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| StraightDrive... |
 Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:34 pm |
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http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/15/stories/2009111556421800.htm
The Sachin Experience
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It is impossible to outgrow Indian sport's most celebrated
Boy Wonder, writes Nirmal Shekar
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Some time in the future, neuroscientists will perhaps have the answer. But
right now it is impossible to say why there are distinctly different kinds
of emotional reactions among Indian cricket fans while watching a) Sachin
Tendulkar and, b) Other players.
The effect produced by a Sachin masterpiece - such as the against-all-odds
175 against Australia at Hyderabad recently - appears to be unique.
This is equally true of a Sachin failure. He doesn't just botch
paddle-scoops, he plunges an entire nation of a billion-plus people into a
prolonged spell of mourning. As Roger Federer said of himself, Sachin has
"created a monster."
Moulding our moods
It is almost as if, as a people, we believe that we are as successful or
unsuccessful as Sachin is. We owe him our ecstasy; equally, he is the cause
of our despair. It is quite possible that the maestro activates a
reward/punishment system in the cricket fan's brain that might be
inaccessible to the lesser mortals of Indian cricket.
If you believe that this is a lot of mumbo jumbo, then take time off from
watching Sachin and, instead, watch people watch him on television or in the
stands. It won't take long for you to see the truth.
To be sure, there is no reference here to a particular brand of atavistic
frenzy that all of us are familiar with - situations where a fired-up
Tendulkar was leading run-chases and Team India was flirting with greatness
against Pakistan or Australia. We will take no notice of such evolutionary
excess baggage. The visceral anxieties of emotionally immature sports fans
are not worth our time.
Nationalism and sport make for an explosive mix. It didn't take Hitler and
the Berlin Olympics (1936) to prove this; it goes back to the very
beginnings of our shared group identities.
'Peak experience'
But persist and see farther when Sachin is on song and you will slowly see
the difference. Study a fan's face carefully as she goes through something
similar to what Abraham Maslow described as "peak experience," even as the
master makes room for a leg glance with the exquisitely refined sense of
balance befitting of a Baryshnikov; or composes a consummate cover drive
that Walter Hammond might have approved of. What the face registers on those
occasions is nothing quite like what it might when anyone else is in action.
Awe? Admiration? Reverence? Or, is it an almost indescribable feeling that
you are in the midst of something that is truly transcendental?
Whatever it is, this much is certain. If you have gone through the
experience, you would be able to recall it even many, many years later.
There is a simple reason for this. When you watch Sachin at his best, the
ego dies. This is not said in a mystical sense. It is not the
oneness-with-the-universe phenomenon that spiritual seekers crave. It is a
very material thing. The beautiful simplicity of his batting makes for an
experience that shatters your ego in a sudden explosion of humility.
"Hey, someone is actually doing this," you whisper to yourself, suddenly
aware of your own smallness even as it hits you, yet again, that the feat is
way beyond ordinary mortals. Watch Sachin when he bats as he did in
Hyderabad and you will know all about this feeling as you are carried to
hitherto untrodden peaks of sports-watching experience.
"We outgrow love like other things. And put it in the drawer," wrote the
poet Emily Dickinson.
It has been impossible to outgrow Indian sport's most celebrated Boy Wonder.
When it comes to Sachin, at no point in our lives have we been able to say,
"Ah, I've been there. I've done that."
New vistas
He has made sure that there is always some place else to go to, there is
always something new to experience vis-À-vis his batting. After two long
decades marked by remarkable changes in the game, that sense of wonder -
Wow, how does he do it? - has not taken leave of us.
When Sachin was packing his bags to go on his maiden overseas tour - surely,
he didn't need to worry about a shaving kit - to Pakistan in 1989, the
Berlin Wall was still in place; reports appearing in these pages were mostly
being typed on manual typewriters; apartheid was still in force in South
Africa; and Pete Sampras hadn't yet won his first Grand Slam title.
Through 20 glorious years - although some of them were not quite as glorious
as others - as participants in one of the country's most popular cultural
rituals, Tendulkar-watching, we have noticed that his genius has been
malleable enough for each of us to try and shape it to fit our own
fantasies, our own imagination. Of course, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge
pointed out, there is a difference between the two.
Your Sachin is a slightly different athletic/aesthetic package from your
neighbour's.and so it goes on and on. No matter all this, we are all agreed
on one thing: Sachin's astonishing achievements have created a new national
benchmark for excellence over the last 20 years.
