Humble
Beginnings
My grandmother was born on 25th
December, some years before India achieved its independence. Her love for India
is unparalleled. She was born into a family with scarce resources hence she
could only educate herself till pre-school. Her love for knowledge and passion
for learning puts me to shame. Once her education was stopped, she had to do
odd chores in many houses to make ends meet for her family. Not once, did she
complain. She made sure she worked much harder than kids her age but never
compromised on self-esteem or asked for money.
She was married off at 16. Her husband did
small jobs but she had to work really hard to raise her family and her five
children. Life did not change much. In spite of not having good formal
education, her thoughts were way ahead of her times. This was evident as she
ensured that all her children, four of whom were girls, got the opportunity to
go to school. She did this when India wasn’t particularly fond of educating the
girl child.
Her children grew and started becoming
financially independent. This helped her a bit but they hadn’t still come out of
poverty. On one of these days, she asked her nephew if he could buy her some
rice and vegetables for dinner. She gave him the money after he agreed.
Cricket
– A religion in India!
This incident might have happened somewhere
in the mid eighties. The boy took the money and went to the shop. On the way,
he passed a field where some boys were playing cricket. He forgot what he had
set out for and started playing cricket. He enjoyed the game but lost the money
somewhere on the field. He was completely scared of what would happen to him
but decided to tell his aunt the truth. He pleaded with her to not tell his
mother or he would get beaten. She
assured him that she would not tell his mother and the boy was relieved. She
wanted to know how he lost the money. Her nephew answered that he saw his
friends playing cricket and started playing with them. In the process, he forgot
about the task she assigned and while playing he lost the money.
Nine out of ten, perhaps all ten, women in
India would have given the boy a piece of their mind. She was different. She
wanted him to tell her what cricket was. He explained the game to the best of
his knowledge. And therein began her love for this great game!
By this time, she had become a grandmother.
She was a grandmother much before her own half-century in life. This fact,
coupled with all the hard work, ensured that she was in great physical shape
and used to carry her grandson (not me, my cousin brother) and go for long
walks. She would spend most evening watching the boys play cricket in the
nearby fields. She would cheer every six and boundary and her joy knew no bound
when she watched this game. If cricket was a religion in India, she had found the
religion to practice. If she hadn’t found something, it was an idol.
Schoolboy
plays for India
Thanks to her primary education; she could
read in Malayalam, her mother tongue. She would devour the newspapers in the
morning. Her lack of education never quenched her appetite for learning.
She had started reading about articles on
Indian cricket and secretly nursed a desire that her nephew should play for
India. Yes, the same nephew who lost her money a few years ago!
It is on one of that morning that she read
about a schoolboy, her nephew’s age, making waves in India’s domestic circuit
and getting selected to play for India.
Watching
him on T.V.
She had never watched Television in her
life. The device caught her fancy. She saw people watching cricket on
television. Three years passed since the schoolboy made his debut. The
schoolboy had become a force to reckon with. He had become the mainstay of
Indian cricket team’s batting line up.
The year was 1992 and she still did not
have TV in her house. At that time, she was at her daughter’s house. The
daughter had delivered a baby boy. This house was in another village, about 100
kilometers from her house. Her neighbor there was a lady who she had a good
equation with. She had bought a Television recently. The cricket world cup of
1992 was going on down under and India had not done really well till then.
India was going to play Pakistan on that day and she had to convince/cajole this
neighbor to watch the match. The lady of the house was her age; she was a good
friend as well. However, she hated to watch any sport.
After much convincing, she ensured that the
neighbor would watch cricket with her. She enjoyed every minute of the game and
to her delight, this young schoolboy had scored a timely half century. The
neighbor grew curious with all the cheering and asked her who this boy was. “He
is my my brother’s son, my nephew’, she said and beamed with pride. The lady,
who in all likelihood, had never been out of the village did not even know that
Sachin Tendulkar was not even from Kerala! My grandmother played it her way,
probably lied for the first time in her life, only to catch a glimpse of the
God to millions of followers who followed the same religion as she did.
I think it would delight many cricket
enthusiasts to know that she even taught the neighbor and some other ladies in
the area what cricket was all about!
Lost
and found!
As her children had moved to Mumbai and
settled here, my grandmother could come to Mumbai, closer to where Sachin
lives. Her love for cricket only grew with age. She had a lot of energy for her
age and wouldn’t agree to just rest. She went for a walk after a family
function one evening and didn’t return after an hour. Family members got
worried.
She reached back very soon, much to our
delight. When asked where she was, she said she was at the playground watching
the boys play cricket.
India-England
(World Cup 2003)
I vividly remember this incident which
happened during the India v/s England game in 2003. It was in South Africa and
matches went late into the night. I was very tired and dozed off which watching
India bowl. My father was to come in a bit late and his knock on the door woke
me up. I opened the door. All this while, my grandmother was sitting in the same
place, not moving once.
