think of your own idols growing up somewhere :-)

Who Was My Idol Growing Up?

So, my idol growing up was indeed a sports legend. Sachin Tendulkar. No prizes for guessing if you are someone who has known me for any length of time. I made my liking as obvious as I could have always. Sachin is a retired cricket player who played the sport at the highest level for 24 years. And doing so in a country of 1 billion people resisting criticism, competition, betrayal, self-doubt, injuries and pressure. I never argue that he is/was/will be the best player to have played the game. It is not why I idolized him. It is the way he handles all these factors and still comes out and fights it out representing the country. Whenever he played, the country hoped. People stay glued to their televisions with confidence that their country is going to win against the opposition team as long as he was batting at the crease. The direct impact it had on me was aspiring to become someone who give comfort and hope to people. And do that with longevity, passion and hard work in whatever errand I do. So now that I have established the connection I had with my idol, I wanted to describe one particular experience which gave me the visual evidence to whatever I described. It was like a Proof of Concept for a theoretical phenomenon.

1^st Test Match – India vs England, Venue: Chennai

Date: December 11-15, 2008

Link for the match’s coverage:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/13802/scorecard/361050/india-vs-england-1st-test-england-tour-of-india-2008-09

So, the preset for this Test Match (5-day format of the game where each team gets two innings to play) series was as dramatic as you could imagine. On the wake of a terrorist attack that took place in Mumbai, India a few months back, a couple of blocks from where the English cricket team were staying led to the series being temporarily cancelled. It was so critical when the series was re-scheduled, and the English team was back to India to play the first match in Chennai. The security was unimaginable. There were National Security Guards standing on top of the ground’s stands 10 feet apart. There were no banners or cell phones allowed in the general crowd stands. There were potential safety threats again as the country tried to use the match as a statement to get back from the dreadful attacks and to bring things to normal. Amidst this, Chennai was where I was staying at the time and nothing was going to stop me from watching the game live. I purchased a ticket for all 5 days of the match. I was one of the first to arrive at the ground on all 5 days. This was my first ever experience in a cricket ground and the first time watching my idol live. The first 3 and half days of the game shifted the advantage heavily in the favor of the English team. But what transpired after was an incredible turnaround and a historic finish. India needed 387 runs to win the match in the final innings and that in little over a day left in the game. A basic follower of the game knew that the odds were slim anywhere in the world for any team. But fans do not care, do we? Be it any sport, you always hope for your team to win. It’s always the lovely spirit of sport. Being an ardent fan of the game and knowing my idol is in the team, I was extremely hopeful and confident that India would win.

The Catalyst - Virender Sehwag

Just like any chemical reaction is triggered by a catalyst, India had such a player that just terrorizes oppositions for the sheer audacity. Virender Sehwag!! The opening batsman who is calm as a painting, who has a habit of coming to the crease, singing regional songs from the 80s, meditate between breaks and thrashes any bowler that bowls to him. Huh, quite a personality right! He initiated the quickfire reaction to trigger the chase that decreased the gap between hope and reality. End of day 4, India still needed another 256 runs to win with 9 batsmen still to play. That night, I remember I was unable to sleep most of the night. There was anticipation in hoping for India to win. But more than that, there was a personal wish that my idol would score a century (100 runs) and be at the crease to hit the winning runs. I knew that could be the last time I could watch my idol in my favorite format of the game. And the kid in of me was hoping inside a hope.

Final Day - Epic Finale

Day 5, bright sunshine as usual in Chennai. I still remember I was at the ground about an hour and half before the start time. Got myself the best seats possible. There was no shade whatsoever but who cares. The view was the best. By the time the game started, the stadium was almost full. The most vibrant crowd was in my stands (I got the cheapest priced tickets of course and in India it always turns out to be the most vibrant crowd). I knew it was all set to be an epic day. About 10 minutes into the day, India’s most reliable player at the time, Rahul Dravid, also known as The Wall, got dismissed silencing the entire crowd. Albeit only for about 2 minutes. Out walked Sachin Tendulkar with one of the loudest cheers your ears could measure. I cheered as well for a moment but stopped to listen to hear the sound. The decibels were directly proportionate to the hope of every single person in the crowd. Even haters of Sachin knew he was almost the only chance for India to win that game. The next ten minutes, the hope started becoming much closer to realistic expectations. When you hear the sound of Sachin’s bat when he hits the ball that clearly, amidst 50,000 fans cheering, I knew he was in the mood that day and was not going anywhere without winning the game. The next few hours, had every special stroke that Sachin was famous for. The awe you get when opposition players smile when looking at Sachin’s shots, it is so satisfying. It was like they knew what was coming and they also knew they could not do anything to stop him. It is the excellence and class of the player oozing.

Race to Victory and Sachin's Century

The finish. It was a very unusual race. Sachin through his stay at the crease made the chase almost a certain victory for India. Rather than biting my nails to see who was going to win the match, I was nervous on whether Sachin will get to his century or not. That is what an idol can do to us. It helps us to set targets and dreams, motivates to realize them, and when we know they are realized, we push the bar higher and dream more. We never want to get enough of our idols or in-turn of ourselves. Strive as much as you can. Be confident of achieving that and working towards it. And it happened, as if in a fairy tale, as if it was written in destiny, India needed 4 runs to win, Sachin needed 1 to get to a century, he hits a boundary (4 runs) to complete both feats and making every person in the crowd jump out in joy. All I remember was the whole stadium was filled with confetti made from torn newspapers. Just Joy. And when I returned home that night, I had answers for all possible questions and hope to solve to all possible challenges I would be faced at in my life. Idols make a huge impact within us. They can help us build confidence, raise expectations, be hopeful, be proud and all this by being extremely happy and creating memories. If you managed to read till the end I hope you had some happy memories of your own idols and even if not, you read something happy in the midst of this unprecedented and difficult times. Stay positive and be proud of your idols :-)