I am sure I’ll be laughed at if I say my heroes are Sachin Tendulkar and Jawaharlal Nehru; why even my own conscious mind questions my strange taste, but I can’t help it. Whenever I think of Nehru what comes to my mind is his famous “long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny” speech or his chats with children or farmers when he would make them realize the importance of being an Indian, “it is your birth right to live anywhere in India. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, it is your country, my country” and so on. He at times went beyond this and elevated us to the level of citizens of the world.

 

Then Sachin. I admired him so much; I was more interested in his century than an Indian victory. He was just 16 plus when he made his debut and never looked back. He is a creative player and has contributed new strokes to the game. He was a bit childish, but he was almost a child when he played international cricket with his cheeky singles. I still remember his chat with a commentator after he was declared the man of the match. The words I remember are: “slowly, slowly I am becoming a bowler also”. Thousands like me admired him, and some of them became Sachins in the making. The greatest tribute came from Donald Bradman himself who openly said that Sachin reminded him of himself!