My father asked how the match was going. I
told him India was doing great and that Ashish Nehra had picked up four
wickets. “Six”, she shouted. My father and I were stunned. She said correcting
me again, ‘Ashish Nehra has taken six wickets’. Both my father and I laughed
but we were in awe of her passion for the game, her concentration when the game
was on and her desire to see India win. How many women her age would be awake at
1 a.m to see cricket matches LIVE. I don’t know any other woman.
During any match, if we would ask her how
much India needed to win, she would say that with runrate calculations as well.
She never understood a word of English and commentary was an alien language to
her. Yet, she was spot on with the game’s latest update.
One
Century = One Coconut
I used to go to temple on Tuesdays. It was
a practice I followed while I was a student. On one such Tuesday morning, I saw
my grandmother up and ready. She said she wants to go with me. I enjoy her
company and was more than happy to take her along.
In the temple, she asked me to buy a
coconut so that she could offer it to Lord Ganesha. I did that as well. After
the offering I asked her why she had done it. She replied that Sachin had
scored a century the previous day and it was her way of thanking God for it.
Every time Sachin scored a century, she
would religiously ensure that a coconut was offered to God. Sachin made life
very difficult for her by scoring 100 international centuries!
First
Double Century
Sachin scored the first double century ever
in One day internationals against South Africa. She wasn’t well during this day
but couldn’t take rest. She was in the living room cheering each run like a
teenager. She had her anxious moments and offered prayers to Lord Ganesha after
Sachin reached the landmark. I asked her if a double century meant she would
offer two coconuts. She looked at me as if I asked a stupid question and said, “Ofcourse”.
She added that she had been doing this every time he scored a double in a test
match.
A few years later, Sehwag became the second
Indian to score a double hundred in One day Internationals. He also overtook
Sachin’s score and recorded the highest score in ODI. To our surprise, my
grandmother was very upset with Sehwag and made it clear that he did not do the
right thing.
Tennis
Elbow
When Sachin was down with tennis elbow, it
became national news. Every newspaper covered news about his tennis elbow, why
it may require a surgery etc. She read one of these papers. One of her daughter’s,
my aunt, called during this time and asked my mother if she could speak to her.
After talking for a while, my aunt enquired with my mother if she was fine and
why she was crying. My mother told her that it was nothing but Sachin’s tennis
elbow and surgery which were bothering her. She convinced my aunt that my
grandmother was in very good health.
Critics’
nightmare
My mother is a teacher. She teaches a lot
of students at home in the room adjacent to the hall room where we have the television
set. One of her student happened to come during a One day international when
India was put into bat and Sachin was at the crease.
He was sure about Indian citizens right to
freedom of expression and said that Sachin was not in great touch and would get
out soon. He had never seen fury in the form of an old lady before and
literally ran to the other room to save his life. My grandmother would have
absolutely no qualms in giving him a whack!
Even relatives wouldn’t be spared if they
chose to criticize Sachin. My uncle, father’s brother, once happened to visit
us when we were watching a match. For some reason, he skirted around Sachin’s
form and said that Sachin plays for only his century and never wins the match
for India. My grandmother made her mind to slap him. Fortunately, she reigned
her anger but not before strongly reprimanding my uncle and telling him in no
uncertain terms to never repeat it.
The
Swansong
Sachin Tendulkar’s last test match in
Mumbai was one of the events that media had extensively covered. India won this
test match and Sachin’s farewell speech was one of the best farewell speeches
the nation had heard and seen.
My grandmother can do chores such as
cutting vegetables without even having to pay full attention to the task. The
learning curve with all the practice allowed her that liberty. While Sachin was
delivering this speech, she decided to multi-task. She watched television and
cut the vegetables simultaneously. She cut her finger in the process. Sachin
had sure, shed a lot of blood and sweat while making India proud. In his
swansong Test, she did shed some blood – only due to her own concentration
lapse.
The
next morning
The next morning was the end of an era for
many cricket fans. For her, it was the end of cricket itself. She read the
papers in languages she understood. She even read the English dailies though
she did not understand the language. She may have been able to comprehend what
was written due to the supporting images. She doesn't watch cricket anymore.
She doesn't go to temples anymore as well!
Parting
note
I am a huge Sachin fan myself and couldn’t
wait to get hold of his book “Playing it my way”. Today evening, when I met her
and told her about what I read, she said she wished it was translated in
Malayalam. She then told me a lot about how cricket happened to her. My mother
suggested that I should write this.
I think my grandmother’s story deserves to
be told and cricket enthusiasts deserve to know about it. I believe this December
25th, when she celebrates her birthday, all Sachin fans should send
her birthday wishes. The icing on the cake (pun intended) would be if the
master blaster, Sachin Tendulkar wishes her, atleast on TwitterJ. That would be the best birthday gift.
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