Peter Pan of world cricket
In recent years, we have seen him struggle, we have seen him play and miss,
we have seen him fail more often. But an ageing Sachin seems impossible to
imagine, perhaps because the image would render futile our own longing for
immortality. Wrinkles, grey hairs and all, he is still the golden boy we
first got to know of all those years ago.
Children born when he made the first of his record 42 Test centuries - a
brilliant, unbeaten 119 at Old Trafford in 1990 - are now old enough to cast
their votes in an election. In the event, it is time to toast the old boy
again.
The Sachin Experience - there is nothing quite like it in the history of
Indian sport. |
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| ... |
| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:24 pm |
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On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:34:46 -0800, "StraightDrive"
<StraightDrive at (no spam) Tendulkar.com> wrote:
Quote:
Peter Pan of world cricket
That was a good article, but the term above is a poor choice of words.
Makes me think of Michael Jackson.
max.it |
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| prabhu... |
| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 10:06 am |
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On Nov 15, 6:35 am, Nirvanam <viz.sha... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
Quote: Of course there is the no-feet-master fatso David Boon whom when I
watch in full flow also gives a similar experience of Azza and Lax.
Boon?
I cant think of any other batsman with 7000+ runs who nobody might
want to watch a second time. |
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| ... |
| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:46 pm |
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On Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:35:57 -0800 (PST), Nirvanam
<viz.sharma at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
Quote: On Nov 15, 4:24=A0am, (max.it) wrote:
On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:34:46 -0800, "StraightDrive"
StraightDr... at (no spam) Tendulkar.com> wrote:
Peter Pan of world cricket
That was a good article, but the term above is a poor choice of words.
Makes me think of Michael Jackson.
max.it
I liked this particular passage because it captured how a mind reacts.
But what I do not agree with the author is when he says it is not a
spiritual experience...for me it is a spiritual experience. Isn't
enabling such spiritual experiences the ask from our artists and
creative beings? The only other cricketer who has enabled such an
experience for me is Wasim Akram. There are a couple of the Hyderabadi
gems who enable similar experiences, but they don't necessarily make
you "be with the one universal soul". I am referring to Azza and Lax.
Of course there is the no-feet-master fatso David Boon whom when I
watch in full flow also gives a similar experience of Azza and Lax.
The difference that I experience is that Sachin's experience makes the
soul one with the universal soul, so does Wasim's sometimes. But the
other 3 they are ego experiences i.e. the mind getting lost in the
universal mind.
"There is a simple reason for this. When you watch Sachin at his best,
the ego dies. This is not said in a mystical sense. It is not the
oneness-with-the-universe phenomenon that spiritual seekers crave. It
is a very material thing. The beautiful simplicity of his batting
makes for an experience that shatters your ego in a sudden explosion
of humility."
You know,that doesn't only happen in cricket.
My ego runs at a low undisturable level.
I watched this and I was not humbled (I am not an artist) but I was
astounded, totally amazed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOhf3OvRXKg
However if I was an aspiring sand artist, I may well feel humbled by
the clip.In fact after watching that girl in action, I would probably
feel like a bag of shite and give up sand art at once and just worship
her as a God.
The world is a big place and if you are a hero in your locale you are
doing well. Sachin's locale comprises 1 billion + more peeps. He is a
big hero with associated big hero problems.
I remember Barry Sheene saying that he had to use a dark visor and a
plain Belstaff suit to hide his identity when he travelled on his
regular every day transport motorcyle.
Sachin has the biggest home crowd in the history of sport.
That needs a lot of handling. If anti Sachin loonbins were 1 from 1000
per head. How many loonbins would you have ?
max.it |
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| Andrew Dunford... |
| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:51 pm |
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"prabhu" <prabrangs at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c348f91a-3b01-47e8-bfd7-b8f4c9d35e0d at (no spam) w37g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
Quote: On Nov 15, 6:35 am, Nirvanam <viz.sha... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
Of course there is the no-feet-master fatso David Boon whom when I
watch in full flow also gives a similar experience of Azza and Lax.
Boon?
I cant think of any other batsman with 7000+ runs who nobody might
want to watch a second time.
I suspect the OP was talking about the beer drinking rather than batting.
Andrew [not a great spectator sport] |
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