When i saw God...

22nd March 2006 is one day I'll not forget for a long time. The day started off with the impossible. Some 3-4 friends of mine and I got out of our sacks at 6:00am, which, for most people around here, is unthinkable, leave alone managable.

What was behind this new-found zeal to rise early? It was day five of the final India-England test match at the Wankhede Stadium and we hoped to see India chase to win. Or so I told my friends. Inside my head, though, there was this other, more prominent reason. I wished to see my idol, probably the greatest player to have occupied the batting crease in recent times, in person that day.

We reached about an hour ahead of the scheduled start of play and entered the West stand (mid-off view), which isn't really among the popular vantage points in the stadium. But imagine our joy when we found the entire Indian team going thru their warm up rite infront of our stand! There was no time to waste. We scampered down to the fence and I jumped to occupy the position in line with the man himself...Sachin Tendulkar! I was at loss for words, as I am even today when I sit down to describe the feeling. It was sheer joy bordering on silly euphoria. And after that, nothing that happened in the match mattered (thought it kinda hurt to see India crumble the way they did and lose the match to a depleted England team). I shouted to him the standard Sachin chant - Sachiiiiiinnnnn...Sachin at the top of my voice, taking the wind out of my lungs. And voila! He looked! No sign of any emotion though. Which is understandable, given the number of people who wudve done that earlier.

Neway, the last few months have been pretty interesting for me in terms of meeting the biggies, from nobel lauraetes to cricketing legends. Keep 'em coming!