It was Gudi Padwa, the beginning
of the new year for Maharashtrians and regarded as one of the most auspicious
days in the year. It actually turned out to be a great day for me. On April 5,
2016, at 5 pm IST, I was scheduled to meet the one star of India who everyone
wants to meet, Sachin Tendulkar. What’s more, I was to meet him in his house,
the famous landmark, 19-A Perry Cross Road.
Thanks to the management of my
company, IDBI Federal Life Insurance, we have embarked on a very exciting
journey. We have adopted sports sponsorships as a means to build our brand. For
an Indian who has always been excited by the proposition of sports, it turned
out to be divine intervention in an otherwise regular day job. What took my job
to a whole new level of awesomeness was our signing on Sachin to be the face of
our marathons in Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata.
It was my Sadguru, Aniruddha Bapu’s
blessings all along. I was the one to lead the deal with Sachin’s team, and my team
and I am at the forefront of managing sponsorships for my company. This meant
that when it was time to go and get the papers signed with Sachin, I was, by default,
one among the 4 from my company.
5 pm that day seemed like
midnight; the wait seemed endless. There we were, the 4 of us, in front of his
house. I do not know about the others, but I was excited to the core but was
putting on a very cool dude countenance. Deep inside, there was a concoction of
feelings - excitement, nervousness and achievement.
We rang the doorbell and were
taken to the guest room on the first floor. It was a long walk. All through, I
avoided looking around, trying to blend in, wanting to make it look like a no
big deal. Now when I think back, I should have seen the details of that house!
How many people get to be in that house???
There we were in the guest
meeting room waiting for the little man with a big personality. The sliding
door opened and he walked in with Anjali in tow. We were all greeted very
warmly and were offered sweets, typical of a welcome on Gudi Padwa. Then he sat
and we started talking. I am very good with my cricket knowledge. In fact, my
CEO, Vighnesh, who has been a Mumbai Ranji player, spends a lot of time
discussing cricket with me. However, all through the meeting with Sachin, I was
trying really hard not to talk cricket. You see, even my pronunciation of
cricketing terms could be cues for him to know of my level of incompetence in
the sport. You don’t show off your writing skills when you sit with a Nobel
Laureate or a Pulitzer prize winner.
The discussion was varied, IPL,
his schedule, his commitments, his charity work, etc. Then we signed the
papers, took loads of pics (Anjali was very kind to volunteer to click a pic; a
gesture that shows the magnanimity of the first lady of Indian cricket),
chatted a little more and moved out. While we exit the house, there was a group
of men standing right across the lane. I felt like a celebrity myself. After all,
I was emerging out of the temple of cricket!
Again, luck was on my side and so
were the blessings of Aniruddha Bapu. I was to meet Sachin in less than a week.
This time around, to do more than just sign papers. I was to have a chat show
with him at the press conference to announce our association with Sachin and
the launch of IDBI Federal Life
Insurance Mumbai Half Marathon. What’s more, the entire press conference
was to be webcast live on the Mumbai
Half Marathon Facebook page. So, it was a chat show with Sachin and
Vighnesh and I was live on FB. Nerve wracking stuff but I had to maintain my
cool.
Before the chat, I took Sachin
through the questions I would ask and he discussed the responses with me. A
full ‘me’ time where I was directing Sachin; kind of a Ramakant Achrekar
feeling! Then we started the press conference and it all ended in 30 minutes.
We wound up from Taj Land’s End and moved to Mehboob Studios for a still shoot
with Sachin. Wound that up in an hour and a half and ended a day, which I can
very safely say, had been one of the most inspiring days in my life.
I have had the good fortune of
meeting and seeing a number of celebrities up close, mostly sports celebs but
also film celebs. Never had I felt an aura as strong as Sachin’s. He is 5’5”
but when he is around, he is the tallest man. He is like the sun and everybody
else assumes the role of planets, literally revolving around him. There are
reasons why he has the magnetism. Here are what I think are the reasons.
There were stories about how
Sachin could not finish school, about how he was given a pass certificate even
though he did not. I am not sure about the authenticity of those stories. Even
if they are true, let me assure you, Sachin needed only to know how to read and
write; he needed no exams, no courses, no terms. That is the greatness of the
person. So early in his life, when most kids would be twiddling their thumbs,
he knew what he wanted to do and he knew what it would take him to get there. He
realised the role of education and ensured he got what would be necessary. Then
he went on to create history. There is enough written about his training days,
so I would not repeat the same here.
The most striking thing about
Sachin is his self-awareness. It seems like his Johari Window is
incomplete because there is nothing that would come under “Not known to self”.
His strength comes from his self-awareness and it is this quality that helped
him through his career. If you dig deep into the 24 years that he played for
India, you will find numerous examples where he knew his shortcoming and he
worked tirelessly to conquer it. His confidence in his abilities also comes
from this acute self-awareness. And that is the man in summary for you – a person
with unmatched core strength built on the foundation of super self-awareness.
I would not think twice before
saying that Sachin would have been as successful in whatever he would have
chosen to do in life. His confidence in himself would have taken him to great
heights, whatever the choice of profession. There is a very thin dividing line
between confidence and arrogance; Sachin respects that, and what you see in him
is the outer limit of confidence. Some brilliant cricketers of the day are way
into the arrogance zone. And that is the reason why in future, while there may
be better record holders than Sachin himself, there will be no one who would be
able to match his stature, his personality.
Sachin is aware of what he has
achieved in life. He is also aware that his achievements will take a superhuman
effort to surpass. All this awareness can easily give birth to a megalomaniac
but it is the self-control that keeps him safe. His self-control has been
documented many a time and you can click here to read
about one such inning. Sachin holds his father in high esteem and his father
had told him that the most important thing in life is to be a good human being.
He lives by that advice and his self-control in the way he conducts himself
emanates from that advice of his father’s. He his humble, yet reserved. He has
a force field around him and that is the kind of person he is. You have to be
blessed to make it into his inner circle. Another trait of great people – you can
win their hearts with great difficulty; their trust parameters are tough to
achieve! But when you are in the inner circle, you get more rewards than the
most rewarding frequent flyer programme. (Okay, that’s a really bad analogy but
I really don’t have an appropriate analogy for this!)
In the months to come, I will
have more opportunities to meet the ‘God of cricket’ (a term that he is not
very fond of, I am told). In each interaction, with the other professional
tasks I will have to accomplish, one personal task would be to learn more from
the man who is a living example of core strength, confidence and self-control.
Mission “Become a great human being”!
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